Thanks to the Pope and The Way

Christian Wilke works as a nurse in a prison for serious criminals. He has always lived in the east of Germany. He is a Cooperator of Opus Dei.

May 15, 2010

Tags: The Way, Conversion, Cooperators of Opus Dei, Benedict XVI Until April 19, 2005, I hadn’t had any contact with the Catholic Church. That day was my 23rd birthday, and at 6 in the evening my uncle called to wish me happy birthday. Then he said that a German had just been elected the new Pope and I could see him right then on television. He hung up.

Out of curiosity I turned on the television. At that moment the new German Pope was saying: “Dear Brothers and Sisters, after the great Pope John Paul II, the Cardinals have elected me, a simple and humble labourer in the vineyard of the Lord. The fact that the Lord knows how to work and to act even with inadequate instruments comforts me, and above all I entrust myself to your prayers. Let us move forward in the joy of the Risen Lord, confident of his unfailing help. The Lord will help us and Mary, his Most Holy Mother, will be on our side. Thank you!” In the following days, I couldn’t get those words out of my head. They stirred me up to find out about the faith and the Church over the next few months.

For the first time in my life I took an interest in the Catholic Church and began to study it. I bought the Catechism of the Catholic Church, and was surprised by the answers I found in it to my questions about the faith. There were also more complex answers to questions to which nobody in the Protestant churches or in Judaism or other groups had been able to give a good answer.

One day I was looking on the internet for a new book about the Catholic Church. On one site I discovered a book that fascinated me; it was described as a “spiritual classic”. It was entitled The Way, written by someone called Josemaria Escriva. For no particular reason, I ordered it. It arrived in the post a few days later, and I looked through it straight away. When I read the introduction, I felt as if it was written specially for me: each word, each phrase, spoke to my soul, and from that moment on I knew that my heavenly Father had prepared a place for me in his Church, the Catholic Church.

In the following months I got in contact with my local Catholic church, where they taught me the catechism. I decided to go to Mass as often as my job would permit me. On November 8, 2007, I was confirmed. During all that time St Josemaria kept me company through his books, all of which I bought little by little. By reading them I also learned something about the nature and apostolates of Opus Dei. I found out more about Opus Dei and its activities via the internet, and then learned that there were means of formation on offer in a nearby town, so I started going to them.