My spiritual path began very early in life in the presence of my mother. In my case, they are my only memories of her. 

When I was a very young boy in the mid 1960’s my mother was dying of cancer yet  she would whisper and teach me life lessons about love. I now call her the God Whisperer and I am convinced that her early life lessons  not  only helped me survive in this world but also contributed to my experience of the grace of God. 

My mother watered the  seeds of faith deep inside me at a tender age. Indeed, it was her spirit that interceded in my life during my darkest night of the soul at age 21 after my last sip of alcohol on September 30, 1982.

At that time, I had a “mustard seed” of faith experience that changed my life. Before this experience, I felt I had been cheated in life not only because of losing my mother at a young age or because of the pain of my life-threatening car accident, but also because I still suffered with an alcohol problem. This indeed was a problem that would stand in the way of me starting my adult life. 

As I cried in the bathroom after being sick to my stomach, I noticed a wooden painting of Jesus’s mother, Mary, holding her son. The wood painting startled me. I never really noticed it or given it much thought before. My eyes glared at it. In that moment, I called on what little bit of faith I had left in me. I begged this piece of wood with this painted image of a mother holding her son to please help me. I begged and prayed to Jesus through his mother Mary for help. Although it is difficult to put into words, today I know I was blessed and touched by the grace of God at that moment. Today, I still have this wood painting sitting in my bedroom and it represents the power of faith in the the grace of God.