Testimony of faith. A pact with Mary

In 1978, the birth of our fourth child, a girl, after three boys and seven years of waiting, filled us with joy. However, for no apparent reason, Jo, my husband, sank into a deep depression. Despite the comfort of prayer from friendly communities and the Charismatic Renewal prayer group, the years passed without improvement in his condition. Family, religion, work…: he had no taste for anything. Faced with his numerous suicide attempts, the psychiatrist came to ask me to accustom the children to the possibility of a fatal outcome, because for him, recovery was unthinkable. I did not do it.

It was then that one day in March 1983, a friend invited me to participate in the polio pilgrimage in Lourdes, because there was a shortage of nurses. What should I do? Stay at home and watch over my husband and our children, or leave, feeling like I was abandoning my family? After praying, I proposed a pact to the Virgin Mary: “I need to take a breather, I will take care of your sick children, while you watch over Jo and our children.”

At the end of September, in Lourdes, everything was going well. I trusted Marie, but every evening, on the phone, I was treated to the “good morning sadness” from home! On Friday, however, Jo’s voice had changed. I thought: “He’s fed up with the children, he’s happy to see me back.” On Saturday morning, back home, I found a smiling husband! A first in five years. He told me: “On Friday afternoon, I felt like a veil was being torn in my head, a great light swept away the ideas of sadness and death and enveloped me in peace. I felt alive. I wanted to praise the Lord!” And what had I done that Friday afternoon? Overcoming my horror of cold water, I had gone to the swimming pools, taking Jo and the children there in my thoughts. The pact with Marie came back to me.

But would this improvement last? We remained discreet, while Jo returned to a living faith. A little later, Father Christian, a monk from Bellefontaine, confirmed our experience: “You benefit from a healing-conversion, it is to help others.” Subsequently, he sent us many people who were unhappy in their own skin. What did we have to offer them other than our listening?

Finally, on Ascension Day 2006, Jo was ordained a permanent deacon.