For Angelica Bakhos, the Catholic faith isn’t something she turns to in a quiet moment or on Sundays. It’s something she puts into action every day.
Bakhos is the assistant director of campus ministry for the Diocese of Bridgeport, and it’s her responsibility to bring the truth, beauty and goodness of the Catholic faith to college campuses across Fairfield County. However, what that looks like can vary from day to day.
“Sometimes it involves just giving students hugs and wiping away tears, and sometimes it involves helping them get in touch with the right people to sort out some things they’re struggling with,” she said. “It really is this environment where we’re creating opportunities for college students not only to come to know Our Lord, but to come to understand who they are in relationship to him, and who they are in relationship to the Church as a whole.”
Bakhos thinks it’s important to bring the message of the Catholic faith to young adults, particularly the college students she works with. Part of this ties into what she sees as a desire to seek out one’s identity and how it relates to the world around them.
She noted the Catechism of the Catholic Church says the “desire for God is written on the human heart,” and people can only understand their true identities in coming to know who they are both through their creator and in relationship to him. Bakhos feels this message can be especially poignant among young people, who are searching for their true identity in every aspect of their lives – social groups, work, academics, family and more.
“It’s important to remind them that those are all just facets of their gifts that the Lord has really given them to understand who they really are,” Bakhos said. “These college students, they’re really searching to understand who they truly are in all of it, and not just their identity in relationship to others, but their genuine and inherent worth.”
The Catholic faith is an important part of Bakhos’ professional life, but it also is integral in her personal life. She’s a parishioner at St. Mary Parish in Ridgefield, which offers Perpetual Adoration. And since she lives a five-minute walk away from the parish, Bakhos thinks it would be “foolish” not to take the opportunity to spend time with the Lord whenever possible.
“Something I really love to do is to pray for other people, because the more things I have to pray for, the more I get to talk to God,” Bakhos said. “A big part of my day is making little sacrifices or taking a couple of moments of silence to hold someone who the Lord has placed on my heart close in prayer.”
Outside of Adoration, Bakhos has a devotion to the Divine Mercy in her prayer life. She often prays the Divine Mercy chaplet, and St. Faustina Kowalska is her confirmation saint.
As someone who both works in young adult ministry and is a young adult Catholic herself, Bakhos believes it is particularly important to provide support to that age demographic and community in any way possible.
That larger community was very important to Bakhos when she moved to Connecticut from New Jersey in 2022. She described the transition as “tough,” but having a growing Catholic young adult community made it easier, as she found people who loved her and wanted to accompany her on her faith journey.
“I love being in communion with other people … because man wasn’t meant to be alone,” she said. “Having the opportunity to love and connect with other people, whether it’s over coffee or ice cream or dinner, we have the chance to share our hearts. When we have the chance to share our hearts with each other, we’re standing on holy ground.”
Bakhos knows people of faith – particularly young adults – have many obstacles and struggles throughout their lives. But she hopes her brothers and sisters in the Catholic faith remember that through their baptism, they have been chosen by God, and are therefore held close to him and his Church.
“In a generation that is searching for and desires to be loved, we have love right in front of us at every moment,” Bakhos said. “We have love in the Eucharist, and we have love in the Church, and we have love in heaven with the angels and saints and everything in between. And once we remember that, it makes everything else not necessarily easier, but a bit more beautiful.”