Journey Home - 2015-12-14 - Jessica Stuart

good evening and welcome to the journey home Marcus Grodi your host for this program EWTN gives me this wonderful opportunity to join you here the story of our guests different backgrounds seem to interest you the audience more than others and such as the case we often hear from you that you enjoy hearing those who've come from Judaism and such as the case tonight our guest is Jessica Stewart and she is a convert from Judaism Jessica welcome to the journey home thank you so much for having me it's good dude now we're gonna get into a little bit cuz Stewart doesn't exactly sound like a Jewish name but maybe you can explain it as we get along let me get out of the way and invite you to start us on the journey yes absolutely well I should point out that my father actually had our last name changed before I was born I believe my grandfather had some insecurities about our former last name which was file ish and coming from the world war ii era he was worried that it might have sounded too German so my father was watching this movie and on some credits he saw the last name of Stuart and he said mmm that sounds like a good name and so the last name was eventually changed and so here I am Jessica Stuart so well you know that that is true depending on different time periods of history and things that are happening in history names there are certain names you just don't hear anymore because of certain folk out there that have made a bad name for that particular family name or others or as you said this is going to raise is it going to allow your family to have a new start somewhere right right and so sometimes that's what you need to do we understand that yeah my name Grodi was made up a shortened french name when they came from Canada in the United States back in the 1800 so well good let's so how did Jewish girl let's start from the beginning all right well I think it's important to point out that my story is very much connected to my father's story before I was born he actually he was raised Jewish and so was my mother but my father ended up coming into the church before I was born and what ended up happening was somewhere along the line before he met my mother he decided to go back to his Jewish faith and raised us Jewish and she made that decision separate from meeting your mother Wow yes okay and so I was talked about not having a good experience with Christian no I think you know it's interesting to see how I think there was a little bit of a tug-of-war there a little bit of a battle you know I think I think for so many Jews we have such an attachment to our heritage and I think it can be very difficult for Jews even after they have come into the Catholic Church they feel such a connection to their heritage which is definitely understandable so but when I was young he started re-exploring his Catholic faith again and so growing up I would find Catholic objects around the home and I would find little crucifixes and statues of saints and I found a complete Bible with a New Testament and I always thought that was very interesting although I didn't seem to know any different because none of my friends had mentioned anything when they came over to the house and it just it seemed so normal to me that that Jesus would be kind of a part of our household although I never really asked any questions I've always had this desire to know God ever since I was very young I remember drawing pictures you know growing up and in the little corner you know I'd have maybe like myself and my mother and my father and my brother and then I would put God in the corner and of course he always looked like a rabbi and all throughout my life I just I knew that God was with me I didn't have a real prayer life I did most of my prayers in Hebrew whenever I went to Hebrew school I went to a Hebrew day school so it was a daily you know a daily thing we would go to school in the morning and we would say the Pledge of Allegiance and then we think sing the Israeli national anthem and raised in the Jewish faith and we attended synagogue and we were conservative in the home different branches right right so there's the reformed and the conservative which is kind of more middle of the road and Orthodox and ultra-orthodox and we we maintained a more conservative household although we did attend a command Orthodox synagogue so and I believe that was maybe one of the I know that my father had a real connection to the Habad that was there locally and I still remember sitting on you know the women's side and you know my my father sat on the you know the men's side and my father is a Levite so he was able to go up and read from the Torah so that was always a real honor and we would celebrate the holidays and you know it's funny I I was in Hebrew school until fourth grade in fifth grade I moved to a more Christian area and ended up going to public school and I noticed that it was usually on Saturdays that my friends had parties instead of Sundays you know Saturday so he always kept totally so there was that kind of a switch there but growing up you know seeing my dad becoming more interested in his Catholic faith is you know more secretly I would often notice that sometimes there would be these programs on TV I would walk in on him watching Jesus of Nazareth and I remember him watching the movie about st. Bernadette and Our Lady of Lourdes and so I always in my mind knew that this Jesus of Nazareth was important although I never really asked those questions you know I always just thought that he was you know just not necessarily part of the faith but he was this important man I was wondering is being brought up in the conservative Jewish community were they was Jesus never the issue of Jesus never discussed or did they or did they kind of give you apologetics against those Christians that were gonna try and get you to come to their Messiah was ever that a part of your upbringing I don't remember I don't remember him ever being discussed really although there was a point when I was younger that I went to school and I asked one of my teachers why don't we ever learn about Jesus and the teacher became so red in the face and she I could tell that she was having you know this this objection to what I was asking and she said well Jessica and you know my my Hebrew name was Jehovah and they call us by our Hebrew names in her school and she said I once watched a movie about a man who performed miracles but it was only a movie and so that was the response that I got and I left Hebrew school in fourth grade so my my education in the Jewish faith ended at that time right but your dad is exploring on the background your mother did part of that okay not quite you know my mom she's more culturally Jewish and I think you know she wanted my she kind of let my father do what he wanted to do so we had grew up in a Jewish household you know it's funny throughout the years as I was growing up I started to have more of this curiosity about who this Jesus was especially as I went to public school because I had many Christians around me who were celebrating Christmas and I just had this curiosity about what was about what was behind all of this I remember auditioning for the Christmas play when I was in fifth grade and I wanted to sing a solo so bad and the song was Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer and I didn't know the words I was so upset reindeer I didn't know any Christmas songs but being exposed to these Christians in public school was kind of a new awakening to me and I would have all these friends who would just be going to church on Sundays and I was curious about what they were doing at church and so eventually as I got older I think I was around 13 or 14 at this time and I asked my dad do you think we could ever go to church at some point and my dad you know I was very open at that point said yes we can we can go and so I had my choice there were so many different churches around there and we attended a Baptist Church for a little while and I you know enjoyed going there I think we attended for a couple of months and this was more out of curiosity and there wasn't really any you isn't really any movement to develop a relationship with Jesus but it was just more out of curiosity at this point we attended a few different churches and eventually he ended up taking me to a Catholic Church and something I had noticed at this point in the Catholic Church was that there was this presence that I couldn't quite put my finger on there was something more that was there that I was just being drawn to at one point you know I asked to keep going my father took me one more time little did I know behind-the-scenes that my father was actually getting back into this faith he reminded me just a reminder you know don't go up and receive the Eucharist because you know we're not supposed to were not Catholic I said that's fine I didn't not knowing what that was and when it came time for communion he ended up going up and receiving and that you know surprised me to say the least and I was a little taken aback well it turns out my father had been waiting all this time to tell me about his about how he came into the Catholic faith and at this point he had he had come back and he had joined the secular franciscan group at the parish and so I took this with me and I thought it was you know very interesting and but there still wasn't any real movement to the probably no catechesis right right your dad kept it pretty much to himself he did he really did and it's interesting because I remember shortly after that I told my father I'm going to become a Christian one day I know I am I know Jesus is the Messiah and I'm going to do it when I'm eight because then I can do it by myself you know because I had a feeling that you know my my parents wouldn't probably wouldn't allow me and I still wasn't sure of where my father stood and didn't really say anything and you know I was very blessed throughout my childhood years I had many good influences and friends and I had one particular friend who was a non-denominational Christian and I would go with her to church sometimes and I remember we would get into these kind of like scriptural battles and we would look at Genesis and we would look at the first account in particular and the word for day is Yom and so I knew that the word Yom doesn't necessarily stand for a 24-hour day and we would kind of just debate that and and so growing up I knew that there were some differences and how people saw written read scripture and interpreted it so I knew that I think even at that point that there was a truth that I needed to seek out and if I were to become a Christian one day I would need to seek out that truth and not just try and choose what was best for me so you're gonna that poor guess is Jessica Stewart in other words not just because your dad did or he was leaning or because it was appealing but because it's true absolutely absolutely so growing up that was very much of a part of those seeds that were planted within me this desire for truth and seeing how you know our world is today where people think that they can create their own truths I believe that was definitely a grace that was given to me that I would seek out the truth and not be trying to create my own so this kind of carried me through high school when had you had any negative experiences from your Jewishness in a public school with other Christians or non-christian yeah was that a part of your journey at all well you know it's interesting as I came more across the the Protestants I would often hear well you're not saved you're not going to heaven and so that kind of that kind of put me off a little bit and so yeah that was definitely you know a negative experience but it didn't it didn't really didn't affect me too much honestly I was focused on you know finding the truth and that was my goal maybe they plan a deceit maybe they did so but I was always I always had this desire to know God growing up and I remember even in my 10th grade year we were given a research given a research paper to write and the teacher said you can choose any topic you would like and so I chose I chose to to show that there was no there wasn't an argument between faith and science that was really important to me at the time because it seemed like I was hearing many different arguments from different friends and so that's what I decided to do my paper on so it's clear to see that the Lord was leading me in a way to continually continuously seek Him above all things you know even though I didn't quite I didn't have the fullness of the of the faith yet I always knew that seeking the Lord was important even though I didn't have that relationship with him yet but that's a that's a voice also from your Judaism seek the Lord I mean that's always been the call producer Christenson Corso its God beckoning you towards him are you responding yes yes and high school was kind of a difficult time in my life I was in public school for two years and eventually moved to a more private independent school where there were I believe 13 students in my class and I was the new girl it was very difficult to fit in but I had a teacher a literature teacher who was a devout Catholic and she was not afraid to show her views in the classroom and she would be reading these works of literature and be able to point out well this is this is a sign of baptism here you know this is this is a christ-like figure here and I was always so attracted to her joy and so I eventually began to speak with her more often and the school had a great emphasis on the study of philosophy and so I remember just going into her classroom and asking her questions and eventually she started to take me to Mass with her and I loved attending massacre I never knew I never knew what I was doing but I loved being able to ask her questions about God at one point I was really struggling just with friends and I was I was trying to find happiness in places that would not provide me with that with that happiness and joy and I I feel like that lack of guidance throughout my life led me to seek you know seek these things that I thought would make me happy and temporal things material things friends boyfriends and I wasn't finding that happiness and joy that I so longed and at one point she came over to me my teacher and she said have you ever thought about praying to Mary and at first I was like Mary the mother of Jesus I don't have a relationship with Jesus I mean I know about him and but I don't have a relationship with him why would I have a relationship with his mother so but I always carried that with me and I took it along with me and at one point in my life I know that following summer I was interning in Washington DC and I was really struggling knowing what I was supposed to be doing with my life and I remember just one night getting on my knees and I said Mary you're the mother of Jesus I don't know your son but I hope that you will help me and from that point on I just always kind of knew that our mother was in my life and had a special kind of way of just listening to me and I wonder if that's because you know she was also a young Jewish girl and I was able to relate to our Blessed Mother on that level so I had your teacher helped you and no any of her biography or any of the history of Mary and Heather so really no it was just a little suggestion okay one day I didn't I didn't ask her about it I didn't question her about it really I never followed up with it but I just knew at that point when I was in Washington DC and struggling and I knew that I could speak with our Blessed Mother interrupts again because that's also there's a puzzling thing there to be given and it's given your conservative judaism and your whatever education you had in that kind of cases what was your thinking about people after death were you envisioning Mary is alive somewhere would that sit with your background at all that's a great question throughout my life I knew that we had a special connection with the dead I know that we I remember my grandfather had passed away before I was born and we would we would light a candle for him you know on certain days and I always I always had something within me that knew that I could always you know pretty like speak with those who have passed on not necessarily hear them but you know try an odyssey that's right but that there was this this mystical communication in which they could you could ask for their intercession and so that changed everything that absolutely changed everything and at that point in my life I remember I was accepted to Mount Saint Mary's University in Emmitsburg Maryland not really choosing it because it's a Catholic school but looking more at the political science program that I wanted to enter into and visiting the grotto I don't know if anyone said to me you know Mount Saint Mary's University but they had this beautiful grotto of Lourdes and I remember walking into the grotto and remembering the story of Saint Bernadette and Our Lady of Lourdes and just feeling so at peace there and so at home and I had my boyfriend with me at the time was a Mormon and he didn't like it at all and I remember becoming kind of frustrated with him and I said well Catholics were first Catholics were before Mormons so so I don't think he liked that either and that was the end of that relationship but I just remember feeling such a peace about being wherever our Blessed Mother was so I went off to college and I ended up joining I had some roommates who were a part of the militia Immaculata which is the group formed by formed by st. Maximilian Kolbe a Marian devotion group and I ended up going with my friends because they were going and they would pray the rosary and they would have discussions and shortly after that I became very sick and this was in my first month of college and I had Lyme disease and mono and I was just I was sick I was very sick I ended up being so sick that I had to take a month off from school and go back home when I went back home being so ill as I was I started to really focus on prayer I had a lot of time by myself so I started to really honestly get to know God the Father because I hadn't really had a prayer life up until that point being sick and just bedridden I really began to ask the Lord you know questions and get to know him better I was praying to Mary more because Mary was Mary was just really easy for me to pray to like I said Mary was a young Jewish girl and I was a young Jewish girl and I felt that she would be able to understand you know and I had a rosary that I had gotten from the militia Immaculata and I would just kind of hold on to it whenever I was in pain and I remember when I started to feel better asking my father if I could you know visit a church that was right down the road I was curious it was a Lutheran Church and I walked in there and the first thing I noticed was that the Blessed Mother wasn't there I thought that was really interesting and you know obviously now I can look back at that and say you know well Luther I mean had you know had a devotion to our Blessed Mother but at that point I noticed wow you know she's not here I noticed that communion was a little different you know there wasn't the the reverence right it didn't seem to be the same you know and I would begin to learn more later and I thought that was so interesting so I ended up going back to school after a month we joined the militia maculata I had your dad confirm some of your Catholic leanings while you're home during that the time of recuperation and that is a good question he he watched it very interest you know with great interest he did end up giving me another rosary that we had in the house little hidden little - yes and he was just you know he was he was supportive in my curiosity so when I went back to school you know I I knew that something was happening within me I began to go to the chapel more thing we had this beautiful chapel on campus Immaculate Conception and I would just walk in there and I would see the red flame and I would know that God was with me and I would sit there you know for you know between classes and after school and and I would you know either speak with God the Father or a blessed mother and I would you know hold onto my rosary and you know I was beginning to learn it at that point so your experience in relationship though you don't really haven't had in very much catechesis yes I understand what's going on let me pause there jessica is that time for a break I'm gonna do that then we'll come back and maybe talk about what you're discovering in those moments in the chapel all right for that kiss a second welcome back to the journey home I'm Marcus Grodi your host and our guest is Jessica Stewart convert from Judaism and I interrupted you you're a young Jewish girl carrying a rosary into a chapel but feeling peace in the chapel when you're talking to our Father as well as talking to our lady yeah absolutely and it was this peace that led me to realize that there was some sort of truth in this Catholic Church and I needed to embrace it I remember kind of struggling like I said Jews feel such a great connection to their heritage and I eventually started looking up some Messianic Jewish churches and I quickly realized that it seemed like there were many Christians in these churches that just wanted to learn more about their Jewish roots and it didn't seem very organized and so that was my way of kind of trying to make this work you know because I was becoming a little nervous at this point so I remember visiting a synagogue one last time when I went back to school and I realized when I was there I loved my faith I loved my Jewish heritage but Christ is here Christ is in the Catholic Church and I need to do something about it and Mary is here too and so I remember calling my parents and letting them know that I wanted to become Catholic and that it would be a continuation of my Jewish faith and not not an ending and I don't think my parents quite and you know what to make of it my mother you know seem to be quite beside herself and my father just did not know what was happening I was surprised because I thought he would be more supportive because he had been actually helping me you know throughout my life to discover this truth but in the end you know I think he he seemed to say that he was just he just didn't want me to make the decision I think too quickly so moving on I did actually discover the total consecration to Jesus through Mary and thinking that this would help me because at this point I knew intellectually that Jesus was the Messiah I could see the signs the fulfillment of the prophecies but having a relationship with him was for some reason very difficult before me and so I thought that this consecration would be a great help and what better way to come to our Lord then through his mother as I was seeing through the rosary seeing the mysteries of his life through her eyes and I remember asking to receive this consecration and I was told well you have to ask permission from the priest at the seminary if there's a mount st. Mary's University Mount st. Mary's seminary and I went up to the priest and I said I would like to be consecrated to Jesus to Mary oh by the way I'm Jewish and and I think he was a little surprised but doesn't happen that way okay but he let me by the grace of God I was so blessed I was relieved you know cuz I knew that this would be a great way to become closer to our Lord and so I went through with the consecration and that was actually the first night that I was able to pray a rosary the full the whole way through because I was having some you know you know trying to learn it was a little difficult for me and that was December 8th 2010 on the solemnity of the Immaculate Conception so I had entered RCIA by this point my friend had invited me and so I went and I went a little late you know being that I was sick for a little while and I remember the first meeting I walked in on was about our Blessed Mother and they were talking about how she intercedes for for those who ask her for her intercession and I was so surprised that's like well she does this for everyone you know it was it was quite a revelation to me and so I went through with the RSA process and as I was going through it realized the beautiful truths of the faith apostolic succession how the faith was handed down from you know from Jesus to Peter to to Francis of today and Eucharist oh my goodness that was so beautiful to me to be able to receive our Lord's true body and blood and being able to see the truths of the Catholic faith and just growing in that but also getting to know our Lord personally as well throughout this time it was only when and I remember I was praying the rosary and at some point believe it was the sorrowful mysteries I was able to give all the sins that I have committed in the past all those trying times in my high school years where I was just trying to find love and trying to find happiness and searching in all the wrong places and I was able to give them all to him and my heart just you know burst and I just felt like I was able to finally be able to connect with him in a more personal way it was just such a wonderful thing now I ended up being baptized on Divine Mercy Sunday of 2010 2010 April 11 and it was the most powerful day of my life I still remember the baptismal promises and just you know tears are coming from my eyes as I was as I was saying I do and you know there was a level of sadness there of course because my parents were not there I didn't have the families the you know the family support that some of the other candidates did but throughout the experience of my coming into the church being able to unify myself with the Lord on the cross being able to see our Lord through the eyes of our Blessed Mother in the sorrowful mysteries really gave me so much consolation I remember my first Christmas I wasn't Catholic yet but I longed to celebrate Christmas and I felt so lonely there was a lot of loneliness within my conversion because I so badly wanted the support of you know my family and they just didn't know how to show it at the time and I remember going to adoration on Christmas Day and being in there and there was a deacon in there too and he had just happened to notice that I was in there and he came to me afterwards and he said I think I think you would like this and he gave me this little novena book to Our Lady Queen of martyrs I was like well that's joyful you know but I was I was able to get the message you know that we and I was being called to be you know a martyr and spirit and I could still be joyful in this time of my suffering but I was also able to see you know you know how Our Lady you know watched our Lord you know being mocked and died on the cross and and that was another thing that he gave me too he gave me this beautiful crucifix and I was like Lord what are you trying to tell me here but our Lord definitely made it clear to me throughout that time of suffering and loneliness that he was with me and that I was being led to the truth and the fullness the faith and I was able to unite my sufferings with him which was such a gift it was such a gift in that time so yeah you know I think one of the aspects of Mary for myself in coming into the church that was such an awakening was when I was a Protestant I didn't have a lot of theology of Mary or to understand how much she knew about her son yeah but as a Catholic I think the puzzling thing is as you were just talking about the martyrdom of Mary is she knows who her son is and what he can do and yet watched him willingly accept yes all the suffering the ridicule the the the the unjust treatment that he received but she knew he could have right except at all but he some think he accepted at all I heard it watch that and to experience that yes absolutely absolutely and it was it was fairly rough for a couple of years after my conversion was very rough but you know it's interesting to see how our Lord moves because about a year afterwards my father was diagnosed with prostate cancer and he became very depressed and saddened and at that point I decided to transfer home I went to Ave Maria University for a semester and was with him and it was a very difficult time and I remember he had a surgery on the the Feast of the conversion of Saint Paul and and I remember telling him that and recommended a book to him come be my light by Mother Teresa and he was able to at that point in his suffering come back to the faith so sometimes my father and I will joke around that light you know I needed him but like he needed me at that time and so we were helping each other to to to come to the faith and I remember you know I was because you know I was still really hurt you know from the hurt that I was feeling at that time but being able to see how my father was having this piece now it was just so incredible to see you know in the midst of his suffering so it's interesting to see how the Lord used us for one another each other his confirmation to your own to your own journey did did your journey into the faith affect your vocation your call that is interesting i I shortly after I came into the faith I was helping out with our CI a and I love to talk about the faith and teach others about the faith and share it with others I started studying theology at Mount Saint Mary's and ended up getting my degree in in theology and we're very blessed at Mount Saint Mary's to just have a great department and also to have the seminary right there so I always had a priest ask questions if I ever had any I had many questions and so so I decided that I wanted to go into teaching and so for a couple of years I taught theology in Maryland and taught Medicaid through eight taught eighth graders and then was a Slater to teach the second and third grade you know religion classes and that was a blessing in so many ways and now I'm currently teaching at a high school and a Catholic High School in Charlotte North Carolina I teach theology there and it is just it is such a blessing to be able to share the faith with those who at a time in their lives are craving truth and they ask so many questions and that's one thing I feel like our Lord wants me to get them to ask questions because that's how they're going to learn and so I love being able to to help them learn and to learn from them as well because their lives just speak to me so greatly and it's at that time that they're looking for love and it's often wrong places the actions of community and meaning and all those things that's yes absolutely and what the world tells these young people so often is that there is no meaning right you can create your own and that's so very dangerous and that's what I experienced you know growing up you know but so in a way you know taking theology these days it's countercultural and so I'm able to relate to them in that way what about your Judaism now because you talked earlier about it's a it's a tradition that's it's hard to let go off where's your Judaism really yes well you know it's interesting that you asked that because whenever I go to Mass I mean the prayers all sound like no you know I go I go to Mass and you know the prayer sounds so similar to the prayers that I used to pray as a young child the pressing of the blessing of the bread and the wine and it all you know I see my Jewish faith more clearly than ever in the Catholic Church in the mass I don't feel like I have lost anything I feel like I've gained it back a hundredfold now I do miss Jewish cooking of course you know oh yes yes sometimes all I make matzo ball soup for myself but you can't just have a pot of matzo ball soup for one person so but yes I don't feel like I've lost it at all although I know that that struggle is there sometimes with people who have come into the Catholic Church well too many Christians and maybe mostly non Catholic Christians but I think Catholic Christians are guilty of it too is that we too often see the New Testament as a break from the old Jesus and the new church as a break from the old but really it's a fulfillment of continuity and I think in and folk like yourself that have had the full journey you may be more experienced the the continuity the connection of all men with all the sacraments even the Eucharist being the continuity of the Passover yes absolutely absolutely I know it's interesting that you bring that up because you know I'm teaching Scripture right now and it's so beautiful just to see the prophecies you know being being fulfilled in Christ seeing all those little connections that are being made it's pretty amazing it's pretty amazing to see kondou yeah that's wonderful we'd appreciate it more I think the beauty of the Catechism really emphasizes that so much which is is is really good for everyone to be reading the Catechism out there even a page a day for the rest of your life along with the scriptures we have an email will from Connecticut writes when Jessica was drawn towards Christianity what in particular wasn't that major want to be Catholic and not for instance be Methodists okay that is an excellent question my desire for truth was so present throughout my life and I knew that there were Christians that believed different things and I thought to myself well they think these beliefs can't all be true there's one truth right I could see the truth in Catholicism in within christchurch through sacred tradition that a positive faith sacred tradition and sacred scripture the Eucharist the Eucharist that we have apostolic succession the passing on of the faith the unbroken line of Pope's coming to the Catholic Church coming home to the Catholic Church is coming to the church that Christ established and that's the difference the church had began with Peter and has continued on to this day and there has been no break and I think that was so appealing to me as well because like I said when I came into the church I wanted to come into the real church I didn't want to choose a church based on someone's someone's a human person's beliefs but rather the church that Christ established himself in our Lord prayed for the unity that it would stay and our sinfulness as the unity still exists but but an are in our sinfulness we've broken up into groups and all of the last Pope's have been calling in different ways for us to work together and try and talk and understand one others so we can move towards re-establishing that unity with her are separated Christian brothers and sisters we have another email Luke from Tallahassee writes when Jessica was considering becoming Christian was it difficult to transition from an intellectual acceptance of theological truths to a personal conversion and experiencing devotion to Jesus oh yes absolutely I was like I said I was able to to see the connection to see that Jesus was the Messiah that we have wanted intellectually you know throughout my life but it was only when I went to college and I was able to through the intercession of our Blessed Mother I'm sure and the recognizing of the sinfulness that was within me I was able to give it to him and only at that point when I let go of my pride was I able to establish this personal relationship with Christ and that has taken time to develop you know even throughout the years you know it takes time to develop but yes there was an I mean it didn't all come at once and it was definitely I mean I remember at the time where I was in the chapel and I just came to this realization of how much I needed Jesus not only as this as this you know this faraway Messiah who I kind of saw him was but as my personal Savior and bringing that together was what truly led me to a full like more full and complete relationship with him all right email from Taylor from Virginia as a convert I always loved learning more about the Eucharist I know there are a number of passages in New Testament that teach about the Eucharist but I'm wondering if you know of any Old Testament references that might be a foreshadowing of this sacrament mm-hmm yes well definitely the manna from heaven right absolutely I mean you think about the importance of you know life-giving bread in the Old Testament and how it relates to the Eucharist that we have today yeah there's also the fact that at the Passover they had to eat the world yes yes the lamb and the blood that needed to go over the doors the saving blood that would save you know the Jewish people absolutely and how need to eat of the lamb yeah you know in it when really there's an aspect of faith and trusting not denying our senses but recognizing that our Lord is a whole lot bigger and mysterious than we are and it calls us to to humbly recognize I just don't understand everything and you know we're on a journey of of understanding the the the wideness the depth and eyes of our Lord as Paul talks about in Scripture I don't know if any of your students that you have in your classes are not Catholics but how do you tell how do you explain to someone who loves Jesus but doesn't understand Mary how do you talk to them about understanding the relationship that we are to have with his mother absolutely well first of all I think it's important to point out that Mary never focuses on herself she never points to herself even in all the apparitions that we've had of her she always points directly to her son and we respect Mary and that she leads us to her son that's what she does for us and you know who loves the Blessed the Blessed Mother more than her son right Christ being Jesus being a Jewish you know man of course had a great love for his mother and Mary being so humble right giving her life for Christ shows us how to give our own lives give our own yeses to to Jesus all right Oh bebe got time for maybe one more email Danny from Maine writes what are some of the reasons Jessica became convinced that Jesus is the fulfillment of the Jewish faith and is the true Messiah that is a great question so obviously you know that there a lot of you know Jews do not see and she this as being the fulfillment but I think it's very clear I think it's very clear in in the prophecies how they're being fulfilled out fulfilled in Isaiah you know it just seems so clear that this is the one who we've been waiting for he's the one who fulfills all of the prophecies that we've read the one that we have the one that we have hoped for he's the one who has given us forgiveness of our sins he's the one we have been waiting for yeah I mean that the basic Christian apologetics about the Virgin who will give birth you know there-there's worded some Old Testament Jew come up with this idea so here you have this prophecy the old you have the prophecies that lead to the baptism it promises a indwelling of the Spirit and the changing of the heart all these things get fulfilled but to me the biggest mystery was the suffering servant prophecies yes how did that fit in the Jew is looking forward to them aside solutely and that's what I say you know if anyone wants to see how Jesus is the fulfillment right how he's the Messiah all you have to do is look at the Old Testament Scriptures because it's right there it was right there yeah and and that is a really good point also to remind so many Christians is that so often we focus on the New Testament or sometimes not sure but to do with the old but the earliest Christians all they focused on was what we call the Old Testament all the early church writers there for their reflections on the faith we're all based on the Old Testament Scriptures and the fulfillment of that justice you've experienced in your own Jessica thank you thank you so much for you for joining us on the journey home and sharing your journey and also continue to be available to the Lord to pass on that what you've discovered in your own journey of a of a of a Jewish girl into the and of the church you are it is so merciful all right well thank you for joining us and thank you for joining us on this episode of the journey home you know converts from Judaism remind us of the the depth of our faith and the continuity of the Lord's constant love for his people and that calls us to respond to Grace and to be open to how Christ loves us and brings us home and how his mother our mother intercedes for us to open our eyes and hearts to the fullness of the faith I do pray that this program has been an encouragement to you god bless you see you next week you

Channel: EWTN

Views: 11,406

Rating: 4.7793102 out of 5

Keywords: JHT, JHT01506

Id: Pl_bzPyxntQ

Length: 56min 10sec (3370 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 25 2016