Yes and I love Father Calloway. It's because of him that I have found our how incredible Saint Joseph is!
Yes, it was because of Fr. Calloway that my husband and I consecrated ourselves to St. Joseph. Many big graces for our family followed that consecration!
Before I came to Spain I had all kinds of wonderful plans for what I would do what I got here. But the one thing that kept happening over and over again was that the things I had planned to do never worked out. For instance the solar power I wanted was not safe for my electrics. I wanted to get the well in my field fixed so I could have independent water supply but that appears far, far too expensive as the engine is shot. I wanted to plant my own food but now I understand as a city boy in the country I have to learn so many new skills and this will take a long time to accomplish ..and on and on.. But on the other hand things have worked out really well if not the way I had hoped. .It reminds me of the old saying, 'Man proposes and God disposes'. But something really has worked out well recently has been to pray for God for the grace of Trust. If I can;t change anything else I can at least ask God for the graces so that He might change me. Thank God I feel so much more at peace with things. A great source of comfort and encouragement has been recalling how my parents and grandmother went through very,very hard times and came through it all smiling. But they had a truly rock like Faith. It reminds me of the old TV series, 'The Waltons', which was about a large family during the Depression.
I think in some ways Padraig you have followed the path of the Desert Fathers. Escaping the world into a kind of desert--hard to get to Mass and confession, weather challenges, social isolation. Even the struggles with the evil one. A real purification.
Thanks Terry. That is my prayer for them. It was purely unsolicited help from St Joseph. I was just the messenger. She told me this experience has "changed my Christian faith as a Methodist. " i told her how St Joseph takes care of families. How steadfast he is and faithful. She was in tears. I know St Joseph is on the case now and maybe they will find their way to the Church. Turns out her husband is a fallen awayCatholic.. !!!
Funny you mentioned the Waltons, Padraig. Geralyn and I, over the last two years, periodically retrieve an episode of "the Waltons" to watch. We've been doing it sequentially and are closing in on the WII PERIOD.
The best thing about the Waltons is that it was based on a real story. The same with the very touching Little House on the Prairre
This has been our experience too! The process of moving, and then getting here, were filled with just about every imaginable thing going wrong. We were so severely tested I was afraid for our marriage at one point, and we even put our home on the market a few months after moving in. Shoot, we even tried to back out at the last second before we even moved in...thinking we could no longer afford it because of how many things had gone wrong requiring extra money. We went to an apartment complex near our church and had decided to move there and just go to daily Mass and forget the country idea... There were a few rooms open and when we got there, the lady at the desk took one look at us, glanced at her computer, looked back and said flatly, "We have nothing for you." We were so shocked that we all just stared at each other, could think of nothing to say, and then finally got up and walked back to our car. My husband and I looked at each other and we were just like, "Ok God. I guess we're still going to the country." Lol. Imagine the sad surprise when we found out our well water is so full of iron we have to spend hundreds of dollars a year to filter it so it doesn't turn our sinks and toilets bright orange. The water I thought was going to be the pristine fresh water that we could pump straight into our hands for drinking no matter what terrible times come lol. Then imagine the horror when we realized those mounds of dirt everywhere that we thought were from cows were actually gopher mounds....and the gophers would end up sucking down every single tomato plant I planted that first year straight into the ground. Then the first spring a terrible storm came and blew entirely over the huge 100 year old elm tree I loved--the only source of shade in our backyard area. I had chosen where to place our home based on that tree. I got two kittens to be outdoor mousers and accidentally ran one over just trying to pull my van forward a few feet into the carport because rain was coming. My husband was gone at the time and I had to watch my beloved kitten die in front of me. I had to give the other one away because my dog that I bought to protect it wouldnt stop putting it in his mouth. Then my husband had mental breakdowns and got most of the way through building the chicken coop only to never be able to finish it. We had to get rid of the dog and chickens because we were almost out of money and had to put the house on the market. We had the house on the market for a few months and no one put any offers on it. I was crying nearly daily because I loved my home and really didn't want to leave. I was so confused, trying so hard to trust, battling fears as very scary storms kept pelting us one after another.... Then I became pregnant and my husband decided to keep the house so we pulled it off the market. We were scraping by. Then I lost the baby. My sister and I prayed together every night to get pregnant again (she had her only miscarriage a few months before that) and she was pregnant again a month after we began praying. I didn't get pregnant again until halfway through her pregnancy and then lost that one as well. One week before I lost my baby, a stray pregnant cat we took in and fell in love with died along with one of her kittens. So many graces came during all of that. My dad came back to the Faith. My sisters got married properly in the Church. My brother-in-law converted to Catholicism. My children all announced calls to religious life. My brother came back to the Faith and pursued a call to the priesthood. My marriage grew leaps and bounds and is very strong now. My husband learned surrender to God and then got promoted twice, so we can afford our home. I grew in trust and lost a lot of my previous fears. We have both lost A LOT of our taste for the things of this world and feel a healthy detachment from what we thought would bring happiness but is only passing. Our hearts are more open and easily led. Our prayer lives are deeper. I still don't know for sure why God led us out here, but I no longer question it. God knows what He's doing and He'll continue to do it. We're here to know, love and serve Him in this world and be happy with Him in the next!
