by: Tricia, Maryland

My boyfriend decided he wanted to return to his Catholic faith, which led me back to the Catholic Church. Shortly after the sudden and unexpected death of my father, my brother invited my mom, my boyfriend, and me on a silent retreat—to go to confession, learn about prayer, and all of that good stuff. After this retreat, we started going to church more regularly.

About a year later, on my birthday, our Church launched ChristLife and I decided to go. If you would’ve told me a year before that I’d be spending my birthday at a Catholic Church, I would have laughed at you. I would have said, “No way, that’s so not me.” But there I was on October 21, 2019, meeting new people and starting this ChristLife journey.

I attended the retreat and offered the recommitment prayer to Jesus. After the retreat, things started really moving and God started really speaking to me with very clear messages. The retreat for Following Christ was great. And then Sharing Christ came when the pandemic hit and we had to turn our meetings on to Zoom.

Towards the end of Sharing Christ, I got a nudge from Christ that said:

Come June 2020, I posted on Facebook inviting friends to join me on Zoom for Discovering Christ. I messaged some friends that I hadn’t been in touch with or in contact with in a long time and I found about six ladies who were interested. They were in their 30, 40s, 50s, 60s—different age groups, different backgrounds, and from different areas of Maryland. If it weren’t for the pandemic and doing ChristLife on Zoom, I don’t think this group of women would have ever come together.

We went through all three courses: Discovering Christ, Following Christ, and Sharing Christ. We had our own retreats in-person and my ChristLife leaders joined us for prayer. We even made a video of our cardboard testimonies!

In December, my boyfriend proposed. God brought us closer through ChristLife and our return to the Catholic faith. I’m thankful to my fiancé for leading me back to my faith and my brother, who will walk me down the aisle, for inviting us on that initial retreat. All these pieces led me to this place I’m meant to be for such a time as now!

I’m really excited about what God has done in my life through ChristLife. He’s given me the tools to be more open, have relationships with people, and how to be an evangelist in the truest sense. I thank ChristLife for that.