When I was 15, I rediscovered the beauty of the Catholic Church. Despite coming from a nominally Catholic family that very seldom attended Mass, God broke through in a radical way during my teenage years. He reached into my life at a time when I was wrestling with big questions—about love, identity, and purpose.
Growing up, I had been taught the importance of sex and that it should only be shared in the context of marriage. However, the culture around me painted a different picture. As I watched my peers and classmates start to have sex, I wondered if the truths preached by my parents were really true. Though I had a sense of what was right and wrong, I also felt a strong desire for love and intimacy. Like every teenager—and every person, for that matter—I desired a loving relationship. Yet everyone who was interested in a relationship was not interested in one that didn’t involve sex. I wanted to wait; however, what if there wasn’t a man who was willing to wait for me?
Thankfully, I found refuge in my parish youth group, where I was introduced to the virtue of chastity. Through powerful witnesses like Jason Evert and Christopher West, I began to see that the Church’s teachings on love and sexuality weren’t restrictions—they were invitations to freedom and fulfillment.
One night at youth group, we were encouraged to start praying for our future spouse. A young man, probably in his late 20s or early 30s, got up and shared an incredible testimony of how meeting Christ saved him from a pornography addiction and a life of sexual sin. After experiencing the power of grace, he vowed to start again and save sexual intimacy for marriage.
Years after making this commitment, the young man finally met the woman who would later become his wife. On the night of their wedding, she gave him a box filled with letters she had written to him over the years. His fiancée shared that she had been praying for him even before they met, writing letters to detail her struggles for virtue and her commitment to remain pure for him through the ups and downs of her journey. As he read through them, he realized that her prayers had unknowingly covered him during difficult and tempting moments in his life. The man was filled with gratitude and peace. By God's grace, he had triumphed over sin in his life, remained faithful to his vow to purity, and found a beautiful and virtuous woman whose love empowered him to be all that God made him to be.
That story left a lasting impression on me. That night, when I got home from youth group, I started writing letters and praying for my future husband, not knowing who he was or if I’d ever meet him. For twelve years, I kept this habit alive, lifting him up in prayer during both joyful and difficult seasons.
The path wasn’t easy. There were battles—temptations I had to fight and moments when I questioned if it was worth it. In college, I faced ridicule from my soccer teammates for being "prude" and not participating in sexual sin. Later, in my young adult years, I ended relationships and rejected invitations from men to go out because I knew they were not serious about saving sex for marriage. I can remember many times running to the Adoration chapel in tears—grieved over our sexually obsessed culture but also scared and confused about whether or not the man I was holding out for really existed.
Despite it all, God was faithful.
When I least expected it, I met my husband at a simple dinner with friends. As we got to know each other, I recognized qualities I had been praying for since I was 15 years old—strength, kindness, a love for Christ and the Church, as well as a chaste heart. He was more than I could have imagined.
On our wedding day, as I walked down the aisle, everything I had sacrificed and every tear I had shed felt insignificant compared to the joy in my heart as my husband took me to be his wife. God’s plan had been unfolding all along, and His timing was perfect.
God is writing a love story for each of us—one that first draws us into deeper intimacy with Him. Whether or not you are called to marriage, His desire is to lead you to the fullness of life and love.
If marriage is part of your vocation, pursuing chastity and praying for your future spouse is one of the greatest gifts you can give—not just to them, but to yourself.
Comentários