Hi Christopher,

Hope this finds you all doing well. I wanted to share some praise from this past weekend in Milwaukee.

We have been trying to share TOB with my sister-in-law (29) and her now-husband (protestant, not friendly towards Church) for quite some time. C—is very influenced by cultural feminism and career-driven mentality, and has lots of issues with the Church – to name a few: contraception, gender issues, celibacy, male priesthood, Church’s ‘treatment’ of women, etc. Years we’ve been sharing our experience, CD’s, books, everything – none of which they ever received. Well, she called us out of the blue a few weeks ago and said they had signed up for the Saturday event at the library, so we began praying.

She texted us at lunchtime and said “This stuff is amazing – I LOVE it.” She called us immediately after the conference is over (it takes a lot for her to get on the phone to us) and started raving to me about how this changes everything. She said it was not at all what they had expected (way to not bore her like she thought you would!). The first thing out of her mouth was about having all the consecrated people up on stage – she said she has a whole new view of why the Church regards celibacy as anything special, where in the past she just thought it was mean. She kept saying, “I always thought the Church was so oppressive towards women, but today for the first time I see it is just the opposite – the one place I thought was the meanest towards women is in fact the only church on earth that promotes women the way they should be promoted.” She said she is going to have to grapple with it, but she began to understand why women can’t be priests, and she was ok with it (she was NOT ok with it before). She was amazed at the nuptial union of the cross, couldn’t believe how talk about Mary’s milk made her feel, and was all around astonished. I could hear in her voice that this reached her heart. She said, “I’m going to have to rethink a lot of things I argued with Andrew about all this time” and also “Thank you guys for continuing to stay on us all this time about this stuff – it is going to change my life. This changes everything.” She also said she can’t wait to share this with her 2 women-friends (pro-abortion, grew up catholic, ‘women’s rights’ lawyer & dentist), who she understands this could change their lives and whole understanding also. In that day, she had intellectually processed it, it was moving in her heart, and she had processed it to the point of knowing how it changed her view and thus would her friends. You did some good explaining!

I knew this was a different approach – to a bit more secular crowd – which was perfect for them to be at. We prayed and prayed for them and you, and it sounds like He moved through you incredibly. Her husband, Brian, was hesitant to be there at all, and was not excited about sitting there for 8 hours. She said he came away from it excited, more open to talking about things and saying maybe he misunderstood the Church and a lot of what he thought about it! He also said your talking about the Blessed Mother was something that touched him deeply.

I wanted to send you this as an encouragement of at least 2 hardened hearts softening, and as a personal thank you for reaching out to members of my family that I love so dearly. Bless your efforts.