But when she experienced a trial of suffering, she began looking for answers. The search led her to St. Melany's.
Two years ago, her brother died in a motorcycle accident. Around the same time, Rider was diagnosed with fibromyalgia, a disease involving fatigue and musculoskeletal pain.
Before those hardships, Rider said, she had begun drifting away from Christianity. But once she started experiencing loss, she began to look at her priorities.
"I made a choice that day when it happened, either fall prey to sin or change your life and go back to Jesus, [my] first love. I chose Jesus and my whole life transformed after that," she said.
It was after her brother's accident that Rider met Jacob, the man who last month became her husband. Jacob himself had converted from Protestantism to the Byzantine Catholic faith before he met Jessica.
When they met, Jessica said, she was awakened to something beautiful and mysterious. She told CNA that Jacob did not push his Byzantine faith on her, she said, but politely encouraged her to join him at Divine Liturgy.
"There was something different about him that I have never seen in anybody else. I was intrigued by that," she said.
"There was something about him that was just a lot of wisdom. He was also very patient and he wasn't anxious. He wasn't an anxious or stressed person at all. So I was just really curious on what happened in his life."
She said meeting Fr. Rankin was also an inspiration for her conversion. Not only did he speak with wisdom, she said, but the priest had an incredible zeal for Christ.
"I love Fr. Rankin. The way he talks about Lord and the saints, he talks smiling through his eyes…I have never seen anybody talk about God or anything in this manner. So it was kind of hypnotizing to listen to him talk about it."
The choice she made to follow Christ more closely after her brother's death has changed everything in her life, Rider said.
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"I mean, literally, I got a new job, I have a husband, I have a faith and a church," she said.
Rider chose St. Faustina Kowalska as her confirmation saint. She said she related to Faustina's trials and felt connected to the Divine Mercy Chaplet. She said Faustina, who trusted in Christ despite pains, helped her find a purpose in her illness, which still gives her chronic pain.
"The picture of Divine Mercy...was important because it's my path. Without his mercy, I wouldn't be here right now," she said. "[It] truly hit home for me when I was making the choice because I was going through [my trial] ...When I saw the image and when I heard her story, there was just no way that she wouldn't be a part of what I would choose because I felt like that was me."
"I've had to learn that everything comes from his hands and trusting in that there's a purpose. If I am going to suffer as Christ suffers, then I will do so," Rider added.
When she heard about the Church's sexual scandals, Rider said, the crimes, though disturbing, did not dissuade her from entering the Church. She said her faith relies on Christ.
The scandals, she said, are opportunities to pray for Church leaders who have "fallen away, because there's so much responsibility and authority they have in Church."