Today is the fortieth anniversary of one of the saddest events in my life so far. On June 10, 1974, our family was driving to the annual Catholic Charismatic Conference at the University of Notre Dame. We began our journey in Spokane, Washington, where we had spent a weekend on retreat. Just outside Missoula, Montana, the car rolled over three times, landing in the median of the freeway. I was in the back with the seat down and no seat belt. So were two of my siblings and two friends.
I ended up with stitches in my leg and a bump on my head. My sister Terri, who had been sitting next to me, was thrown from the car and died. She was ten years old.
Why did God let this happen? Didn’t He know where we had come from and where we were going? Hadn’t He heard Terri’s voice, when she had volunteered that morning to pray for a safe trip?
Trust in the midst of tragedy
How can we trust God when tragedy hits us? How can we live without fear of something like this happening again?
I have spent the past eighteen months delving into these and other questions. For years I had read that I needed to trust God in order to draw closer to Him, but nobody showed me how to go about it. I wanted to trust God. I wanted to live a life of joy and peace. Instead, I was angry, frustrated, fearful, and distraught. I was beginning to doubt God’s promises.
Then something I read about St. Therese woke me up. Instead of trying to live her high level of spirituality all at once, I began asking how she arrived there. How did she move from a sad little girl, devastated at losing her mother, to total confidence in God? As I dug deeper into her life and teaching, I reflected on specific actions I could take to follow her way of trust. Those reflections started as blog posts. They eventually became the basis of my book, Trusting God with St. Therese.
A free chapter, exclusively for subscribers
Trusting God with St. Therese tells the story of St. Therese’s life in dramatic form. At each stage of the story, I delve into the challenges to trust the saint faced. How did she overcome them? I place my story of struggling with trust alongside St. Therese’s, and show that it is possible for average, sinful people to follow St. Therese in trusting God completely.
Today, I am giving away chapter 3 to my current subscribers and anyone new who signs up to receive my posts by email. “Dealing with Childhood Tragedies” tells how St. Therese fared after her mother died. It also tells the story of our family’s car accident in detail.
Drawing on St. Paul, Victor Frankl, and my experience, I help you move beyond the question why? I give you practical suggestions to begin forming habits of trust.
You can move beyond your fears and frustrations through the grace of Christ. I am doing it. And I am not much different from you.
Subscribe today by clicking here and receive your free chapter at the end of the sign-up process.
If you are already signed up, you will receive a separate email with a link to download the chapter within a few minutes, if it hasn’t arrived already.
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Connie Rossini
