Hi Steve – (I edited out names and places for obvious reasons, but she gave me permission to share her e-mail she sent me.)
With how many emails you receive I don’t know if you will ever get the time to respond to me or maybe you’ll never even see this email but I wanted you to know that you and Sr. Norberta have changed my life.
Sr. Norberta said that she met you when you came to speak here many years ago and also went on a pilgrimage with you to the Holy Land in 2010. She just lent me the video of her pilgrimage with you and I can’t wait to watch it.
Before I had kids, I worked at the switchboard at the local hospital for 5 years. I saw Sister often and had to call her often for pastoral care. One time, Sr. Norberta stopped at my window and asked me if I was Catholic. I told her I was protestant and she asked me if I knew the 10 commandments. I only knew one or two. She gave me a paper with them on it and told me to memorize them. That stayed in my mind for many years.
I said I believed in Jesus but just lived how I wanted. Started out baptist as a child and bounced around to different churches (sometimes going for many years without going to a church at all and God the farthest thing from my family’s mind).
My family then ended up just being non-denominational. Once I had my oldest daughter, Sr. Norberta came back to my mind and I decided to look into the Catholic Church to see if it was true. I wanted to make sure I knew what I believed to teach my children.
My eyes were opened by you. Watching your videos and reading your book “Upon This Rock” changed my life. I hope I can meet you one day and join you on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land and other places. My life is crazy though currently with 3 kids 4 and under.
It took many years for me to see and learn the truth of the Catholic faith. It was only God who could have opened my heart up to even consider looking into the Catholic Church. It was very VERY difficult to get out of my anti-Catholic upbringing, accept the truth I could no longer turn away from and also tell my family (who still are having a hard time with my conversion) but your guidance in your books and videos have been key for me and my husband.
So I wanted to send a thank you. People like you and Sr. Norberta have helped change my life, my husband & our family tree to raise our kids in the fullness of faith. It’s like we’ve unlocked a key to so much more depth in the Christian faith. We’ll be coming into the Catholic Church on Easter Vigil this coming year.
I pray that you see this email and it gives you encouragement to keep on keeping on in spreading the truth. If you don’t see this, I hope I get to meet you in person on a pilgrimage but if nothing else I hope to meet you in heaven and thank you from the bottom of my heart that you helped me win the race.
God Bless you and all that you do.