By Rave Quidasol
Adonis Sulit walked into a Catholic church as an atheist searching for beauty. He walked out a believer.
Though his parents had been raised Catholic, Sulit grew up with no exposure to the faith. “No Sunday Mass, no Christmas Mass, no vigil Mass, nothing like that,” he said.
At the age of 17, after living only for himself, he realized “there must be more to life than indulgence.”
One day, he looked up at the crucifix above the family fireplace and asked, “Who’s this guy that’s been on this fireplace the entirety of my life pinned to a cross?”
He asked his grandmother for a Bible and read most of it that summer.
“I needed to go to church,” he realized. He drove to the nearest Christian church and quickly became involved, ushering and welcoming people.
But after a few Sundays, he found himself asking a fellow usher: “I really like the praise and worship, the sermon … but where’s the cross?” The usher pointed to a small cross on top of the church.
“That’s not what I mean. Where’s the stained glass? Where’s the statues? Where’s the art? Where’s the beauty?”
Sulit was embarking on a search for beauty that would lead him to the Catholic Church when he accepted a friend’s invitation to go to Mass at St. Matthew’s Church in Surrey.
“I looked around and it was like the Bible came to life. The crucifix, the stations of the cross, the Eucharist.” Even though Sulit didn’t understand what was going on, he knew he was “home.”
“I was met with Jesus pinned on the cross,” and he knew this was the place.
The young St. Matthew’s parishioner, over the span of a year and a half, went from his initial visit to the parish, through months of RCIA, to his recent Confirmation on Pentecost Sunday.
On the eve of Trinity Sunday, Sulit shared his journey of skepticism, from non-believer to daily Mass-goer, with hundreds of youth and young adults at Latria, a praise and worship event at the Surrey parish.
Latria (from the Latin and Greek words for supreme worship reserved for God alone) was put on to help young people have a personal encounter with God through music, says organizer Monica Ledesma.
“I have had a love for praise and worship culture since I was 12,” the St. Matthew’s parishioner said in an interview.
“As I grew older and volunteered more within various groups and ministries, I realized that praise and worship was crucial within these communities. I wanted to provide an outlet for youth and young adults alike to have a space to sing about Jesus collectively.”
Music played a pivotal role in drawing Sulit into the Church, making Latria a natural extension of his own faith journey. The power of sacred music to touch hearts and souls has long been recognized as a pathway to divine encounter, reinforcing Ledesma’s vision of creating a space where young people could experience God through worship songs.
When it was time to promote Latria, Ledesma knew one thing was essential: “Jesus isn’t simply entertainment but the focal point of our faith.”
She and her fellow organizers planned the event with a focus on Latria being “an experience” that deepened audience members’ faith rather than offering a musical performance. “The band prepared thoroughly to help the participants worship and to direct them to Jesus,” she said.
The Saturday evening event began with anticipated Sunday Mass and was followed by a ministry fair featuring groups like Catholic Young Adults of Surrey and St. Matthew’s Youth Ministry. Also joining the lineup were Bukas Loob sa Diyos (a Filipino discipleship group), Couples for Christ Ministries, Catholic Christian Outreach, Vocations Vancouver, foreign volunteer organization VIDES Canada, and members of the Salesians and Franciscans religious orders.
For St. Matthew’s youth leader Matthew Tjipto, having a Catholic support community is crucial to a young person’s faith formation. “It’s part of finding out who you are and what you want to do with your life.”
That communal setting results in young Catholics “being able to talk to people about our faith.” That sharing of faith with others is “a key factor in understanding what God wants.”
After encountering the Church in action at the ministry fair, attendees moved to the gym for an evening of worship through music. The gym erupted in joyful sound: people clapping, cheering, and singing along with the band.
They sang a selection of Christian music from popular ministry songs like Matt Maher’s Your Grace is Enough and Darrell Evans’ Trading My Sorrows, to reimagining traditional hymns like Refiner’s Fire and All Creatures. Aligning with the Feast of the Most Holy Trinity being celebrated the next day, many of the songs’ lyrics referenced the trinitarian nature of God.
“When we chose the theme of Latria in correspondence to the feast day of the Holy Trinity — everything truly fell into place,” said Ledesma. “I reflected on the model of invitation — inviting others to gather and rejoice in Christ’s love for us, exaltation — honouring the three persons in the Holy Trinity, and commission: to go out and celebrate and evangelize to those around us,” said Ledesma.
Father Raffaele Salvino from Corpus Christi Parish in Vancouver followed up on Sulit’s story of journeying from atheism to faith. Joined by Deacons Andre Coronado and Steve Potusek, he led participants into the church for an encounter with Jesus in Eucharistic adoration.
After spending time with the Blessed Sacrament, the young people returned to the gym to wind down the night with songs and praise of God’s goodness.
The evening was a demonstration of the gift of music as a tool for evangelization, said Ledesma. Music affects the brain and invokes emotion, she said, offering St. Augustine’s phrase, “cantare amantis est,” — singing belongs to one who loves.
“The simplest of phrases can be brought to life with involvement from music,” she said. “It also serves as a reminder of how we as a community should all strive and work together to live and bring others a harmonious life.”
With praise and worship music reverberating inside the St. Matthew’s Elementary gym, a powerful scene of archdiocesan community unfolded. A display not only of youth and young adults singing and clapping, but of priests, deacons, religious sisters, and seminarians adding their voices in the same song of praise.
After closing with the prayer to St. Michael the Archangel and invoking the help of Mary and all the angels and saints, the band invited Father Salvino to offer closing remarks.
He urged the young people to consider Latria as more than a single night’s experience.
“It is often through events like tonight when he speaks to some of us in a very particular way. He asks if maybe you would want your entire life to be given to him,” Father Salvino said.
“If you’re feeling in your heart that tug of a life given entirely to him, follow it deeper into your own Christian walk with him. Perhaps into the next step towards a seminary, a convent, a relationship, whatever it is, go with God for he is first going with you.”
