Témoignages

“Saturday 04/03: Lk 5:27-32 - Help someone in their faith by helping them to live Lent well (by inviting them to a spiritual activity, offering the Prayer Sheet, helping them to go to confession or to adoration, etc.). Read an excerpt from the Catechism of the Catholic Church No. 1400. Living out this exercise turned out to be easier than I imagined. Yesterday I wrote to a friend with whom I had not been in touch for ages. And this Saturday morning, I saw that she had replied and was asking for information about the great retreat in Belgium. I hurried to give it to her. During the day, I also took part in a conference for men organized by my diocese, on the theme: "Preparing Men for the Battle." On the program were 3 teachings by very sharp theologians and a Mass with the bishop himself. In short, it was about making us realize that the cultural change and the flight from moral values/norms that we observe daily require us to become authentic men, true sons of God, rooted in prayer and in the Church. We were helped to understand that the crises of our time were mainly due to the fact that men had abandoned their role of spiritual leadership, just as Adam had let his wife Eve be seduced by the serpent, and that consequently the mission of the new evangelization went through being a true husband, father, father-in-law, neighbor, colleague, Brother, and missionary. Also, in the teachings received, I found an answer to a spiritual concern that has been troubling me. The highlight of the day: at this event, I was able to meet one of my favorite theologians, Dr. Scott Hahn. One can say that the Lord truly helped me to live my Lent well. What a bonus!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! United in Prayer Franck Yonga”

May 28, 2017

“Tuesday 18 April 2017: Acts 2:36-41. Pray a Rosary or 10 Hail Marys for the radical conversion of your family. Read an excerpt from the Catechism of the Catholic Church No 1445. By the grace of God, I spent a magnificent day, rich in teachings, in hearty laughter, peace and Love. I give thanks to God who allowed me to close the day by meditating the Rosary for the conversion of my family; especially that of certain members in particular. I take from the CCC that reconciliation with the Church is inseparable from reconciliation with God. I did it for You my Jesus! Leslie Zemmo (Belgium)”

May 28, 2017

“Saturday 25 February 2017, Mk 10:13-16. Be joyful like a child because of Jesus, or else help, play or joke with a child. Read an excerpt from the Catechism of the Catholic Church No. 1393 By the grace of God, to put this exercise into practice, I laughed like a child with everyone who contacted me and those I contacted. - I greeted many people in the street with a big smile. - I chatted with many strangers, always in joy and good humour.”

May 28, 2017

“Thursday 9 February, Mk 7:24. Pray to ask for faith and to present requests to Jesus. Or share the sheet. Read an excerpt from the Catechism of the Catholic Church No. 1377 In my prayer this morning I asked Jesus to increase my Faith, which the present times, together with my occupations, seem to want to slow down. Also, to boost it again, I made a firm decision that will enable me to be more and more faithful in living out, sharing and writing. I offered a prayer sheet and I promised myself to send a few by email to my classmates, one of whom particularly struck me. In fact, having approached her before class, I noticed that *all her necklaces and earrings had crucifixes*. When I asked her why, she answered: *Well, I am a Catholic Christian*, which made me think of all the times I failed to embrace this beautiful, living and visible status of Catholic Christian. CCC done. All of this to please You, Jesus. Thank you. United in Prayer. Steve Regis Fomete (France)”

May 28, 2017

“Friday 28: Jn 6:1-15: Give someone something to eat or offer a gift, however small it may be. Read an excerpt from the Catechism of the Catholic Church No 1455. Today, after my personal prayer, as soon as I went out I saw my neighbours, high-school girls, on their way to school; I greeted them and gave them a little money to buy some fritters, and they were very happy. At home I offered a nice breakfast to my children and made the meal they wanted to eat. On my way back from work I bought some milk so that my darling could have some on his return from a trip to regain his strength. All of this to become in love with Christ. "We must obey God rather than men" Acts 5:29 United in prayer Michèle Youdom”

May 28, 2017

“Sunday 16 April 2017: Jn 20:1-9: EASTER: Be in great joy, sing a lot, wish a happy feast to many people at church, and make those around you and your family joyful. Read an excerpt from the Catechism of the Catholic Church No. 1443. To live the Word, I shared my joy with many people at church on the way in and on the way out of Mass. During Mass I made efforts to remain in joy, and I sang and danced a lot. At home, I provided the wine and the juice to enliven the celebration. The children were joyful, the family meal contributing to it. My daughter Karol was celebrating her postponed birthday and I gave her a gift, which boosted her joy. It was also with dances that we made the family prayer. But before that I evangelised my pagan neighbour by inviting him to Mass next Sunday. Finally, there was a computer task that my wife was expecting from me. I set about it for around 2 hours; I did the best I could so that she would be truly pleased. It was done. Glory to You, Lord. To please the risen Jesus. Lucas Kadji”

May 28, 2017

“Wednesday 19 April 2017: Lk 24:13-35: Be attentive to those you meet or who visit you, so as not to let slip an occasion to love Jesus, and pray that he may grant you to understand his Word better. Read an excerpt from the Catechism of the Catholic Church No. 1446. To live the Word, I have several times asked the Lord for the grace to know how to recognize his voice and his Presence in my life, and also the grace to understand His Word. As soon as my prayer ended, I decided to be more attentive to those I meet. So I began, on WhatsApp, to be attentive to all those who wrote to me and also with regard to the various shared reflections and meditations in the groups I am part of. I continued to be attentive at work and also on my way back from work. A neighbour wanted to annoy me, but remembering the Word, I told myself that I must not miss an occasion to love Jesus through her. So I showed kindness toward her. From this evening's Mass, I was struck when the priest recalled that all "religious practices" have no meaning as long as one does not truly have an intimacy with Christ in one's life. One must therefore go beyond and seek Him, for He is beside us calling to us or speaking to us, but sometimes we do not listen to Him. From the CCC I retain that the sacrament of penance is a second chance offered to recover the grace that was lost. To please Jesus. In union of prayer Arlette Jiokeng (Denmark)”

May 28, 2017

“Tuesday 07/03/2017: Mt 6:7-15. To live out unity and strengthen fraternal bonds, visit, write, call or contact someone living in another country, another city, another village, campus or neighborhood. Read an excerpt from the Catechism of the Catholic Church No. 1403 Glory to GOD who enabled me to prepare very early to live out this exercise. Thus I was able to recharge during the day and to live out this exercise: 0. I called my mother in the morning; we are all devastated by the death of my cousin and older brother whom the Lord called yesterday... (Rest in Peace, brother; I will miss your advice). 1. I called my godson; we talked for a long time. 2. I called my godfather; we also exchanged a lot and I apologized for having failed to keep in touch regularly; I was also able to talk with his Wife. 3. I called one of my aunts by marriage to check on her. 4. I called one of my former students to greet him. 5. I called 03 fellow members of the Word of God group. 6. I give glory to GOD for the people who called me and I pray the Lord to bless them and watch over them. As offerings for the day: 1. I honored a fraternal support commitment. 2. I supported 03 people as promised in my budget line; there remains GOD's portion set aside, which will be paid on Saturday. I validated my CEC. I did it to please JESUS. Thank you Steve Regis Fomete (France)”

May 28, 2017

“I have noticed one thing in my life, which is that my physical and practical life depends on my life of prayer. When I say physical life, I mean my relationships with others, my activities at home and at school depend on my life of prayer. When I am faithful to my daily prayer, when I enter deeply into what I say to Jesus, when I am open to Him, I work well in class, laziness at home comes to an end, and I manage to get along well with others. I can say that prayer has helped me to discover my identity as a child of God and the reason for my existence. When I live my life of prayer well, everything I do brings me joy; yet when I neglect my life of prayer, I am as if lost, nothing works anymore. And even when it does work, there is no deep joy and I feel empty.”

November 21, 2016

“My name is Sophie and I am 19 years old. It all began when I was in high school, in the 8th grade; as I was growing up, the boys started taking an interest in me. But that year, I did not give myself to them; on the contrary, I exploited them; I swindled their money and all the little things that young girls are crazy about. But as soon as a boy became too forward, I always managed to slip away, so as to somewhat follow my mother's advice, who said that this was reserved for grown-ups. To do all this I used lies; I had to lie about everything in order to convince people. I was an expert in false names; I had so many that I did not even recognize them all. All by myself I had a thousand and one addresses; I had discovered in myself the talents of an adventuress, because I got myself out of situations that were sometimes far-fetched, with a resourcefulness that, on reflection, baffled me. And the more the years passed, the more I hardened. At school, I gave my teachers a hard time. I skipped classes, or when I had no scheduled class I stayed in the classroom, but I spent my time causing disorder and disrupting the teacher. When I happened to be hungry or bored during a class, I would go find the supervisor and, between a few tears, I would successfully pretend to be sick or to have received bad news. My parents had no idea of my double life, since my hours of absence never showed up on the report card, and I made an effort to get good grades in class. My friends and I spent most of our time judging passers-by; we teased some by ridiculing their clothing, their gait. We did not hide the admiration that some provoked in us. Talking about people's names had already become part of my daily food ration. The following year, the elder brother of my friend came to shake me up when he was scandalized by the fact that I was still a virgin. He managed to make me feel ridiculous, and he also claimed that my friend and I were going to become sick if we kept stubbornly insisting on staying virgins. He did not manage to convince me completely. I kept resisting the temptation to follow the trend. Because all around me, my classmates, my friends, each one had a boyfriend. The breaks were punctuated with love stories. The atmosphere became such that it was with relief that I had my first lover. I gave myself to fornication; and for me it had become normal. During the vacation I nevertheless had to stop, because I no longer saw my boyfriend and I did not want any others. When school started again, I could no longer go to school for lack of financial means. This news outraged me; I was angry at the whole world; I even cursed God, and especially Him, it must be said. Every Sunday, while the others prayed, I brooded over my resentments against Him, and I said «I am at Mass and He dares to make me stay at home, and all that time I am going to lose, when I had already calculated my years of study and what I would become later.» If I kept going to Mass, it was because at home it was compulsory. One day, a sister invited me to a retreat day organized by the Word of God group. I was struck by the testimony of a girl who told how she had decided to stop fornication, and that for 3 years she had had the courage to be very frank with her boyfriend. It was that day that I learned that fornication was a sin before the Lord. I was so touched, overwhelmed, and full of shame that I wept for a long time during the sharing; I did not know what to say. From that day I made the resolution to follow the Lord and to stop fornication. But I could not keep my resolution for long, since a few months later I fell back into the trap of fornication with someone else who had demanded that we make love so that I would prove to him that I loved him and that I had no one but him. Having tried to convince him that fornication was not good and that it was a sin, he instead managed to shake me by saying that a normal person could not stay without sexual relations unless they belonged to a sect. And I, I continued to go to the meetings at the parish while committing fornication. Yet at every homily, every teaching, it was fornication that kept coming up. I had the impression that the priest or the person teaching knew what I was living. I had the idea of inviting him to the next retreat days, but he was quick to reject my invitation; he justified his attitude by saying that the people who go to church every day discourage him; he prefers to pray at home. So, after much reflection, I made the decision to begin to flee from him. During the retreat weekend where the theme was «I have chosen you, repair my Church», I had followed the story of a little girl who had chosen to die rather than accept fornication, so I made a very big decision: if it is I who am chosen to repair the Church of the Lord, then I must stop doing everything that does not please Him. That is how I spoke frankly with my boyfriend: «if you want to be my friend, either we stop fornicating or we make amends»; he thought I had another man, but I answered him that I had no one, but that I no longer wanted to offend my Jesus; so we separated, and I found peace. I do everything with the Lord, I try to practice His word. Everything that happens to me, I place it into His hands; everything wrong that I used to do before, I can no longer do, because there is in me the fear of God. Now I converse with the Lord as with a friend, and this helps me enormously to fight loneliness. I have noticed one thing in my life: it is that my physical and practical life depends on my prayer life. When I say physical life I mean my relationships with others; my activities at home and at school depend on my prayer life. When I am faithful to my daily prayer, when I enter deeply into what I say to Jesus, when I am open to Him, I work well in class, laziness at home comes to an end, and I manage to get along well with others. The concern to please Jesus gives meaning to my life, and I feel useful, and through His works in my everyday life I know that He is there beside me. I have learned to see everyone in the image of God and to no longer say just anything; I avoid hurting people, and I have much more respect for everyone. Of course I am still very far from being what Jesus truly wants of me; but every time I fall, I do not stay there. I get up, I cling to Him, and He never abandons me. I know one thing today: it is that my body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, so it must be respected.”

November 21, 2016

“I am a student at the faculty of medicine and biomedical sciences. I am 18 years old and the youngest in my family. Although initiated very early into the Christian life, my beginnings in faith were not impressive: I concretely made no effort to please Christ. Academically, I was doing well in the early years, mainly to please my parents and to receive the gifts they promised me. As I grew up, my center of interest shifted toward friends, games and especially television. This negatively influenced my year in the final year of primary school (CM2). I therefore sank into a deep laziness that grew worse in the 8th grade (4e). Because I had been separated from my friends and had made less good ones, because I had not personally chosen German as my second language, what little zeal I had left had faded away: I no longer worked, studies no longer interested me, and moreover, that year, in protest, the teachers had decided to “hand out” 20/20 grades to all the students. My schoolwork then became pitiful and my family was so disappointed by it. My older brothers addressed such sharp reproaches to me that I had to stop and reflect. It was not easy for me because I was almost a “slave to television.” It pushed me to be truly irresponsible at home, in my spiritual life and even in my schooling. As soon as a film began, I forgot myself. Mom could therefore no longer trust me. My studies took a big hit, precisely in 10th grade (2nde), where I had developed a not-very-clever study technique: I would take my notebook, fully determined to study, and I would sit down in front of the television! In the end, I watched more than I studied. Continuing on this course, the end of the year was catastrophic. After all these mistakes, I nevertheless ended up becoming aware of the importance I had to give to my studies. First because of my parents, who were a source of motivation for me, since it hurt me to disappoint them. I also benefited from the advice of my teachers and was strongly stimulated by understanding the interdependence between school life, spiritual life and family life. Thanks to the Word of God group, I understood that to please Jesus, I had to excel everywhere and thus be a model for my brothers and sisters, even through my schoolwork. I realized that by neglecting my studies, I was doing harm to Jesus and to myself. I also understood that, far from considering my studies a chore or a burden, I had to present them to God as an offering and seek holiness, even in this area of my life. I then began to cut off all my little idols: television, ill-timed distractions, laziness, sleep. I discipline my life so as to have a time for each thing, as Ecclesiastes tells us. I give priority to my study hours, I strive to review my lessons, to make note cards of them, to work with those who really want to work. It is true that sometimes the temptation is great and I really do not feel like cramming, but when I become aware of it, I pull myself together and pray to God to help me not give up. One truly loses nothing by taking one’s studies seriously; on the contrary, one has everything to gain from it. The Lord filled me with so many graces each time I truly gave myself, and did beyond my hopes. From the moment I became aware of it, I was first in my class until my final year (Terminale), I passed my Bepc, Probatoire and Bac C with good averages, and I received honor rolls and awards on several occasions at the school, and to crown it all, the Lord blessed me by giving me to succeed at the CUSS while being top of the entrance exam to the ENSP (Polytech, Editor’s note). I also became more responsible at home and my family is more and more proud of me. My commitment to the Group has intensified and intensifies from day to day, because I know that if we place our trust in the Lord and if we make a few sacrifices, the Lord will know how to multiply and make things bear fruit as he did with the 5 loaves and 2 fish of Lk 9:10-17.”

November 21, 2016

“I had always been a rebellious child. At home I was as stubborn as a mule. Until then, my spiritual life amounted to the baptism I had received as a baby, of which I had no memory whatsoever. My first communion at the age of seven had been an occasion to parade in front of my friends and to have a lovely celebration. All of that was far from the piety and maturity of a Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus on the day of her first communion. My prayer amounted to making the sign of the cross at bedtime; and as for Mass, I would not have missed it for anything in the world; it was the ideal rendezvous for meeting my friends or making new ones under the cover of the sign of peace we exchanged at church. My parents were in despair. I broke the household taboos by systematically refusing to help my mother in the kitchen. I would regularly lock myself in my room, devouring piles of Harlequin romances, detective novels and others even more daring, which presented life and the world to me as I would have wished them for myself. I did not hide my anger when anyone dared to send me on an errand; I insulted everyone shamelessly, and I did not hesitate to play Jean-Claude Van Damme by fighting vigorously with anyone who dared raise their voice at me. My big sister was my favourite victim, and my little brother lost a tooth to me. The hatred that everyone seemed to feel towards me surprised no one. I was the rebel and the loner. I had become bulimic, and from eating too much I had put on a lot of weight. "My enemies" did not spare me. At home they called me "the mass". And all the compliments I could receive were merely: "you are stupid", "you are so clumsy", etc. Outside, it was hardly any better. I had all sorts of complexes and I felt rejected by everyone. The light of my baptism seemed to have gone out, and I suffered from it without being able to realise where my affliction came from; I went from blunder to blunder. I received an invitation to a Word of God youth retreat; without really knowing why, I accepted to go. That day, I could not hold back my tears after the teachings. My gaze seemed to lose itself in that of Jesus, whom I was discovering through all these teachings. He knew me so well, and above all He did not judge me but welcomed me, He who had never abandoned me. My past no longer existed. I felt loved and ready to reconcile with everyone. I resolved to begin a new life, to live at last; I who until then had merely existed, for there is no life apart from the One who is Life. My efforts to please Jesus did not go unnoticed. I stopped reading all the material that unbalanced me psychologically by promoting sin in a subtle and discreet way. At school my academic work underwent a complete turnaround; from a somewhat lazy pupil, I became the best student in my class by working very hard. In this way I wanted to please Jesus by pleasing my parents; and then, I became ambitious, insofar as I want to have a good job later on and thus be able to help others who are less fortunate. At home, my parents have become my friends and my confidants. I do not hesitate to help my mother in the kitchen when I go on holiday. Obeying even when it costs me has become for me a way of pleasing Jesus, and the intercession of His mother has always been a remarkable support in my life. Today I strive to share with other young people the wonderful experience of a life with Christ, and I am proud of my parents.”

November 21, 2016