But today I want to share with you probably the most profound and St. Anthony miracle story that I have ever experienced.

It’s so of God. And it’s, so I’m saying it was either like, I can’t even like make it up. It’s so crazy profound, but so I want to share this story with you. And then I want to kind of dive into like how the saints lived. I mean, there’s so many extraordinary saints, and this is one of the reasons that I love being Catholic. I love studying lives of the saints and, and entering into a relationship with, with the communion of saints and the saints in heaven and knowing that they’re praying for us and they’re interceding for us. And I just think it is so profound and so special. I feel like St. Anthony is kind of like my guy he’s, he’s one of my go to SAIS. And of course, because so many of us, we pray to him. He’s known as the patron Saint of lost items. And so literally, I mean, that’s like one of the main things I pray to him for. I’m always losing my keys or my cell phone, my sunglasses, or just major things like times I can find a child or things like that. You know, like so many times I have prayed to him and he has come through,

But this is the deal seeing Anthony is more than just the patron Saint of loss items. One of the things that we know about Saint Anthony is that he is the patron Saint of miracles. And this is why, like so many times when he was alive, he, there was like all of these miracles that were attributed to him. I mean, major, major things. He would like pray over people who are sick or who were dying. And they would be miraculously cured. There were stories of people who would bring their children to him who had died. Like one in particular, a child had drown and had, had literally died. And the parents came and brought this body of this, this child to St. Anthony. And he prayed over this child and the child came back to life. We also know that Saint Anthony was an extraordinary speaker that he would give homilies and he would speak about God in such a profound way that people would come from miles and miles away to come and hear him speak. And there’s stories of like so many conversions that happened after people heard him talk that that he just had such a gift for speaking. And then to top it off, say Anthony and his great love and humility and his deep prayer life.

We know that the child, Jesus actually appeared to him on a number of occasions that the child with the infant Jesus wanted to be close to St. Anthony. And so oftentimes when we see Saint Anthony, we see him depicted holding the child Jesus. Now there are very few saints that, that is reserved for it. Especially Saint Joseph. Saint Joseph is like one of the only other saints who we ever see depicted holding the child. Jesus. But we know that Saint Anthony was one who was so blessed to be visited by the child, Jesus. And that the stories go that the child, Jesus loves Saint Anthony so much. And he would, you know, appear to him and climb into his arms to be close to them. And so these are just a couple of little things. Like, I mean, these are all the reasons why I love St. Anthony so much that I have this great desire to, to want to ask for his prayers and intercession.

And this leads to the story that I want to share with you today. This happened back when Johnny and I were first engaged. So we had a tradition early on when we were engaged. And then this tradition continued for a couple of years into our marriage where every Wednesday we would go to Mass in the morning at 8:30. And then we would go to this one parish in our town where at the time there was an abortion clinic across the street. And so every Wednesday we would go to Mass and then after Mass, we would go across the street to the clinic and we would pray a rosary together, outside the clinic and just do spend about an hour out there doing some sidewalk pro-life ministry work outside the clinic. And so this in particular day, it was middle of January. It was a cold and very rainy day. We went to Mass that morning. And as we were coming out of the Mass, it was just, we stepped outside and it was so cold. There was icy rain just pouring down. And I remember just saying to Johnny, like, I just did not want to go and pray that day. I didn’t want to stand outside in the cold.

And it has just profound wisdom in just being the man of God that he is. He just looked at me and he said, listen, I know it’s cold, but we really need to go. We need to go pray. So let’s drive over there. We’ll just sit in the car and we’ll pray the rosary and just kind of offer that up. So I said, okay, let’s do that. So we drove over there, we pulled up in front of the clinic and we started to pray our rosary

And a little ways into the rosary. The rain stopped. And he said to me, he said, why don’t we, I know it’s, you know, stopped praying. It’s still really cold outside, but let’s like stand outside and finish the rosary. And even though it’s cold, we can just offer this up. And we know that, like, we know that God will use that in some way. So reluctantly, I got out of the nice, warm, comfortable car. And we stood out on the sidewalk in the cold and continued on with our rosary. And as we were out there praying a few minutes later, a, a car, a van pretty beat up van pulls into the parking lot with a young couple in it, a young, Hispanic couple. And they sit in the car for a few minutes, kind of look at us, we’re praying our rosary. We’re trying to like get their attention. And they get out of the car. And I say to them, I said, excuse

Me, can you come talk to us? We weren’t trying to get their attention, trying to get them to come and talk to us. They ignored us. Wouldn’t look at us and walked quickly into the clinic. And we could see them through the windows. The front door had a glass window on it. And the young woman she checks in, she’s like up at the front. And this young man starts pacing in the lobby, walking back and forth. And every time he would like walk past the window, he would look at us and Johnny would kind of try to get his attention and try to wait for him to come out. And he would like shake his head. No, and then he’d start pacing back and forth. We could see the young woman, you know, filling out the paperwork. And we just kept praying, kept praying our rosary and started really strongly praying for this young couple.

And you know, a few minutes goes by, we’re praying again, the man’s pacing back and forth. Johnny keeps trying to wave at him, trying to get him to come out and he’s not, he’s not coming out. And we just keep praying a little while later, we watch, as the nurse takes the young girl back down the hallway, around the corner, we can’t see her anymore. She kind of disappears into the back. And all of a sudden, I just felt deeply compelled to ask St. Anthony for his prayers.

In this moment, I remembered thinking about the story of him, praying over the child who had died. And I just knew in this moment, right at this moment, we needed a St. Anthony miracle. We needed his prayers, his intercession for this couple. And so I started praying and asking for St. Anthony’s and intercession. We had finished the rosary at this point. And so I started to pray the memorare prayer. And after every time I pray in the memoir, a prayer, we were asking for St. Anthony’s our session. And I was just like, okay, St. Anthony, you have come through for us so many times, like, we need a big miracle here and we need, we need you to just, just please like, pray for this couple. And again, every few minutes Johnny was trying to get this, this guy’s attention, trying to get him out.

We’re just hoping that maybe if he would come out and talk to us, we could try to convince him to get the, to get his girlfriend out of there. And so we just kept praying. Few minutes goes by the guy’s like pacing, still pacing back and forth. And he looks out the window at us and he looks right at Johnny and Johnny is waiting for him to come out. And all of a sudden he stops. He opens the door and he starts walking out, but he’s like charging out. Right? A Johnny, I thought he looked so angry, so upset. And I was like, oh my gosh, I think he’s going to come out and punch Johnny in the face.

That is how crazy this moment was, where I was just like, praying so hard. And all of a sudden, the man he’s just like this, he walks up to Johnny’s like, why do you keep waiting for me to come out here? And Johnny is like, listen, man. Like, is that, you know, is that your girlfriend in there? And he’s like, yeah, she’s my girlfriend. And like, we, you know, we’re here, like she’s pregnant and we’re scared. We don’t have any money. And her parents are gonna kill us. And like, he’s just started saying, like, we can’t have a baby right now. We can’t afford it. We don’t have insurance. All of this stuff. They were like in their early twenties. And Johnny’s like saying to him, listen, go, you need to just go in and get her, bring her out here.

We’re like, we’re here to help you. We will give you money. We will help you with the expenses. You don’t have to worry about anything there. Like, there’s so many people that want to help you with this. Like, please just go in and get her. And at this point I kind of had stepped maybe like five or six feet away because I wanted Johnny. That’s kind of have like a man to man conversation with this guy. And I just kept praying. I was like St. Anthony, like you brought this guy out of here, like, please, please let us pray for like God to just do a great miracle in this moment. And Johnny keeps talking to you and he’s like, I can’t go in there. You don’t understand, like we can’t have a baby right now. And then Johnny was like, you know, kept telling them like, listen, we will help you.

There’s other options. And at that point, this guy, he says, he says to Johnny, he’s like, I actually, like, I don’t want her to go through with this abortion, but I just like, I have to be strong. And he kept saying, I have to be a soldier, man. I’ve got to be a soldier. And I don’t even understand what that meant, but Johnny’s like, listen, you ha you have to go in there. And he kept trying to convince him to go in and heat. This guy would not budge. So I’m over just, you know, Johnny’s talking to him, I’m just continuing to pray Moray prayer after another, just continuing to ask for St. Anthony’s in our session. But

At this point, a good 20, 25 minutes had gone by and the clock was ticking. And I knew that there wasn’t a whole lot of time left. And so we just kept praying and the other 10 minutes goes by 15 minutes goes by. Johnny’s like, you got to go in there, you’ve got to get her. And he’s like a cat. You don’t understand, we don’t have any other options. And at this point I had, I had really given up hope. I was like, oh my gosh. And I, even though it was like, just praying for this great miracle at this point. So much time had gone by. I just started to pray that God would give us the grace, both Johnny and I, to be able to just love this couple and to support them and the, whatever the outcome was. I knew that God had put us there for a reason, even if it meant trying to, you know, just embrace this couple and help them on a path to healing after this experience.

And so that’s really like, I just started praying, okay, God, we’re here. We’re here for a reason. I didn’t even want to be here this morning. It was going to be cold, but you have us here. And so that really became the prayer. And another 15 other 20 minutes goes by. And eventually I just knew. I was like, okay, God, I don’t know what to do in this situation. But I just know that you’re going to give us what we need. And I just prayed, especially for this young woman who I knew would be coming out in a little while that we would just be able to love on her. And so it just revealed God’s profound, love and mercy to her in this moment. And sure enough, where the three of us are standing up there and this young man, like he wouldn’t budge. He wouldn’t go in. But moments later we see her coming down the hallway. We see her checking out at the front desk. And in this moment, I remember just saying, God, like you have to, like, you have to give us the words. I don’t even know what to say.

And truly we were all speechless. She walked out the front door, tears streaming down her face. She could barely hold her head up. And she walked out to where we were standing. All three of us were just standing there. I had no words, but instantly I just found myself extending my arms. I just held my arms out as though I was about to give her a hug. And I remember thinking it was so profound because she didn’t walk to her boyfriend. She just walked right over to me, a stranger and literally fell into my arms. And she started to sob. And I didn’t know what to say. I had no words,

But I knew that God was calling me to love her. And I knew that I could, I knew that I could just hold her in this moment. And as she was sobbing, a few moments later, like through her tears, she spoke the following words.

I don’t know what happened. She said, I don’t know what happened in there, But I just couldn’t do it. And we were like, what? She was like, just kind of do. I don’t know what happened. I was there.

And the doctor came in and he was about to start. And there’s just something that came over me. She said, I just couldn’t do it. I told him, I say, I can’t go through with this. I need you to stop. And the doctor got really mad at me and he like stormed out of the room and he told me to get out. And she said, but I just, I don’t know what happened. I just couldn’t do it. And all of a sudden, all of us through our tears and even her boyfriend, his young woman, like her boyfriend, he starts like jumping up and down. He’s like, you didn’t do it. And she’s like, no. And he was like, oh my gosh. Like, thank goodness. And we’re like, like cheering and crying. And like, I’m just holding her. And all of a sudden I was like, oh my gosh, I get my mind. I, this was like crying out to St. Anthony for this miracle.

And all of a sudden we start talking and she’s like, I just don’t know what she was. I’m so scared, but I didn’t know what to do. And she said, I just couldn’t do it. And so we’re out there. We’re talking to them and, and getting like sh telling them like, listen, we are here for you. And we introduce ourselves, we get their names. Her name is Sarah, his name’s Tony. And we’re like, we we’re here to help. You got their phone numbers. We came up with a plan to meet. I was in a pickup Sarah, the next day. And we gave, save them some money that we had on hand. And we were like, listen, we are going to walk through this journey with you. You are not alone. There’s so many people that want to love on you. I want to help you. And it just was truly one of those extraordinary moments where undoubtedly St Anthony’s prayers had come through in a really profound way, but it doesn’t end there. There’s so much more to the story after that happened, that later that afternoon I went home and I turned the CD on.

I was flipping through the channels and came across, EWTN, the Catholic television station. And I was blown away when they were showing the March for life. And all of a sudden I realized that this was January 22nd. And it’s the anniversary of Roe vs. Wade that this miracle happened on. And I was, again, I was like, oh my gosh. I remember like falling to my knees and just thinking God that on such a dark day in our nation’s history that we got to experience this miracle of life, but it doesn’t just end there.

So the next day I picked up Sara and I told her, I knew in my heart that there would be so many ways that we would be able to help her. But but again, I was like actually blown away. I didn’t even realize how God was going to just work. So first I took her to health and welfare. We got her some, we got her some food stamps and some we got her on this program for pregnant moms so that she could get all of her prenatal vitamins. They set her up so that eventually she’d be able to get formula and diapers and all this financial assistance. It was amazing just, you know, by going and filling out some paperwork and kind of helping her through that process. She was able to get some amazing resources. Then I took her to this pregnancy center where we were able to help her get some maternity clothes and get all this stuff that she needed for herself.

And then I had also set up, I had asked her, I said, do you have a doctor? And she said, no, I don’t have, I don’t have an OB doctor. And so I called my doctor and set her up with, for an appointment. And a couple of days later, I picked her up, took her down to my doctor. And it was so amazing. I got to be in the room with her. I got to hold her hand as she had her first ultrasound. And the first time she got to see her little baby boy. And it was so powerful. It was so extraordinary to witness that. And just to witness my doctor just love her so beautifully and help, you know, kind of help her get herself taken care of. And, and it was so amazing. And I had the opportunity to take her to several of her doctor visits over the course of the rest of her pregnancy.

And there was one time in particular was getting close to the end of her pregnancy. I actually pulled my doctor aside and said to her, I said, listen you know, Sarah, she doesn’t have insurance. She doesn’t have the financial means to pay for any of these doctor visits. And I said, so if you could just let me know what this is going to cost, or like, send me the bill. We’ll figure out, we’ll get some people and we’ll figure out how to pay for it. And I’ll never forget this moment. My doctor looked at me, she said, Lorissa, don’t even worry about it. She said, I want you to know I’ve already written this written off all of this off of our books. So you don’t have to worry about a thing. Sarah, doesn’t have to worry about a thing everything’s, you know, taken care of. She doesn’t have to pay us for anything. And she said, and I’ve even called the hospital and let them know that our, our office will be paying for her hospital bills. So like for labor and delivery we’ve, we’ve got Sarah covered and we’re going to take care of everything. And I remember just

Standing there going, oh my gosh, like, thank you. And like, God, you are so good. Like even like I knew that God would provide, and he knew that God would take care of everything, but like, I just still was just so in awe. And I think this is like the reality of, of people’s love for life and people’s generosity to be able to help those in need. And this is just one more of those experiences. In fact, my doctor said to me, she said, Lorissa, if you ever have a young woman in a crisis pregnancy situation, like don’t ever hesitate to bring her to us, we will take care of her. And honestly, like, since that, since Sarah’s pregnancy, like I have taken several young, young women in similar situations to, to this clinic and they have taken total care of these beautiful young women in such a profound way. And I’m, I’m sharing this because I just want people to understand how many there are for people that are, that are in these situations. And they feel so lost and alone that they feel like, how can I do this?

And I just, I just know always that that there is so much help and that God always provides in such extraordinary ways. So all of this was like unfolding over the, over these, the course of these last, like those few months leading up to the birth of this new baby coming into this world and our youth group, we had a baby shower for them and all these people donated money and we got them, you know, a crib and all like high chair, all of this amazing stuff. So they were, they were totally set. And a couple weeks before Sarah was due Johnny and I took Tony and Sarah out to dinner to Goodwin’s. We want to just to get back together with them and celebrate the, you know, the upcoming arrival of this little one. And we were at dinner talking with them and all of a sudden I said to them, I was like, okay, you guys have you picked out a name for this little guy?

Because a couple of weeks earlier, they hadn’t quite figured out what their name was going to be. And Tony looked at us, he kind of smiled. He said, yeah, we figured out a name. And he actually, he looked at John and he said, honestly, Johnny, he goes, we were, we’ve been contemplating, naming him, Johnny after you, which was really sweet. But then he said, actually, you know, here’s this, this is our first child, our first son. And he said, I just feel like I want to name him after me. And and he said, so we’re going to name him, Anthony. And the moment he, okay, it hit me. Like I had not even like all these months, it hadn’t even hit me that this guy, like his name was Tony. And that his, that his name was Anthony, but he went by Tony.

Like I never made that correlation until he said that. He said, we’re going to name him, Anthony. And in this moment, my husband, he like under the table, he grabs my hand and squeezes it. And I was like, I was like, instantly transported back to that moment when we were praying so hard for St. Anthony’s intercession for this child. And as I was like, kind of like choking back tears, I looked at Tony and I was like, Tony, that’s the most perfect name. Like, it was

So incredible. And then, you know, I didn’t want to tell them that we had been praying to Saint Anthony or anything like that. I didn’t even want to bring up the memory of that day for them. Cause I’m sure that that would have been really hard. But all of a sudden, Tony says to us, he said, he says this to us. He says that you guys are Catholic. And we’re like, yeah. And he goes, so too, you know, like, have you ever heard of St Anthony? Yeah, we’ve heard of them. And he said, well, I need to tell you this story. He said, my mom is a really strong Catholic. And he said, I’m kind of, I’m sad to say that I never have like really been a strong practicing Catholic. And he said, but my mom has a really strong issues lives in Mexico. And he said, I was born in Mexico and she’s.

And he said, when she was pregnant with me, she was going to name me something else. Like she wasn’t going to name me, Anthony. But when she went into labor with me, she was had, she had a really tough labor and the umbilical cord was wrapped around my neck. And when I was born, I didn’t have a pulse and I wasn’t breathing. And the doctors actually pronounced me dead, like a still stillborn. And at that moment, my mom cried out to God and she cried out and she prayed to Saint Anthony in this moment for my life to be spared. And she begged the doctors to try to resuscitate me. And so the doctors started trying to resuscitate me. And as my mom was praying and crying out to St. Anthony for my life, all of a sudden I started breathing and he goes in, so my mom named me, Anthony, after St. Anthony. And he goes, it’s not very common. You know, he’s like, it’s such an Italian name. It’s not very often that you know, that it’s a very common for a Mexican to be named Anthony.

And then as he’s like, he’s telling you this story, I’m like, oh my gosh, you have no idea. Like, yes, like St. Anthony like need for you at this moment. And now like, you’re proud to like have this baby. And this little guy is going to come into this world and his name is going to is Anthony. And it just, oh my gosh, it was just like this such, this profound, full, like full circle moment of just miracle upon miracle. And once again, I just found myself in such awe that Johnny and I got to witness it. We got to be a tiny little part of this profound miracle.

So little Anthony, he was born that year on July 4th, the 4th of July, the cutest little baby I’ve ever seen. There’s a little chubby little guy with a, I think he kind of looked like a troll dog. And it was like this extraordinary dark hair that just like stuck out. I’ve never seen a baby with so much and just absolutely the cutest thing ever. And this was like one of those moments of again, of St. Anthony and this extraordinary Saint. And I could go on and on little, that little Anthony, he he’s gonna be 18 years old, this July,

Which just blows me away. And, and Tony and Sarah, they have moved, they had family in California and they no longer live here in Boise. But oh my goodness. That is one of those stories of St. Anthony that I just was excited to share with you. And, you know, there’s these, you know, as we read the lives of the saints, and I know, I don’t know about you, but there’s times that I find myself like reading about the lives of the saints and even experiencing their prayers in her session and just being blown away. That, that, like, I sometimes in my own like reality my own weaknesses.

Like I want to be a Saint, but I think sometimes it’s easy to, like, we like read about these saints and we’re like, you know, like I can never be a Saint like that. Like I, you know, I can’t even imagine like praying over somebody and having them be healed or like speaking to a crowd of people and having their hearts like so convicted that they come to like experience conversion in their hearts.

Like, you know, like, I think, well, the saints, like Saint tress or Saint Joan of arc, or same mother Theresa St. John Paul, the second who just live these extraordinary lives.

And yet, like, we all know, like we know that God is calling us to be saints. And this is why I want to talk about for a few moments, because they’re like, even though we’re all call to be a Saint in our own unique way, like not all of us are called to be like mother Theresa to go and leave everything behind to go to Calcutta, to serve the poorest of the poor, poor, but we are all called to be saints. And sometimes, like, I know it’s so easy to just focus on our weaknesses, to focus on our limitations, to focus on our own sinfulness and to think to ourselves, like, who am I to be a great Saint? Who am I, I can’t do these things. Like

I can barely keep my life together. How am I like to be this great saying? And sometimes I think it’s even easy to say like, oh, like, well, other people like, obviously like St Anthony, like, was like chosen by God to do these things, to, you know, to be able to pray over people and bring them practical life. But like, so often I wonder if we limit ourselves because we like, we, we see our weaknesses, we see the ways that we fall short, but we lose sight of recognizing how limitless God is. And I think this is what the saints understood.

The saints understood that they could do nothing apart from God that it was not that they were so great, but it was God who was so great working in and through them. That’s what set the saints apart. The saints knew that they placed their trust in God and not in themselves. And so why do I say this? I say this because after working for so many years with, with teenagers and working with women and coaching women, and even like working through all my own insecurities, like, it is just so easy for us. I think as women to just say, oh, like I just can’t, I can’t do those things. Or we look at other people and we see other people’s gifts and we see other people’s house. Oh, you know, like, she’s so amazing or she’s such a gifted speaker, or she’s such like this incredible singer or artist. Like, I don’t have any of those gifts or I can’t do these great things, or I can’t live like that. All I see are my own weaknesses.

And I just want to call, like, to mind, like one of the things that sets the saints apart is that they were able to like manage their minds in such a way that instead of like focusing just on their weaknesses and insecurities, they were able to focus on God using them as their, like, as his instruments. Let’s look at Saint Therese. For example, I hear she was this like little Saint who was not even known for really doing anything great, or even really that profound. She didn’t pray over people and have, like, there were like major healings.

She didn’t like travel the world and like convert the hearts of millions. She didn’t serve the poorest of the poor and like ghetto. She didn’t do any of those things. But St. Therese is one of the greatest saints, one of the doctors of the church. Why? Because she knew that in her little way that she could do nothing. But then with God, like she could love in profound ways. She could do small things with great love and Saint Therese. Like she desired to be a Saint in such a profound way. She, she knew she was going to be a Saint, not because of herself or anything that she could do on her own accord. But she knew like she trusted so much in God that she knew that God wanted her to be a Saint. And if that, if God wanted her to be a saint, then of course she would be a Saint.

She believed in this so deeply that when they cut her hair, she kept it and she put her hair in bags. So that some day after she died, they could use her hair as relics. Can you imagine living your life? Wasn’t that profound trust that God is going to make you a Saint? And yet, sometimes I wonder, like, what if we lived with that kind of faith? What if we knew, like maybe I’m not called to serve the poorest of the poor, but how has God calling me to be a Saint in my vocation? H

ow was he calling me to use my gifts and my talents, even though there, you know, maybe I can see other people’s gifts and talents that I think their talents are better than mine, but like, how is God using me right now in this moment? And my sister’s in crisis is what I want to say. The very fact that right now, like you’re breathing that I eat the, you and I are like taking a breath right now in this very moment means a couple of very profound things. It means that from the beginning of time, God knew that he was going to bring us into existence. He dreamed us up millions of years ago, and he knew that he’s going to bring us into this time and into this place, in this, into this moment that he was going to give us gifts and talents. He was going to give us a heart to know him and to love him and to want to serve him.

And that he was going to have a purpose and a plan for our lives, not just to love us now, but to want to love us for all of eternity so that we could be with him forever to be saints in heaven with him forever. And so by this very means like, God, God deams for us to be Saints. And so this is what I want to say. Like, how do we be

Like the saints? How do we manage our minds in such a way that we live intentionally trusting and knowing that God is not limited, even though we feel limited, like God is limitless, that he doesn’t see our weaknesses, that our limitations, but he sees all the potential. And then he wants to use us in ways to impact the lives of others more than we could ever know. And so my sisters in Christ, this is the work that we’re called to do to not focus on the ways in

Which we fall short, but to, to focus on the ways in which God desires to work through us, that he calls us to be his little instruments in this world. And however, that looks, whether we’re called to be saints by just living out our vocations, loving our children, saying yes to him, whether it’s saying yes to going out and praying on a sidewalk, outside an abortion clinic, whether it’s serving in our soup kitchen, you know, there are food banks and soup kitchens, whether it’s teaching children in religious education, whatever it happens to be like, how is God wanting to use us? And how is he showing up wanting to do great miracles? I want to say this, like I think about St. Anthony, especially St. Anthony right now, I’m thinking about him. How did he know that he was going to be a great speaker? How did he know that he would pray over people?

And they would be healed? He didn’t, it’s not like God sent him a letter and said, Hey, Anthony, if you pray over people, they will be healed because I’m going to work through, you know, Saint Anthony, what he did was he put himself out there. He knew that he had a love for God. And so he spoke about God’s profound love. And he spoke the truth with deep conviction and people came to hear him speak, but he had to be willing to put himself out there and he had to be willing to speak. This is crazy.

How do we know? Like, like, like I can guarantee that there are women right now listening to this podcast who has the God, has given them the gift of healing, But like, how do we know that we have the gift of healing? We have to like, be willing to actually pray for healing over people. We actually had to be willing to say like, okay, God, if you want to use me as your instrument right now, like I’m going to go out on a limb here. I’m afraid of where people and like, actually like allow God to like allow his healing to work through us.

Like, what if we are called, like, I know there’s women right now, listening to this who maybe feel like this prompting in their hearts to want to speak, to speak or retreats, or to speak at conferences or to speak or to teach or in those types of things. And I know like so many of us who maybe have a passion for speaking, we like, see these speakers that are already out there, Catholic apologists or Catholic speakers that are speaking at conferences that Jennifer Fulwiler, or is of the world. And we’re like, gosh, look at her, look at what she’s doing. She’s so gifted at speaking. And like, who am I to be able to speak in front of others? But this is what I want to say. Like, who are you not to? If God has placed that desire on your heart, he will give you the words to speak.

We all have a story that needs to be shared. However, that might be, maybe it’s sharing our stories over coffee with a friend. Maybe it’s reaching out and speaking to that, you know, store clerk you know, in the store, like just the other day, I was at a gas station and there’s this girl, you know, like I was buying something at a gas station and I just looked at her. I was like, how are you doing? And I couldn’t it. But she said, I’m having a really hard day. And I was like, what’s going on? And she’s like, oh, my boyfriend broke up with me and my car broke down. It’s like, everything’s going wrong. And I looked at her and I just said, listen, I just need to tell you that God loves you. And she looked at me. She was like, what? She’s like, I’m like, I know that you probably like, are really struggling, but I just want you to know that God loves you. And I want you to know I’m going to be praying for you. I was like, what is your name? And she told me her name. And I’m like, I’m going to start praying for you. And through tears in her eyes, she just looked at me. She was like, oh my God, gosh,

Thank you. You have no idea what that means to me. So like these types of things, like these types of moments, like just speaking truth, speaking, God’s love to a stranger or speaking on a stage or speaking, you know, like to a good friend, like all these things, like how is God wanting to use us in our gifts and our talents? When we manage our minds, when we like, like wake up in the morning and asking ourselves, okay, God, how are you going to use me today? How are you going to show up? I give to you my weaknesses. I give to my strengths, my gifts, my talents use them for your glory. I want to show up for you today. And this my sisters, this is where God just shows up. And he uses us to impact the lives of others. There are so many scripture passages where it’s like, God is telling us, do not hide your light. Under a bushel basket is meant to be on a mountain top to shine for all, to see don’t hide your talents in a field like don’t bury them, use them for God’s glory. He will take your talents and you will multiply them tenfold, a hundred fold. And this is how we live a life of richness and blessings and how we become blessings to other people.

So like, can you imagine some day, like here we are almost it’s a thousand years after the time of St. Anthony talking about St. Anthony talking about these great saints, but what if someday a hundred years from now 200 years from now, people are talking about us talking about how our lives impacted this world and such my sisters in Christ. Saint is called. Like we, God is calling us to step out of our comfort zone. He’s calling us to shine our lights in this world. He’s kind of, he’s calling us to be willing to put ourselves out there because we’re not made for comfort or made for greatness. So my sisters in Christ, this is what I have for you today.

This reminder that God desires to use us in the most profound ways, let us join together. Let us be a light in this world, this world, right now, we look around and there’s so much darkness. There’s so many people that are hurting. There are so many people that need our lights. So let’s be willing to just use our minds to manage our minds, to just step so boldly with conviction and trust. The God is going to use us in ways that are beyond our imagination. The sisters in Christ. I hope you have an amazing week. Let us all seek out St. Anthony’s intercession. Let us ask him to help, pray for us. So we would have the courage to follow after him and do the things that God is calling us to do in ways that we can’t even begin to imagine. Hope you have an amazing week. Remember you are made for greatness.