Recently, I have been reading Left to Tell by Immaculee Ilibagiza and My Life with the Saints by James Martin. Left to Tell is an amazing autobiography of faith persevering through incomprehensible obstacles. This woman survived the Rwandan Holocaust in 1994 by hiding 91 days in a Pastor's bathroom with several other women. During times of immense sorrow, anguish, and hatred at the thought of her razed village and slaughtered family, she maintained an intense devotion to God. She clung to one thing left from her past, her father's rosary. She prayed the rosary for several hours a day and was given grace to keep going. Her faith is an inspiration to those who think miracles cannot happen in this life anymore. There were so many times when she could have been killed, but she prayed for God's protection and was spared. Even more so, she was able to forgive those who murdered her family and friends. She realized that in order to truly love God, she had to forgive these people or her hatred would eat her alive. Her hope and love would be suffocated by the evil done by others and she was not going to let the murderers take the one thing she had left. At the end of the book, you walk away with a renewed desire to pray the rosary and to build a personal relationship with God who is our ultimate strength.
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