Kingdom Kneelers
CV NEWS FEED // Following a moving, although somewhat painful, experience while kneeling before the Eucharistic Lord at a Catholic summit for college students, Detroit young adults are launching a set of customizable foam kneelers to physically support those in prayer.
Grand Valley State University student Noah Mullins told the Detroit Catholic about the origins of the venture. He was attending the 2024 SEEK Conference in St. Louis, Missouri, where there was adoration of Jesus in the Eucharist.
He shared that during adoration, while the priest carried the Eucharist in the monstrance throughout a large stadium, his faith deepened. However, he recalled that kneeling on the concrete floor became painful. At the end of adoration, as he was leaving, he saw that Fellowship of Catholic University Students (FOCUS), which organizes SEEK every year, offered kneeling pads.
“I took a kneeler because I wanted one for my dorm back at Grand Valley. When I got back to my hotel that night, it dawned on me: These could be personalized or customized with a general design — maybe have better quality, a larger pad for a wider kneeling stance,” he said.
Back in Detroit, Mullins teamed up with fellow Grand Valley State student Daniel Turek, a senior marketing major, and began discussing aspects of the new product, called “Kingdom Kneelers.”
“We had much debate on what we wanted to do for these kneeling pads,” Turek told the Detroit Catholic. He and Mullins spoke with more than 10 priests in the Diocese of Grand Rapids and the Archdiocese of Detroit to get feedback and insight on what designs would be appropriate.
According to Detroit Catholic, the students chose three design options: one depicting Crusader, another a ram caught in a thicket, and a third showing prayer hands. All three also depict a Bible verse and the Kingdom Kneelers logo, which has a small image of the Sacred Heart in it.
“We wanted to hit two elements in the design right away, that being Christ, of course, and the Blessed Mother,” Mullins said. “We knew going into making the designs we wanted to have those two elements. Then we decided on the Crusader, as we wanted to appeal to Catholic men who might want a more masculine image as well.”
Mullins and Turek said Kingdom Kneelers have gotten a positive reception, particularly at the Grand Rapids diocesan Council of Catholic Women event, the Ablaze Conference.
The Detroit Catholic reports that Kingdom Kneelers will have an exhibition table at the SEEK 2025 conference in Salt Lake City on Jan. 1-5.
“We think these will be a big hit at SEEK,” Mullins said. But they said they also “see it being used on pilgrimages as we are going into the jubilee year, and people are traveling to visitation sites and worship sites in Europe and around the world.”
