I recently experienced a beautiful encounter at my parish during a book signing after Mass. A woman came up to me and said she wanted to purchase my memoir The Kiss of Jesus which she wanted to gift to her sister who lived out West. She said she hoped she could surprise her sister with the book in thanksgiving for all her sister had done for her.

She went on to explain that her sister had gifted four of my books to her in recent years. As she was telling me, she pointed to my book The Domestic Church: Room By Room and recalled how that book helped her immensely.

“This book, The Domestic Church, brought me back into the Church! It also made me be sure to get all of my children baptized,” she recalled. “I also have an altar in my home because of this book.”

She was referring to my encouragement to parents to establish a prayer table or prayer corner in their homes so that they can raise their family in the faith more tangibly. They can hopefully be drawn to the Sacred rather than the secular with the holy reminders of the sacramentals and sacred images on and near their prayer table.

My heart was soaring, knowing that this woman had come back to the Church because her generous and caring sister had gifted my The Domestic Church book to her. God is so amazing! I thought.

The woman pointed to other titles on the table that her sister had sent to her and seemed to be so surprised that they were there in front of her.

The story gets even better.

The sweet woman at my book table went on to tell me that she was in disbelief that I was a parishioner at this particular parish.

“Don’t you usually go to this Mass?” she asked me. “I have seen you here before.”

She was trying to figure out whether or not I was just visiting this evening with my books or if I had been the woman she had seen all along.

I confirmed that I was indeed a parishioner. She was astounded. I told her that I try to keep a low profile at my parish.

“I watch you all of the time on EWTN and I read all of your blogs!” She told me. It took a moment for her to wrap her head around the fact that the author she was following for years was nearer to her than she could have imagined.

“You look shorter on TV!”

She had not realized that the woman she had seen at Mass at a distance was me.

We both smiled. Again, I felt deeply grateful to God that He had worked in this woman’s life through my books and television shows.