A resident at a nearby assisted living facility was waiting for Binuelo-Acosta, and he had what she needed — a consecrated host, entrusted to him after Mass at St. Cecelia Parish in Clearwater.

With reverence, he drove to the facility. Then, he stood before the homebound parishioner, opened his pyx, and spoke:

“Behold the Lamb of God.” 

Finding Faith 

Binuelo-Acosta is a full-time undergraduate student studying exercise science at the University of South Florida. Born in Clearwater, he grew up attending St. Cecelia’s.

In his family, the faith was passed down from “great-grandmother to grandmother to mother,” he said.

So as a kid, he knew: “Going to Mass on Sundays is just a thing you do. And I would go, but I didn’t know why.”

By the end of high school, he strayed from the Church, searching for whatever might make him feel complete. 

None of it worked.

“I would lose myself a lot in things like social media,” he said. 

In community college, he immersed himself in whatever would earn him recognition, and he got it: scholarships, achievement awards, accolades for being a leader.

“It was great, until it wasn’t. Nothing I ever tried could fill the void in my heart,” he said — until he came back to the Church a few years ago.

“And I haven’t missed a Mass since,” he said. “Of course my hard-headed self had to mess up a million times and come back.”

Upon his return, Catholicism felt like “a sanctuary, a soul hospital.”

The parishioners he saw had something he wanted.

“Their families look peaceful,” he thought. “I want that sort of peace.” 

And they didn’t just go to Mass on Sundays, he noticed.

“They’re here throughout the week, volunteering,” he said. 

He decided to do that, too.

Getting Involved

The homebound ministry piqued Binuelo-Acosta’s interest.

He saw it as a chance to “take the Body of Christ to someone, to help people that can’t help themselves, in a sense,” he said.

He has a heart for people who are sick, dying, or have disabilities, so he volunteered for the ministry.

“I had no idea what to expect,” he said.

But Laura Askins, the director of pastoral ministry at St. Cecelia’s, knew he’d be a fit for the ministry.

“All of my homebound extraordinary ministers say, ‘I get as much from this as the people I visit,’ even the people who didn’t think they wanted to do it,” said Askins, who trained Binuelo-Acosta.

Ministering to the homebound is “an extension of the Mass,” she taught him.

So on the days Binuelo-Acosta ministers, he starts the process with Mass. He tries to stay attentive, he said, and he thinks about St. Tarcisius.

According to EWTN, Tarcisius, a 12-year-old boy in the third century, was sent to carry the Eucharist to people who were imprisoned for being Christians. On his way, a mob of boys about his age attacked him, and he succumbed to his injuries.

“How noble that is,” Binuelo-Acosta said, for Tarcisius to have given his life attempting to bring Jesus to people.

At the end of Mass, with the consecrated hosts, “I go off, as Tarcisius did,” he said. 

The hosts are in his pyx, which he wears inside a burse — a pouch that hangs around his neck.

“Everything in the Catholic Church, every tradition we have, is intentional,” he said, including where the burse hangs: “By my heart.” 

That’s where it stays until he gets where he’s going, and he — and any minister to the homebound — goes straight there.

“Don’t go get coffee in between or go get groceries,” Binuelo-Acosta said. “There is no wasted time between the ending of Mass and going to the homebound.”

He greets the people he ministers to and asks how they’re doing. He reads them the Gospel and gives them Communion.

But he also gives them community. 

Creating Community

“A lot of these people are people we saw in the pews year after year,” Askins said. 

Many feel isolated, she said. Some feel guilty for being unable to go to church. 

By ministering to them, Binuelo-Acosta includes them in the parish community.

“Along with, of course, the Body of Christ, coming into their homes, I’m bringing community, fellowship, and love, hopefully,” he said. “I’m smiling, taking my time, not speeding through.”

He also bridges a gap between generations.

The elderly who benefit from homebound ministry “have what we’re striving for as young people, which is wisdom,” Binuelo-Acosta said. “And elders look forward to speaking to the youth.”

So homebound Catholics “shouldn’t be shy about asking” for visits from ministers like Binuelo-Acosta, Askins said. “It’s good for them; it’s good for us.”

Binuelo-Acosta knows that now.

“There is beauty in stepping out and taking that leap of faith,” he said, “and joining a ministry to get closer to Christ.”