In 2007, Darlene Lyles and her three daughters moved from Virginia to Columbus. And it wasn’t long after the move that they began looking for a church to attend. “Church shoppin’,” as she describes it.

Lyles had grown up in a Baptist family but never felt connected to her church community.

“I was raised up a Baptist, but I never got baptized,” she said. “With the Baptists, they play the music so loud you feel like bustin’ out of your chair. That wasn’t for me.”

So, for a lengthy period, Lyles’ faith journey remained quietly on hold.

Later, in the 2010s, Lyles occasionally attended Masses at Columbus St. Joseph Cathedral and Columbus Holy Cross Church. She’s not exactly sure what drew her to the Catholic Church, but she felt more at home there than in most other denominations. This continued, on and off, for a few years.

Still, as she describes it, “Though the Catholic faith was tuggin’ at me, at the cathedral and Holy Cross I was not feelin’ it. For me, personally, the Spirit was not fully present.”

The other Catholic church she and her daughters attended, Columbus Holy Rosary-St. John, was closer to where she lives and as it turned out was more to her liking. Although the call to be churched was strong, Lyles felt torn about which one to join. 

Lyles recounts her thoughts as “OK, let me stay home and just relax and not try to think which church I should go to. I had just about given up, but then I said, ‘Jesus, show me the way. Which church? Give me a sign that I know.’ And that’s what He did.” 

This occurred sometime in 2021.

“So He gave me a dream in which I saw some details of the front of a church, but I wasn’t quite sure which church,” she recalled.

Later that day, she asked one of her daughters to accompany her on a short walk from their home and, when they reached Holy Rosary-St. John, Lyles said, “I had to look up and then I said, ‘OK, now I’ve got you. That’s the green wraparound on each of the (twin) spires and there’s the green crosses at the very tip tops that was in the dream.’”

After that, Lyles and her daughters began attending Masses regularly at Holy Rosary-St. John. They found the congregation to be warm and inviting and said, “They actually treat you like family. And my oldest daughter, Virginia, said, ‘You know what? I like that church.’”

Asked what it was that made her feel she should become Catholic, Lyles said, “Basically, when I asked God to get that for me — ‘cause I was undecided what religion I wanted to be — He pointed me in the right direction. So I said, ‘If He wants me to be this religion, then cool, I don’t have no problem.’

“So when I first got there, I listened. I said, ‘You know what? There’s the church where we need to be because Father Ramon (Owera, the pastor) explained what it’s all about.’ So I said, ‘Cool.’”

Early in September 2023, Father Owera asked Lyles if she would like to enroll in OCIA (Order of Christian Initiation of Adults) and she responded with a resounding “Yes!” She was eager to learn the Catechism of the Catholic Church knowing that, at the Easter Vigil in 2024, she would be baptized, confirmed and then receive her first Holy Communion.

Not only Darlene, but her two oldest daughters, Virginia (28) and Carmel (22), enrolled in OCIA as well and will be entering into full communion with the Catholic Church alongside their mother this Easter.

“Yes, my daughters and I, we’re going to be baptized and finally be able to consume the Body and Blood of Christ! One of my daughters has a disability — she’s autistic — so I had to explain it to her, and she’s all about being baptized. He got us on the right path!”

Lyles’ final comment on her long and convoluted faith journey was, “If you’re on a path similar to mine, go to a quiet place in your heart and ask Jesus what He wants you to do, and then listen. The answer might not come right away, and it might not appear the way you’d expect it, but it will come eventually. And when it does, you’ll know. So, do what God tells you to do, because He’s not finished with you.”