Reflecting on my own journey, I see how God has had a plan for my life, even when my family structure did not seem to align with a faith-filled path. Recently in prayer I was contemplating on the goodness of God that despite the absence of having a father in the faith, my three young daughters are growing strong roots in the Church than I ever had at their age. So much so that they are now telling me about saints and their stories that I partially or even never knew of. In that time of prayer, I felt consoled by the Lord and Him urging me on to be the good soil so that the roots of their spiritual life and their fruits may develop to their fullest.

My parents officially divorced when I was about 17 years old.  My father persistently campaigned for a divorce. He confessed that he had been in a relationship with another woman whom he had actually married while on his “vacations” in Egypt. Since I was the eldest of three, my mother would share her pain with me. To this day, being the main witness to her inconsolable weeping is one of the most painful experiences I have had as a 41-year-old man.