God gave me three chances - New Evangelizers

In Eve’s Apple, Marie Therese Kceif talks about her life as three chances, three careers, three marriages and three apples.

“Many times in my life God has had to give me three or more chances in different ways and through different people to hear his guidance in a matter before I actually listened. If I had listened, I would have found safety, refuge from the storm brewing up.”

She went from the Wisconsin farmhouse of her childhood into stellar careers in aviation, the U.S. Army and the automotive industry. This brilliant and strong-willed achiever went from marriage to a docile man with little affection to an affectionate but dominating tyrant, to a loving man who is learning about the Catholic faith.

Three apples

Marie went after the apple of success beginning with the military. She writes, “I allowed my marriage to fall apart and my faith to be waylaid like some ambushed convoy.”

Now God shows her daily where vices weigh her down and where the tempting apple of wanting her own authority and way keeps her from “a fullness of joy.”

But when she thought God was punishing her for her affair and divorce she experienced the apple of living in the consequences of sin. She had to deal with the stepchildren from a marriage she had helped break up. And with her husband’s abuse. “He dragged me up the stairs once by my hair and played Russian roulette with a bullet in the pistol. . . .He closed all the blinds and pulled the phones out of the wall so that I could not call for help. . . .He was driving really fast on the ramp to the highway, swerving so that the car started to tip, saying he was going to kill us both.”

She escaped to a safe house with her baby but without her wallet, credit cards or any identity. Soon she moved back to her repentant husband and the abuse stopped but only for a short time.

Sanctuary

She found sanctuary in a Catholic church nearby and talked to a janitor who counseled her not to go back. But she did, trying to fix the situation.

When her husband hit her and threatened to kill the baby with a hammer, she escaped. This time, she called the police. Her husband was arrested and spent time in jail.
When the couple reunited again the abuse continued, their second son was born and she had a tubal ligation. The saga continues with her husband’s unfaithfulness and a second divorce, which leaves her with his children and theirs, and bankruptcy.

Joy in the Journey

Exhausted and broken-hearted, she calls out to Jesus as she hugs the family’s big white Catholic Bible, “Please show me where there is joy in my journey.” How does he answer? At the grocery store she finds a pamphlet for a retreat, “Joy in the Journey… Maranatha!” and gets the last spot open.

The retreat begins her surrender to God. “I could scarcely believe that he still loved me, forgave me and was even pursuing me with real love even though I had behaved like the woman at the well.”

She received the grace to forgive her husband. As God’s blessings continued, she found a home, a good-paying job and a man who knew how to love her. After dating for 4 ½ years, they were married in a fairy tale wedding in a little village church. She went through the yearlong process of annulment from her first husband and had her tubal ligation reversed.

In Eve’s Apple she looks back on her life through the lens of her vibrant Catholic faith, shares lessons God is teaching her and backs them up with scripture. “In all of these revelations shown to me through marriage, children, Mary, dreams, scriptures, and the pillars of the Church, God has been preparing me for the plans he has for me. He has set my feet upon sharing my story. . . . My mission here is not finished. I know I have much to battle, much to witness to for him, and it will not always be easy, but with God’s ways and guidance, I will run the race well.”

Copyright 2015, Nancy Ward

Nancy Ward

Nancy HC Ward, author of Sharing Your Catholic Faith Story, was once a shy convert. She has spent decades writing about conversion, Christian community, and the Catholic faith. After earning a journalism degree, she worked for many years for the Texas Catholic (newspaper of the Diocese of Dallas) and the Archbishop Sheen Center for Evangelization, and later began her own editing service. An active member of the Catholic Writers Guild and a regular contributor to a number of high-profile Catholic publications online, she also has a busy blog on spirituality called Joy Alive.net. She’s a contributing author to The Catholic Mom’s Prayer Companion. Now, through her Sharing Your Catholic Faith Story workshops, retreats, book, and DVD, she shares her conversion story at Catholic parishes and conferences, equipping others to share their own stories.