When I was a child I can remember wanting my name to be Theresa. I would beg my mother to change my name to Theresa. I would lay in my bed and cry that I couldn't have my name changed to Theresa. I don't remember why. At that time in my life I didn't know anyone with the name Theresa.
I have always had a great love for St. Therese of Lisieux and for Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta when she was still alive. Later in my life I met a wonderful woman - Sister Theresa and we became friends.
I have taken St. Therese as my patron saint. I have always been drawn to Theresa and have no other explanation. One of my daughters, Erica, has Theresa as her middle name. She was born shortly after Blessed Mother Teresa died.
Some other unusual things that I may mention is that Mother Teresa was beautified on October 19th. That is the birthday of one of my daughters, Samantha and my friend Sr. Theresa's birthday is October 1st which is another of my daughters, Tricia's birthday. October 1st is the feast day for St. Therese.
I was born Lutheran (my fathers family was Lutheran and my mothers family was Catholic) and after my fathers mother passed away, my parents quit taking us to church. I wanted to go to church and I loved to watch my Grandmother pray the Rosary. My Grandmother, Rose, couldn't drive either, so we were both stuck not being able to go to church unless someone would come and drive her. She only lived a half mile from me at that time. I knew she was Catholic and I had 4 Great Aunts that were nuns, my Grandmothers sisters. I wanted to become Catholic in a very bad way. I rode my bike to the Catholic Church in town - about 2 and a half miles away, at the age of 11 and I rang the doorbell to the Priest's home. Father Bonin opened the door and I announced to him that I wanted to become Catholic.
Can you image what he was thinking? My parents didn't have a telephone, he couldn't call anyone. He took me into his office and set up dates for us to meet. He gave me a prayer book and told me to memorize some prayers and come to see him again. He was so gentle and kind. He never intimidated me in any way. He took me under his wing and began to teach me personally. We became wonderful friends, he made sure I received my Sacraments and I was fortunate enough to have him marry my husband and me and Baptize a couple of our children before he moved on to retirement.
Many years after he had passed away, I was having a hard time in my life and we were burning down our old house. We had removed everything from that old wreck and had knocked it into a hole and got a burning permit and lit it aflame!
The next morning my son was walking outside by the hole where the house stood. The heat the night before was so intense that we had to keep moving back as we watched it burn - yet, laying only about 10 feet from that hole, my son found a letter - the letter was from Father Bonin and had his Jubilee card in it. He was looking around for other thing and he found an envelope, it was the envelope from the letter! That is it - nothing else survived the extreme fire!
A letter from a dear friend, a Jubilee card and the envelope - that is all that survived the flames. You don't know how many times I ran through my mind - "where did it come from? why was it there? what are the chances?" There is only one reason for me. A miracle.
I have always had a great love for St. Therese of Lisieux and for Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta when she was still alive. Later in my life I met a wonderful woman - Sister Theresa and we became friends.
I have taken St. Therese as my patron saint. I have always been drawn to Theresa and have no other explanation. One of my daughters, Erica, has Theresa as her middle name. She was born shortly after Blessed Mother Teresa died.
Some other unusual things that I may mention is that Mother Teresa was beautified on October 19th. That is the birthday of one of my daughters, Samantha and my friend Sr. Theresa's birthday is October 1st which is another of my daughters, Tricia's birthday. October 1st is the feast day for St. Therese.
I was born Lutheran (my fathers family was Lutheran and my mothers family was Catholic) and after my fathers mother passed away, my parents quit taking us to church. I wanted to go to church and I loved to watch my Grandmother pray the Rosary. My Grandmother, Rose, couldn't drive either, so we were both stuck not being able to go to church unless someone would come and drive her. She only lived a half mile from me at that time. I knew she was Catholic and I had 4 Great Aunts that were nuns, my Grandmothers sisters. I wanted to become Catholic in a very bad way. I rode my bike to the Catholic Church in town - about 2 and a half miles away, at the age of 11 and I rang the doorbell to the Priest's home. Father Bonin opened the door and I announced to him that I wanted to become Catholic.
Can you image what he was thinking? My parents didn't have a telephone, he couldn't call anyone. He took me into his office and set up dates for us to meet. He gave me a prayer book and told me to memorize some prayers and come to see him again. He was so gentle and kind. He never intimidated me in any way. He took me under his wing and began to teach me personally. We became wonderful friends, he made sure I received my Sacraments and I was fortunate enough to have him marry my husband and me and Baptize a couple of our children before he moved on to retirement.
Many years after he had passed away, I was having a hard time in my life and we were burning down our old house. We had removed everything from that old wreck and had knocked it into a hole and got a burning permit and lit it aflame!
The next morning my son was walking outside by the hole where the house stood. The heat the night before was so intense that we had to keep moving back as we watched it burn - yet, laying only about 10 feet from that hole, my son found a letter - the letter was from Father Bonin and had his Jubilee card in it. He was looking around for other thing and he found an envelope, it was the envelope from the letter! That is it - nothing else survived the extreme fire!
A letter from a dear friend, a Jubilee card and the envelope - that is all that survived the flames. You don't know how many times I ran through my mind - "where did it come from? why was it there? what are the chances?" There is only one reason for me. A miracle.
