Not long after that I woke up with severe cramping. My husband had already left for work and I was completely alone. The cramping would come and go, and it would feel like the pain experienced during childbirth. There is nothing in the world that will ever compare to that physical torture, but the mental pain of knowing what was happening and the spiritual pain of feeling like God had abandoned me was crushing.

Were we giving our children a daily catechism lesson? Were we attending mass more than our Sunday obligation? Were we faithfully praying a daily rosary? The answer to all three of these questions was, “No”. But I also knew that just doing these things would not be enough