Young mother feels personally forgiven by Jesus after cheating on her husband

It started out with me being pregnant with my daughter. Before my daughter, I ended up having 8 miscarriages. So I never really got my hopes up about the one that was about to come to me. Before I knew it and the doctor gave me the clear, I was due in June of 2010. I ended up having a healthy baby girl. After I had her, I was diagnose to a disease that most women get right after having a baby. It was called post pardem(sp) disorder. I had really crazy thoughts about hurting myself, and wanting to even hurt the precious little baby girl that my lord has blessed me with. I had really evil thoughts. And I'm still married (and still am to the father of the baby). At this point I had really bad depression, and more evil thoughts kept coming across from me. I didn't want to tell anyone I was sick, or even if they knew I was acting different. So at one point I did mention to my husband that I couldn't be trusted alone with my daughter, and then he knew something was up. I went and got help from the doctor and that's when I found out what I had. After that I started to secluded myself from my husband and my daughter. LIke I didn't even want to be around them. I didn't even want to be around my own family because I felt like a completely stranger to myself. Like their was another person created inside me. So I started to talk to my husband's best friend completely out of the blue while I'm still fighting this disease. I ended up meeting him for a lunch. And we slowly started to talk more and more. And then things led to one thing and another. And I ended up having a six month affair, because I created this fantasy of a whole another life with this man, like I said I felt like I wasn't even in my body. Like another personality was created. I was hardly home, and then one day, I started to go get help, and get on medication. Because my husband wanted me to. So once the meds started working, I started to find myself feeling a little better, like I wanted to be around my family again. Like I was finding the old me.

Then I realized what I was doing was wrong, and I ended the affair with the man and...


(Read the rest at Wtness.org)

-    Rachel T    9/12/2012

Unusual coincidence inspires young lady to produce a play by the former Pope

Danielle and Co-Star Daniel Hennessey

A few months ago, Danielle Center, 25, an administrative assistant in the Detroit Archdiocesan Office of Digital Media, was considering doing a production of the play “The Jeweler’s Shop”, a play written in 1960 by Karol Wojtyla, the Polish priest who would later become Pope John Paul II.  She was still undecided when she went to a Lenten retreat in Chicago, which includes the opportunity to go to Confession.

“So, there I was, waiting for my turn to confess, examination of conscience in hand. For some reason, the fellow next to me began chatting about his life in Toronto, and we discovered we both enjoyed theatre. I posed the question, ‘If you were to perform any play with your friends, what play would it be?’

“In the next breath, he turned and said, ‘Without a doubt, “The Jeweler’s Shop.”’ And then I laughed and told him I was taking this conversation as a sign...


(Read the rest at Wtness.org)

This story posted with permission from Danielle Center.

God’s Words inspire an ex married couple to turn their hate into friendship

My mother and father had a horribly messy divorce in 1985. Like so many others of their generation, the marriage was one of convenience, based far more on an exchange of services (e.g. housekeeping for a paycheck)  Never in my memory did they have what you could define as a happy or loving relationship.  There were many confrontations over the years, some of them violent.

Christmas day, 1984 was a fight for the record books.  My wife Pat and I arrived at my parents’ house mid-afternoon.  Usually Dad didn’t drink until the afternoon, which is one of reasons he got away with his drinking for so many years.  Uncharacteristically on this day, he was fully “in the bag” by 3pm.  He and my brother got into an argument over something that was truly silly:  whether my 18 yr old, college freshman brother, would eat his vegetables.  That was enough to set my mother off, and the fight that ensued was ugly and violent to the point that we felt that we had to get my mother out of the house for her own safety...  

(Read the rest at Wtness.org)

Deacon Dan Fedder

God saved his marriage, cured his depression

This true story is very hard for me to believe, because it was written and sent to me by Gerry, the very stable, very well respected leader of our church men's fellowship.  He's been at it for almost 20 years... every Saturday morning.  He's allowed a group of 20 men to set a new norm in their lives, and that's to live for Jesus.  I find it virtually impossible to think he had such difficulty earlier in his life.  But Jesus can do anything, even for people whose marriages are in trouble and who are considering suicide.

Even though I was raised by faithful Catholic parents and was friends with God through high school, something happened after that and I didn’t have time for Him, or church either.

My wife (Peg) and I were married in 1973 and 3 years into our marriage it was dying. It wasn’t my wife’s fault, I just couldn’t get any enthusiasm … I wasn’t “in love”.  I wanted to stop the marriage before we had any children to hurt …there was enough pain as it was.

My sister invited us to go on a marriage encounter … little did we know that it was for good marriages to be made better. I remember telling my wife peg that if this didn’t take, we would look for a lawyer … enough was enough.

That’s how we went into the weekend, God came into our marriage somehow (because I certainly didn’t ask him) and he healed our marriage – we went around to my parents and brothers and sisters houses and told them on Sunday how much in love we were and how we were going to stay married.

3 years later when our first daughter was born we had a decision to make.  We had agreed to be consistent with our daughter in all things - and the Church and Mass were boring – there was nothing there for us.

Father Duane Stenzel

After trial & error to find some meaning in the Church, I ended up going to a place called Duns Scotus and listening to Fr. Duane Stenzel. He talked about how much Jesus wanted me to have a relationship with him through his son, Jesus with the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Both Peg & I were changed in our hearts and the Mass & sacraments exploded with the real presence of Jesus.

God still wasn’t finished with me yet – not by a long shot. I had been suffering from depression episodes that would come out of nowhere … like the floor dropping out from beneath me, I would find myself in a dungeon-type room … no doors … no escape … no hope. There were frightening moments that the thought of ending my life might be the best solution.

On one occasion while we listened to Fr. Duane talk about the healing presence of Jesus, he had us shut our eyes and listen to the scriptures read … and he read: "The spirit of the lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor.  He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the lord's favor."

Suddenly I saw a vision of a room with a person huddled in the corner with his knees pulled up tight to his chest. His flesh looked raw, like a severe burn victim ... And in his eyes was a look of sheer terror.

I opened my eyes and saw that everyone else was still listening with their eyes closed … so, I closed my eyes and immediately, I was back in that room, except now I was the person in the corner … and I could feel the terror and fear in me.

I noticed a light coming in the room through a door and as I clutched my knees even tighter. I saw a hand reach across my forearm and ever so gently, lift my arm off my knees.

I realized it was Jesus and that I was healed … of course it took me quite a while as I was weeping with joy.

Since that time, I have not had one episode of depression like I had been experiencing. Jesus came to get me in a place I didn’t think anyone could get to. Let alone would want to.  I didn’t earn His healing or presence – He just came.

Now I know the one who healed my marriage. Now I know the one who healed my depression. Now I know the real answer to that Catechism question … why did God make me? God made me to love me.