Scholar discovers what had been missing all along

Marina Hardy graduates today from the University of Nebraska at Omaha.

In her hand, she’ll have a bachelor’s degree in multiple disciplinary studies with a concentration in psychology and minors in neuroscience and political science.

In her head, she’s still considering whether to continue her education in law school.

Academics are important to Hardy, and for a while, they were her life, she said. Raised in a secular home, she poured herself into her studies.

But something was missing.

“I went through a long time just kind of living in the secular world,” she said. “It seemed like I put a lot of value on studying and science and philosophy and all these other classes.”

“It kind of became a god. I didn’t worship academics, but I put a lot of worth in it.”

Now, Hardy said, she realizes she was using her studies to replace the emptiness of not having God in her life.

That started changing for Hardy about three years ago.

COURTESY PHOTO

‘WHAT DOES CHRISTMAS MEAN TO YOU?’

“I remember distinctly,” she said, “it was almost Christmas break, and I always felt a little empty around Christmas because I knew that we should be celebrating Jesus’ birth.”

She was stressed, she said. It was days before finals, and she was searching unsuccessfully for a mentor who could offer professional guidance.

Hardy said she had friends but not close friends. “I guess I felt kind of alone.”

Everyone seemed too busy. Everyone seemed to disappoint her.

“It was like, well, I need something better than that, higher than that. That’s when I kind of thought: What would it be like if God was my mentor, showing me virtues and values?”

As she was walking on campus, a Protestant missionary asked a simple question: “What does Christmas mean to you?”

Hardy said she had been thinking about that question for a long time. Her answer: “I wish it meant more.”

“Then we had a conversation about why, and what God would do in my life. I was honestly kind of distracted,” Hardy said. “I was about to make a presentation, so I was taking her words in carefully, but it didn’t really hit me until way later.”

‘PART OF MY IDENTITY WAS CATHOLIC’

Eventually Hardy took her emptiness and her desires to St. Margaret Mary Church, across the street from UNO, where she went before Jesus in the Tabernacle.

“That was the first time I went to church all by myself,” she said. “I felt like He was really talking to me and really loving me because I was acknowledging what had been bothering me for a few years now.”

She said she went to a Catholic Church because she had been baptized a Catholic, “and I knew that meant something.”

Her grandmother was a devout Catholic, and though she lived far away, Hardy said, she felt spiritually close to her.

“I went to a few Christmas Masses with her a long time ago. I don’t really remember them, but I knew part of my identity was Catholic.”

Hardy began investigating the faith through classes at the St. John Paul II Newman Center in Omaha and through a course on Catholic thought at UNO.

Soon she had a spiritual advisor to help guide her.

She grew in prayer as she learned. She turned a closet in her home into a “prayer closet,” where she often retreats to be with the Lord.

Good Friday became especially poignant for her and has brought her to tears.

SPEAKING TO MIND AND HEART

Last fall, Hardy took the plunge and began taking classes for the Order of Christian Initiation of Adults (OCIA, formerly called RCIA).

Even though she lives in Papillion, Hardy decided to fully enter the Catholic Church through St. Cecilia Parish in Omaha because of its closeness to UNO and because of the grandness of the cathedral.

Hardy, in graduation attire, is pictured in the Our Lady of Nebraska Chapel at St. Cecilia Cathedral in Omaha. COURTESY PHOTO

Deacon Jim Tardy, who led the OCIA program, helped solidify her choice.

“He’s obviously very passionate” about forming people in faith, she said, and he “really seemed earnest about welcoming us into the Church.”

Though she had taken a lot of classes in her life, OCIA felt special. Hardy said she was excited to go to a class that not only spoke to her mind but also to her heart. “No other class had that effect on me.”

“I’ve always been very well studied,” she said, but what had been missing was spiritual development. “Studying about faith is the perfect combination for me, to really be excited and interested in what I’m learning.”

“I have a skeptical side of me,” Hardy admitted, but the gift of faith – received years earlier at her Baptism – helped her to overcome doubts and make her even stronger. 

During the Easter Vigil, she stood on the altar at St. Cecilia with a large number of other people who were about to be Confirmed. But for Hardy, it was a private moment, as she focused on Jesus on the Cross for this once-in-a-lifetime occasion.

When Archbishop George J. Lucas touched her forehead with the consecrated oil, all tension eased. It was a holy moment.

Marina Hardy is Confirmed during the Easter Vigil by Archbishop George J. Lucas. COURTESY PHOTO

“Whenever I’m near the altar,” Hardy said, “it feels like I’m a holier person than maybe I actually am, just from being so close to Jesus in the Tabernacle. I think it helps me.”

She said she felt like a spiritual mother for her OCIA classmates “because I felt so proud of them, just watching them. They were completing the journey with me. If I did it by myself, I don’t think it would have meant as much. It’s the community that I felt a part of.”

Hardy, right, is pictured with her mother, Meg Weber, after the Easter Vigil at St. Cecilia. COURTESY PHOTO

STILL DISCERNING

Now, on this college graduation day, Hardy’s feeling of emptiness is gone. But she realizes it was a grace from God to feel that emptiness in her life without Him.

At graduation, she’ll be recognized as a community engaged scholar. “Volunteering my time and my energy to others in need, truly makes me a completed person, my heart and mind are fulfilled in this way,” she wrote upon receiving the honor. It was her new-found faith that inspired her, she later said.

The soon-to-be graduate said she hasn’t decided whether to go to law school.

Most recently, she added: “Actually, I have been discerning religious life more.”

Hardy is pictured with Archbishop Lucas after the Rite of Election, part of the OCIA process, held in March at St. Cecilia Cathedral in Omaha. SUSAN SZALEWSKI/STAFF