On the day his wife left him, he received a rosary

Rafael Garcìa Flores, 48, now lives in Detroit, USA, with his two young children. A few years ago, his wife filed for divorce and then married another man. This was a  painful event for Rafael, who found refuge and support with the Virgin Mary and the Lord. 

Before, Rafael was a "cafeteria Catholic", but his divorce marked a turning point in his faith life and led him to a radical change. "It was very painful, but since then a door has been opened: I stopped living my faith only on Sundays, just out of habit. After the pain of the divorce, my faith became a very strong conviction."

On the day his wife left him - a totally unexpected event for him and his children, then aged 4 and 2 - Rafael called his wedding witnesses. "The same day, they offered to host me at their home and the next day we went to Mass together." Rafael remembers that on that day, as he was leaving the church, someone came up to him and said, "Here, take this."

It was a rosary. Rafael never knew who that person was and never saw him again, but from that day on, he kept that rosary and began to pray it every day. "That's when my conversion began. For the last eight years, I have not stopped praying it," Rafael says.

The Rosary and his devotion to Our Lady of Guadalupe brought him closer to the Virgin Mary, and the Eucharist helped him to have a real encounter with Jesus. Since his divorce, Rafael has been going to Mass several times a week, sometimes with his two children. "Mass is the greatest prayer, it changes us and makes us better," he said. When his wife left him, she asked for an annulment, but the church refused. She then remarried. Rafael made a different choice. He decided to remain faithful to the sacrament of marriage and to remain chaste: "Since the divorce, I have lived a chaste life."

This path is not always easy for him, but he says that he finds strength in the Lord: "I am aware that I did not live my marriage in a Catholic way, but now I remain chaste thanks to the sacraments." His children have suffered from this situation too. Rafael keeps explaining to them that suffering is an integral part of life. But for him the solution is always forgiveness: "Suffering must always lead us to forgiveness. I forgive my wife every morning," he says.

Adapted from Aleteia