Do you pray? How is your relationship with God?
Yes, I pray. Prayer is very important. In contact with God, through prayer, I find counsel, understanding, direction, and sometimes scolding. My relationship with God? I think I am in love.

Have you experienced the mercy of God?
A lot and continually. Before, I was living very badly, and when I was baptized (I was 23 years old) the Lord forgave me for everything. For this reason, I know that when I fall, if I humbly and sincerely ask His forgiveness, He will forgive me like He did before. It is a great relief.

What is your prayer in the difficult moments?
I hold on to the Lord or Our Mother and I hide myself in their arms.

What has been the best thing in your life?
The best thing in my life is having met the Lord, knowing Him and remaining with Him forever.

What is your greatest joy?
Jesus Christ. With Him you can even cry, out of true joy.

What makes you suffer most?
When I lose focus, lose direction.

Is there a meaning to life?
Of course. Much more than we realize.

Because God loves us and prepares a personal plan for each of us and if you don’t respond to this plan He has prepared for you, who is going to do it? Each one of us has a plan prepared just for us out of love and responding to this plan we will find the complete meaning of our lives.

Are you afraid of death?
Sometimes. Sometimes a longing, because there we will see each other – He and I.

If you saw God face to face, what would you say to Him?
“ I love you.”

Do you have a relationship with the Blessed Virgin Mary? Who is she for you?
She is my Mother. She urges me on when I stop and she stops me when I hurry too much. In her I rest and my strength is renewed. She is the exemplary woman. She is the Woman and Mother; and, therefore, is a model for me.

What’s the worst that could happen to you?
To be living alone, without my God, abandoned in my misery.

Do you think that young people really know how to think? Do you make yourself think?
I think that they do. It’s just that they are taught not to think, not to love, nothing. But I have a lot of confidence in us, young people. We have within us great strength and much love. I have dared to think and because I have, I am where I am and I am very happy.

What would you ask from God for the young people?
No more than what He is already doing. That He might give them the light, strength, and love that they need.

How do you see the Church?
She gives me a lot of security and stability. And all the sacraments... She’s wonderful.

Is it that suffering teaches us how to love or that love teaches us how to suffer?
The two phrases are both valid. Suffering and love give meaning to each other.

What is your life’s ideal?
To live in total surrender. To live what the Lord asks of me, not frustrating myself and the plan of love that the Lord has prepared for me.

Do you ever feel like crying? Why?
Often. As for why...it depends. Maybe I am a cry-baby.

Do you think it is good to cry once in awhile?
I am sure of it. Tears are very good.

What is one of your favorite bible passages?
I like the passages where the Lord speaks to women -- for example, the Samaritan woman, the sinner, the resurrection of Lazarus, or the resurrection of the Lord when He speaks with Mary.

What is freedom for you?
To me, it means being able to “breathe” and where the “air is pure”.

Do you feel free?
Yes. Thanks be to God, I have returned to “breathing” after many years of suffocation.

How do you see your past?
As an experience quiet painful (I was living in atheism and as I already mentioned, very badly), but what helped me, in a certain way, to set off towards a new life.

And your present?
Very well. The truth is that I am very happy.

And your future?
It’s in God’s hands.

Who would you like to be like?
Like Our Mother, of course.

What living person do you most admire?
Living? Well, Living with a capital “L”- Pope John Paul II.

ANSWER BRIEFLY:

The biggest... the love of God.
If you were born again...has already happened to me.
I get depressed...when there’s nothing I can do.
I would fill my spiritual backpack...with the Blessed Virgin.
And at the end of the road...peace.
And I ask forgiveness every time...I fall.
I will seek without ceasing...until I encounter God.
I never thought...that what is happening in my life would happen to me.

ANSWER WITH ONE WORD:

Hell: pain
Jesus: love
Russia: missions
Zdenka: me
Friends: happiness
Computers:organization

© HM Magazine No.124 - May/June 2005

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