how these people responded to God’s message.
“I Shall Work Through You”
A good friend of mine called one day to ask if I would assist her with a very difficult task. Two children living in our area had both been born without an outer layer of skin on three-fourths of their bodies. They had to be bandaged daily because of a bloody discharge. The bandages had to be covered with Vaseline before they could be applied to the oozing tissue.
I reminded my friend of my lack of nursing skills, my susceptibility to odors, and my weakness in observing open sores, but she still felt I was the one to help in this work of mercy. As the day drew closer for us to go to the home of these special souls, my courage began to fade. I found myself waking at night in prayer, only to be reassured over and over again that, “Yes, Nancy, I shall be with you, and I shall work through you.”
The Lord did support us. I prayed as we went about our work applying the bandages. But my prayer was one of thanksgiving to God for allowing me the privilege of performing the hardest task of my entire life. The beauty of those deformed, bleeding souls was beyond anything I have ever experienced. The strength of God allowed me to go back another day and apply the bandages myself. Compassion and love filled my being. Jesus took away my pounding headache and my shaky knees.
— Nancy Allaire Donohue
Trusting God
When faced with something that we know is beyond our human capabilities, we often find ourselves filled with fear and worry. It is in these anxiety-filled moments that we are called to trust God. The words of Isaiah remind us that trust in God will carry us through whatever difficulties we face in our lives:
Have you not known? Have you not heard?
The LORD is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He does not faint or grow weary,
his understanding is unsearchable.
He gives power to the faint,
and to him who has no might he increases strength. (Isaiah 40:28–29)
God Was Directing Me
Nearly two decades ago, my wife, Mary Lou, was hired to work at the circulation desk at the public library. At the end of her first week, she had lost her key to the library. This was no small matter. In the wrong hands, the key could open the door for the theft of hundreds of valuable books, audios, and videos. Re-keying the library would cost hundreds of dollars and may have cost Mary Lou her job.
We prayed intently for the Lord to help us find the key. We even used my mother’s handy prayer that always seemed to work: “Jesus, lost and found, help us to find what we’ve lost.”
Over the weekend, we searched everywhere. We dumped Mary Lou’s purses and briefcases. We scoured the van and the car. We raked through the lawn near the driveway. We ransacked the house. No key.
On Monday morning, Mary Lou decided with fear and trembling that she would have to report the lost key to her supervisor.
“This cannot happen, Lord,” I prayed. “Let me find that key now.” At that moment, I felt as if God was telling me to check the van one more time. Since we had already searched there many times, it did not seem promising. But when I looked under the driver’s seat, the key was right there in plain sight!
How had that happened? Had we simply not seen it before? Had one of our children played a silly prank, wised up, and put it where we would find it? Or did the Lord find it and put it there because he loved Mary Lou? No matter which option, we thanked God for a little miraculous answer to our prayer.
— Bert Ghezzi
“Where Is a Loving God?”
At age eighteen, I went away to nursing school. I loved it. I could bring smiles to sad faces, take people’s pain away, and make them more comfortable. I was good at taking care of people.
But then, as part of my education, I had to go to a mental hospital for three months. It became a torture chamber for me. All I could see was hopelessness in these suffering people. Their mental afflictions seemed worse than any physical suffering I had experienced. My heart cried out, “Where is there a loving God with all this human suffering?” Darkness of the soul began to enfold me like claws in the night.
After I returned to a medical floor at the hospital, one of the first patients assigned to me was a young woman with three small daughters. Her husband had abandoned her. This young woman was so courageous, but she lost her battle to cancer, and she died. Again my heart cried out, “Where is a loving God with all this human suffering?”
I had been raised a Methodist, and I had cherished my faith since I was a little girl. It had always brought me comfort. But now my faith was dying. I called the minister at my church and he told me, “Don’t worry. Everyone goes through disbelief at one time or another.”
I felt completely empty and afraid. Then I heard the voice of God for the first time in my life say, “Go to the cathedral.” I knew this voice did not come from me because I had always been warned about Catholics. But I was desperate. With shaking legs and a pounding heart, I went to the Catholic cathedral.
A priest opened the door.
“I’m a Protestant,” I said.
He invited me to come in, and he listened to my story with tears running down his face. He shared the time in his life when he felt this same terrible darkness. He knew my heart. He promised me that if I would seek God with all my heart, Jesus would reveal himself to me in ways I could never dream, and nothing would ever take my faith away again.
I felt as if I had been wrapped in a mantle of peace. He gave me his blessing, and I left with hope in my heart. I continued to meet with him for the next few months, and eventually I became a Catholic. The voice of God led me to the Catholic Church and a new life.
— Kathleen Skipper
Dealing with Doubts
Doubts can make us feel as if we have lost our faith. But doubts are not always a bad thing. When we struggle with doubts, it means we don’t have enough information to resolve whatever is troubling us. Our doubts prompt us to start looking for answers. We begin to seek out people who can help us grasp whatever it is that we don’t understand.
“Of course, everyone has doubts at times!” Pope Francis explains. “Doubts which touch the faith, in a positive way, are a sign that we want to know better and more fully God, Jesus, and the mystery of his love for us.… These are doubts which bring about growth! It is good, therefore, that we ask questions about our faith, because in this way we are pushed to deepen it.”
“Speak to Me, Child”
When I was thirty years old, I was diagnosed with breast cancer. I went through surgery, chemo, and radiation. Afterward, I was fine. My husband and I always wanted children, but my body had been through a lot, and my chances of getting pregnant were slim. I prayed, “God, whatever is meant to be, it will happen. This is in your hands.”
We were living in Switzerland at the time. Almost ten years later, my husband was offered a job in Canada, where I grew up. Six weeks after we moved to Canada, I found out I was pregnant at age forty. This pregnancy was a miracle. Benjamin was born healthy — a happy, smiley baby.
When Benjamin was twelve weeks old, the cancer came back in my liver, bones, and lungs. My family and friends were devastated, but I said, “Nope. God is going to take care of me.” I told the doctors that I would do everything they told me to do, but I did not want to hear any details about the cancer, and I did not want to know the prognosis. I didn’t want their voices in my head. I prayed, “God, I am your child. Sickness is not supposed to be part of our lives. You died on the cross to save us. I am giving all of this to you.”
I was raised Catholic, and prayer has always been a part of my life. A healing priest told me that in