Saints are Working for Us with Christine Rich

Christine Rich has learned the Saints are working for her in a very real way. 

A number of years ago, Christine didn't understand why she felt drawn to choose Saint Valentine as her Saint of the Year.

Months later, God caught her attention when she realized that the morning she signed papers to leave the large, Catholic company she co-founded was Valentine’s Day.

After signing the papers, Christine went to pray at a local convent where Venerable Patrick Peyton had spent his final years. Christine even sat and prayed in his chair.

Years later, Christine's daughter and son-in-law would name their first child Peyton. Peyton was born on Valentine’s Day. 

Listen to this Easter podcast and learn how the Saints are working for you, too!

Christine Rich is a contributor to Clouds of Witnesses: 25 Stories of Saintly Inspiration and Intercession. 

Transcript:

Lindy Wynne (00:01.814)

Welcome to Mamas in Spirit, a podcast pointing you towards God in everything you are and everything you do. I'm Lindy Wynne and it's a blessing to be with you. Hello, everyone. Happy Easter. It will never get old saying that. Happy, happy Easter. We have seven Easter podcasts, just like we had seven Lenten podcasts because it's so important to me and to my heart in these many retreats in a podcast that we remember that

Truly, it's about Easter Sunday, our faith. It's about the resurrection and the redemption and eternal life. And today, this mini retreat is a very full circle moment because I am blessed and we are blessed to be here with a guest who is here at the very beginning of season two. And we are now in season seven, Christine Rich. Christine, thank you so much for joining us.

Christine Rich (00:54.926)

I can't tell you what a gift it is to be here with you and to have come, you know, walked this road with you for the last five years now and to have become friends and to just sisters in Christ, absolutely sisters in Christ.

Lindy Wynne (01:11.534)

Yes, sisters in Christ. so since all of you may not know, but some of you have listened to this podcast. When Christine came on and shared in the beginning of season two, that was the first time we'd ever sat down and really shared with one another. And Christine reminded me that I said in the podcast, I just have this feeling that we're going to become friends. And that's exactly what happened. And I want to share with everyone. And I feel a little bit emotional. And very soon after we recorded,

COVID started and my family, me and my husband made the choice to quarantine because he's immunocompromised and that's what his doctor encouraged. And during that year, we had very little kind of contact and getting to see people like in real life. And Christine, you brought us the Eucharist. That's the first time that ever happened to me in my life. Like you would go to Mass and you would bring us Jesus.

Christine Rich (02:11.442)

I remember that so vividly and I was like, Lord, I know you want to come to, yeah, because you started before Mass even shut down, right? So I was able to, and then later, even after Mass was shut down and we had some, yeah, really beautiful, faithful priests. I'd be like, okay, I get to go receive communion. I can bring it to, know, Lindy and Brian. And so, yeah, it was really a beautiful time.

Lindy Wynne (02:32.899)

Well, I feel like that's so Easter, like that's such an Easter experience for me and my heart and in my life and that longing for Christ and also Christ embodied in another human being because for all of us here gathered, we desire, we long so deeply to be seen. And one of the first stories in Scripture is the story of Hagar and she calls God the God who sees.

Christine Rich (02:36.566)

Okay.

Lindy Wynne (03:01.302)

He sees her when she feels unseen because God sees all of us all the time, whether we sense that or feel that or not. And so you really embodied Christ for our family, Christine. And I do also want to mention and send out a shout out to all of the ladies from the Gospel group that we did during that year. What was our name that year?

Christine Rich (03:24.322)

Well, it's a Gospel encounter. don't remember.

Lindy Wynne (03:26.54)

Yes, I think that's what we called it, Gospel encounter. And it was encountering Jesus. So Christine organized an online Bible study and we gathered weekly to pray with Scripture And we used that beautiful book by Father John Bartunek, The Better Part by Father John Bartunek a beautiful book.

Christine Rich (03:47.138)

better.

Lindy Wynne (03:52.384)

And so, so many glorious friendships came from that and that was really fed my soul to be with so many women. I love you all, because I imagine many of you will listen to this. Really fed my soul how I hope Mamas in Spirit feeds all of our souls to gather with sisters in Christ who really love the Lord and who really want to follow Jesus. And speaking of books, because I know Christine's not going to mention this out of her great humility.

Christine has contributed to a book called Cloud of Witnesses and she has written about Venerable Patrick Payton and it really his experience in your life and you're gonna share with us today Christine, but I do wanna share with everybody that Christine has contributed to that. Yeah, Christine, what you really contribute to is Jesus revealed in this world.

through your witness and the love that you have for God. Like I see God's love in you, Christine, and that is an Easter experience for me. So in that spirit, in the Holy Spirit, I would love for you to open us in prayer.

Christine Rich (04:56.814)

Sounds like a perfect plan. In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Come Holy Spirit, Heavenly Father, we thank you for this time today. We thank you for giving us these sisters in Christ and people to walk with, whether they're sisters in Christ, brothers in Christ, really

every one of them are the ability to see your son, to see Jesus in those that we're walking with and to allow them to see Jesus through us. You have such this beautiful, beautiful, perfect plan, Lord. And we ask that today through, through

the little story that I will share and through this sharing of friendship and a sharing of sisterhood, that others will encounter your son and that it will just continue to ripple out. And we ask for the intercession of our blessed mother who loved him and loves him more than anyone could ever love him. And that loves us.

more than even our earthly mothers could have loved us, which is so hard for us to imagine. And we thank you for the gift that you have given us in her. We ask for your protection over this time, over our technology, over each one of our spaces. And we ask you to send the Holy Spirit now ahead of time, allow our guardian angels to go out.

and to be with all of Lindy's listeners so that they can receive exactly what's in your plan, Lord, no matter what Lindy and I may have thought that we came here to say or share today. We believe in your providence and in your perfection, and we want to do your will. And we bring all of this to you.

Christine Rich (07:17.494)

In the name of your son, the most perfect name, Jesus Christ, amen. Amen.

Lindy Wynne (07:22.483)

Amen.

Amen. Thank you for that beautiful, beautiful prayer. And I love how you talked about God's providence and God's will and Christine and for everybody. One of the kind of newer prayers that I've been praying in the morning is like, Lord, help me to do the things and say the things that are in your will that are in your will and not my own. So Christine, thank you so much. And I would just love for you to start at the beginning of your story.

Christine Rich (07:50.632)

Well, this part of a story, this part of my story, since I am getting older and I feel like I have many, stories, but it's funny because during COVID, actually, I have this inspiration once the churches shut down, like, no, Lord, they're not going to do this to us. And I'll never let them do this again. Because if I die receiving the Eucharist, what a glorious way to die.

And it sounds so noble. I don't know if I could do it if it came down to it, right? But I did do what I could do in my own community, you know, to fight for Mass and to, and the inspiration hit that I had a basement, a game room, and I thought that needs to become a chapel because I want places where we can gather for prayer, but even more importantly in times like that, if it ever were to happen again, that it would be a place for Mass.

So I did I transformed it and by the grace of God because I had no idea what I was doing and I had I'm like I don't know how to design the chapel and God sent many beautiful angels and some of our friends some you know that you know To help to help with that and I do now have an incredibly beautiful sacred space in a church where our Gospel encounter still meets weekly and so we're in our sixth year and you are greatly missed and

Lindy Wynne (09:05.452)

.

Christine Rich (09:15.234)

the inspiration also came to name that chapel, the Chapel of the Heavenly Hosts. So maybe it's of the Father and His Heavenly Hosts, because that's really what heaven is, right? And I have been blessed to be given and collect many relics of saints, including one that is said to be part of the mantle of our Blessed Mother.

I just had this, I was like, I have to share about the reality of these saints, the reality of God and what a better time to do it as we're entering into Easter and we get to say hallelujah again and we get to again have these memory stones, bring out these memory stones in our lives that help us to be people of hope, because that's what we are, right? mean, we are, that's we're called to be as Easter people, people of hope.

And in this Jubilee of Year of Hope, what a better time to open ourselves up to these graces. And I just thought, gosh, are there people out there that don't believe that the saints are actually given the time to work for us? So I just thought I would share a little story. And I'm holding in my hand this rosary that belonged to venerable father, Patrick Payton.

And I hold it because I am so grateful to him and I'm grateful to my mother for introducing him. And it kind of, it all started when I left. I love the Saints. I had a company called My Saint, My Hero. And I was the co-founder of that company. But God called me out of that. And he called me out kicking and screaming, because I thought that was my vocation. And he made it clear to me that it was not. And he showed me the way out, but it wasn't easy.

And the day that I shared with my staff that I was leaving, it was actually on February 14th, which I knew I was like, have to again, bring this up because each year at my Saint My Hero on the Feast of the Epiphany, we would pick our Saint of the Year. Totally random. We had different beautiful prayer cards each year that we would kind of put in a bowl and we would pick our Saint. And it was really profound.

Christine Rich (11:41.806)

couldn't believe how these saints worked in my life each year. And that year I had picked Saint Valentine. And I was, I remember thinking the first thing like, Saint Valentine, like isn't he kind of, you know, I just didn't know, I didn't know that much about him. And I thought, how can he help me? And yet here I was standing there making an announcement that I was going to be leaving my Saint, my.

Lindy Wynne (11:50.313)

you

Christine Rich (12:07.974)

and that I would be signing this contract. was actually a few days before. And I said, I'll be signing this contract to leave and to sell my portion on Tuesday, which is the Feast of St. Valentine. So I remember telling people, if you don't think that these saints that we think we chose, if you don't understand that they're actually choosing us, like you're gravely mistaken because there's no way I could have orchestrated this, right? That I'm going to be signing these papers on the Feast of St. Valentine.

And I shared with the company, you know, why I was leaving and what, and then I left that chapel. We were at the Little Sisters of the Poor in San Pedro, California, where these beautiful sisters took care of the elderly until they died. And they happened to take care of Father Patrick Payton for the last, I don't know if it was three or five years of his life. And he had his own little room out in their retreat house, which is where we would

my Saint, my hero would have a monthly Mass in their chapel. So I left and I retreated to Father Peyton's room. And I remember just sitting there thinking what happened? I you know, I could, I was in a kind of in a state of shock and I was holding my rosary that one of the sweet sisters had given me of Father Peyton's. And I remember walking out of that building. I walked out and I'm walking to my car and as I'm walking to my car,

I literally, I was like, kind of looked over my shoulders because I was like, what is happening? I felt like this like armor or like these scales, like scales of a dragon or something were falling off of me. And I looked at the ground because I thought I could physically hear something dropping on the ground. And I was like, what is happening? What is happening around me? And by the time I got to my car to get in my car, it was like, I was lighter. And I was thinking, what, what?

where was I and what have I been like, who's spell have I, I don't mean to say it, but I mean, where have I been that I feel like all of this, you know, had to go. And, and I just, again, had this comfort of I got to sit in Father Peyton's chair that day where, where one of the nuns had, you know, had given me the chance to sit many, many times when I just needed a place to go.

Christine Rich (14:30.348)

And it was so beautiful because my mother had told me the story about Father Peyton when I was young. So she had listened and watched because she was a fan of Father Peyton would pray the rosary on major national television with people like Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Lucille Ball. You know, he had, that was what he felt was his mission.

And he had been, he believed he was saved from tuberculosis by the Blessed Mother. And he knows, I he's like, I was dying. I was dying. And my superior came in and said to me, you know, don't give up. Don't give up. You know, go to your mother and remember how your mother and father back in Ireland used to pray. And he said he did. He just closed his eyes and he prayed to our Blessed Mother. And he said,

You know, if you're my mother, you know, I give you permission to take care of me. And he said, and from then on, he started breathing. He knew he was healed. He knew he was healed and he knew he had to give his life to her. And he started this thing called the Rosary Crusade to teach people how to pray as a family. And when my mother would tell me the story about him and she would say he's the he his line or his.

whatever you want call it, was the family that prays together stays together. So that always stuck with me. And, you know, and I have come quite a road in my own prayer life. Like I was like, you know, I had been working on what is prayer? How is this real? And God had showed me many times, right, that like that he answers prayers or sometimes those unanswered prayers are, you know, really the answer. And and

And I remembered back to going on a pilgrimage. And I think I told the little part of this story the first time I was on with you and that I knew that I had wanted to kind of start praying more with my family. And I was like, I don't know how I'm to do this. And by the grace of God, I was actually given it as a penance in confession. The priest said, pray with your family.

Christine Rich (16:45.518)

And I don't mean just pray at meals. I don't mean I want you to find a time at night before everybody goes to bed and to pray with them. Just do an Our Father, a Hail Mary, and a Glory Bee. And it seems, or Our Father, three Hail Marys and a Glory Bee. And I remember thinking, gosh, Lord, you I wanted to say the rosary with my family. And look at, you've given me the start, right? You've given me the start to do that. So we did. And it...

transformed our family. It, it, it, and I don't even know how, it seems so simple and it can't be real. Yet I'm telling any of your listeners out there, if they were to try it, it's very vulnerable. It sounds so silly. Really all I'm going to say in our Father, three Hail Marys and a Glory be. Try it with your husband. It's not so easy. You don't even, you're not even going to want to ask your husband, pray these with me before we go to bed.

or to ask your children. It took me a while to actually have the courage to ask my family to pray. But our youngest at the time, who was six years old, her bedroom at night and putting her to bed became like this little sanctuary where we all came together. And boy, she was really the glue that held us together because she believed. Like she believed in the prayer.

You know, she'd bring prayers home from school. And I think, wow, these people know who to give their prayers to because this little girl believes and she knows that they're going to be heard if we pray together. we're, you know, we're what we're two or more gathered, right, that he's hearing our prayers. Well, it occurred to me later. Now, this is no fast forward many, many years after, know, after I had left and I did leave my Saint, my hero, and it wasn't easy.

Lindy Wynne (18:15.91)

Mm.

Christine Rich (18:34.99)

And I was kind of still looking for like, Lord, what then, what are you calling me to? What are you calling me to? Because we want to do, right? Those of us that love him, we want to do for him. I just kept thinking, I remember one day praying early in the morning and I was like, Lord, why did you call me out of my hero? And what am I supposed to be doing? And all of a sudden I was kind of brought back to my daughter, my youngest who was now

She was a freshman in high school. So the little six year old was now a freshman in high school when I left my Saint, my hero. And it was like a knowing. And I was like, I was reminded of her faith and which had by the, know, living in the world had been definitely challenged, right? By the time she got to junior high, she wasn't so prayerful anymore.

Lindy Wynne (19:29.214)

you

Christine Rich (19:32.14)

She wasn't, you you don't wanna stick out. You don't wanna be the little holier than now. And it's not even holier than now. What is it? Like you're dorky if you kind of are too faithful and if you believe too much. And I saw her pulling away. But yet I was reminded again, like how she was the family glue, the prayer, you know, in our prayer time. And it just became so utterly clear to me. like, she prayed, didn't she Lord?

Christine Rich (20:01.856)

She prayed for me to be home with her. She didn't know any different, because I started work when she was five years old. She didn't know any different. I was like, she prayed and you answered her prayer. And so I picked her up from school that day and I was driving home with her. I said, you know, I just want to tell you that if you prayed for me, if you prayed for me to leave, God answered your prayer.

I said, I think you prayed for me to leave and I know God answered your prayer. And I want to tell you, I am so grateful. I am so grateful because I get this time. I get this time with you. You're in high school. I mean, just think if I wouldn't have had that she's now 22. She's actually turning 22 in a few weeks. If I hadn't left my Saint, my hero, I mean, I traveled so much, you I had done all this. I got to be home with her.

Every day, right? I got to drive her to school, pick her up, be there through everything with her. And in fact, that day we got home and she used to kind of go in her room. That day we got home and she went in her room and I was cooking dinner. All of a sudden she was back out. like, what are you doing out here? Like not doing your home. And she's like, I just thought I'd come out and help you with dinner. And I was like, holy moly. Like she did pray and she, you know, she's coming out to be with me and she's coming. I I was like, this is, this is like, this is real stuff.

Lindy Wynne (21:23.294)

Thank

Christine Rich (21:28.802)

This is real stuff. And little did we know, but that was in 2018. So two years later, the whole world shut down when she was in her junior year of high school. I think if I wouldn't have been home with her, I couldn't think of anything worse than being the youngest child, all your siblings gone away, and now you're at home doing school alone, right? And both your parents are at work.

and what just leaves them open, right, to so much, to so many prospects that I don't even want to think about. And that she, that she, I got to be with her. I got to be her, you know, walk with her every day, you know, and I got to send her off to college in confidence. And I will say that, so a couple of things happened at that time.

Her old her the sister closest to her had to come home and finish college graduate from college at home her oldest sister Moved it back in with us even though she was married because they're like, let's just have a party right? Let's be all together. Let's be all together and We were you know, we were all here in the home together as her oldest sister told us that they were having their first child and now fast forward

say like eight months later, right? I was actually through the work I was doing, I was praying the rosary with everybody on Friday mornings online still. We had started gathering online. I was praying the rosary. And that day I decided to use Father Peyton's voice because there's an app and you can pray with him. It's the Family Rosary app. And I had prayed for years before the app even existed. I had found him on YouTube and I had been praying with Father Peyton for years.

And so I recorded each him praying. I thought, okay, this day I'm going to lead people, but I'm going to let Father Peyton lead us in prayer. And that was before Hallow, you know, before we had all these beautiful Catholic things, you know, helping us in prayer. And I thought, I need to share a picture of him. And so as I Googled him and his picture came up and it said, Father Peyton, pray for us. And the name just jumped out of the computer at me. Cause I was like, Oh my goodness.

Lindy Wynne (23:33.812)

You

Christine Rich (23:53.942)

My grandson, I knew that our daughter was having a little boy and they had chosen his name and his name was Peyton. They chose the name because my son-in-law loves football and he loved Peyton Manning. And I thought, can you imagine if I had asked my children, name your child after this.

Lindy Wynne (24:02.564)

Okay.

Christine Rich (24:18.016)

old man, you know, I mean, at the time, you know, like all we could see, know, name your child after this other after father Peyton. There's I just couldn't hear them like, Mom, no, not. But God is so good. And Father Peyton is so good. Like these saints are allowed. He's like, I'm still here. Right. I mean, as soon as I saw the name, I hadn't even I don't know why I hadn't put it together. I because they had kind of talked about Peyton Manny. I hadn't even put it together until his name and his, you know, face came up on my computer screen.

And I just started to weep and thought, you're here. This is all real. This is all real. And so I got to write this story as part of a collection of stories of people and saints that they've walked with. And not until just a few weeks ago, I realized there was another little nod to a saint in that. And that was because I was walking in my neighborhood, praying the rosary. And as I was praying,

I started, think it was, you know, it was the beginning of February and I was thinking about my little grandson who's now, he was just gonna turn four years old. And all of a sudden, again, the inspiration or the reminder came that he was born on February 14th, the feast of St. Valentine. And I thought,

When does it ever end? Are you kidding me? That not only was Father Peyton working, know, you know, working from this little table in heaven to bring me to my true vocation of motherhood and out of, I, what something I thought was the most amazing thing I could have ever done for God, right? This company where we're sharing the stories of the saints and spreading blessings and, but yet to show me that my, you know, so not only Father Peyton.

But Saint Valentine, who I hadn't thought about for four years, was again, it was like showing me, no, I was there too. And I made sure he was born on my feast day so you would know, so that you would know that we're all here working for you. So if there's anything I want to share this Easter, and that is the hope in God and how generous he is and how good he is.

Christine Rich (26:40.3)

He just wants us to open our eyes, right? And really to give heaven a chance to show us that they're there and they're working for us.

Lindy Wynne (26:49.858)

I love that so much to show us that heaven is there and that the saints are working for us. And Christine, I think of you in that little office sitting in the chair of Venerable Father Payton. And that's so intimate. You know, it's interesting because my saint, my hero is a relatively big company. And what I'm hearing from you kind of in like some deeper threads is like, okay,

Well, it could seem at surface level that this is really important because it's a big company. And especially when we're looking at like our world and the values of our world. And you talked about worldly and even our little children, you know, learning about the world more as they go on and whatnot. And yet what you were hearing in the intimacy of prayer and where God was drawing you in the intimacy was to intimacy, to intimacy in your family life. And you talk about confession.

and how the priest gave you this penance to go pray the Our Father, Three Hail Marys, and the Glory Be in the intimacy with your family and how that is where the transformation came. And really the miracle came because Christine, when you tell me that your children and a son-in-law all wanted to move and be together back in your house together during the pandemic, I don't know about everyone listening, but to me,

That's miraculous in and of itself to be drawn back together like that and to want that because all families have different dynamics. We're all both whole in the sense of created whole by God, but also broken in our brokenness. And some families have great brokenness. So the fact that your family was so transformed by God that freely your children wanted to come back like that and spend that specific season, they're all not still living with you.

but they wanted to spend that specific season with you and your husband. Joe is just so deeply moving.

Christine Rich (28:52.342)

It was beautiful. mean, my youngest daughter, so her name is Dory. At that time, she kept saying, Mom, I feel guilty. I feel so guilty because I know that everybody is miserable and everybody's just like, but I'm so happy. I'm so happy. have all, in fact, in fact, her birthday was a few weeks after we shut down and she had this, she had these plans, right? That she wanted to do with her friends and can't we just have a few of them over? Nobody will know. Nobody, you know, and

It was a hard thing as a mother to say, you know what, we have to honor this. You know, what if, you know, we have to honor this. We don't know what is happening. It was hard because I wanted to say, you're right. Let's just have these few people over. Let's do this, you know. And that was, I mean, it sounds silly, but that was a really, like that was a test for me as a mother to then be an example to others, right? That no, we're following what, you know, what we believe at this time is right.

And it was even before drive-by started happening, right? It was like, this was brand new. so that night of her birthday, and then her brother and sister-in-law live right down the street. they all got to come. And we were sitting around our dinner table for her birthday. And I'd made her her favorite meal. And it was just the seven, wait, however many of us there are, sorry, two, four, six, seven, eight. We were sitting around this table together.

And all of a sudden, it was like she had this epiphany and she looked up and she's like, I am so happy. She said, I get to have all of you here on my birthday. She's like, I don't know the last time we were all together on my birthday because her little brother went off to college when she was eight years old, he went off to college and then the next one went off and then the next one went off. So it doesn't matter who came home or who was.

Lindy Wynne (30:28.908)

.

Christine Rich (30:47.576)

There was, it was never a time for her birthday that her entire family was together. And, and she was able to say like, this is the best gift ever. And I just thought, that is a gift. That was a consolation for a choice that I made. she never would have, she wouldn't have been with her family, right? I would have let her go with her friends or had some friends over. And what a gift to recognize again. Yeah. The love in our family.

Lindy Wynne (31:16.199)

Yes, and I think about that so intimate, all of you sitting around the table celebrating sweet Dory's birthday as a family and so much like our prayer lives and our communication with God, often like our sisterhood in Christ.

And the other relationships that we have in our life, it's all in the intimacy, in the intimacy. And often these miracles are also in the intimacy, like what's flooding to me from Scripture stories, miraculous stories, like the hemorrhaging woman being held, that was in the intimacy. Talitha Kuhn, little girl arise, that was in the intimacy. When the person was put down through the ceiling by friends, I'm forgetting the name, but that.

Christine Rich (31:59.183)

Paralytic.

Lindy Wynne (32:00.679)

You know, the paralytic that was in the intimacy and God resides in the intimacy of our heart, just like you called the room that you all prayed in the sanctuary, the sanctuary of her room. So here you started this podcast, starting talking about the chapel that you now have in your basement, which is so glorious. Yet you talked about the sanctuary being your child's bedroom. And I can identify with that so deeply because for some reason, our youngest bedroom is like a sanctuary.

She has these glow in the dark stars on the ceiling that remind me of the mantle of our lady of Guadalupe. I feel like that child is so covered. She has a glow in the dark Mary there that's from April Maskola, April love you, who Christine knows too, that was her daughter's. And that's really what touched me about it too, it's that it was her daughter's little Mary. So I think about that little Mary statue in her daughter's room, which is so intimate. Now in my daughter's room and our daughter, even just last night, Christine, this part's kind of funny.

But my daughter, the youngest, a couple nights ago was having me do this breathing exercise. I'm like, where did you learn this? And she's like, Karate Kid. I'm like, that's hilarious. And then, so last night she's having me and my husband doing these breathing from Karate Kid and then get on our knees by her bed, the three of us in a line, our little 10 year old, then me, then my husband, and she leads us in a Our Father, Hail Mary.

Glory be the guardian angel prayer and then another version of that prayer because she's trying to keep us all awake as long as we can possibly be

Christine Rich (33:38.742)

Exactly.

Lindy Wynne (33:40.507)

But the intimacy and the miraculous, like those moments, those tiny moments are, they do feel miraculous. And especially when a child is guiding like that and there's something so sacred and special. And then for you, fast forward to when you shared with Dory that her prayer was answered and that you were staying home with her and all the miracles that came from that for your family.

Christine Rich (34:06.464)

And I remember actually, I was brought to this memory when you had Bob Schuetz on at the beginning of Lent. He was talking about healing and he was talking about praying over people. And I remember the very first time I prayed over Dory. So she was in high school, she was struggling. I think that they maybe gone back to class finally, after a year, almost a year of being home or whatever it was.

And she was really worried about the next day at school and how something was going to play out. And so I just was like, Lord, I just felt the prompting to pray over her. I've never done this, right? I've never done this with my children, family, anyone. so now it was just the three of us praying again at night before bed. So just the three of us. And after I just asked Doris, what can I pray for you for tomorrow? And I prayed over her and just said, you know, and I just prayed and I asked God,

you know, to show us tomorrow how he's working and to show us. I don't even remember what I prayed, but I prayed over her. And when she left the room, my husband said, you shouldn't have done that because if everything doesn't work out tomorrow, she's not going to believe it. She's already struggling. And let me tell you, I mean, I was like, don't you think that I had that worry? Don't you think that I had that worry? But no, I am not going to go there. I believe in the power of prayer. Well, that next day.

I got a call from school that she had had a major panic attack and I had to go pick her up. And my husband was like, see, I told you not to pray. I said, no. I said, uh-uh, I'm not going there. said, this is a gift. I, we prayed for God to show us, you know, where he was working in her and what was happening. And she had a panic attack. said, he wants us to know where she is.

He wants us to know what she needs. And if she wouldn't have had this, it would still all be in secret. All of her worry, all of her anxiety, right? And so that was another journey, you know, of literally fight. I felt like I was fighting for my daughter's soul. And I did. And I'm like, I'm not giving up. Sorry, you know, enemy, you do not get to have her. You do not get to have her. And speaking truth into her all the time, even when she didn't want to hear it. To go off to college.

Christine Rich (36:32.396)

And that was another thing I was going to say. When I took her to college, she ended up going to Berklee College of Music in Boston. And it was like, how am going to leave her in this city? And it's just very, it's just so worldly, right, Lauren? How am I going to leave her? And then that visit, I got to go out. Father Peyton's order was founded in Boston, and the men are still there.

He's buried there. So I got to go pray when I delivered my daughter to college, I got to go pray at Father Peyton's grave. And I was like, again, there's no coincidence here. He wants me to know that God's got him. Like not me, like me, this Father Peyton, I've got him. No, God's here with her, right? You can trust in him and you can fly back that however many thousands of miles and trust that God's got her.

And I can tell you that it was a battle. It was a battle for her soul. And I will continue to do so. But she is in a very different and beautiful place now. so just keep believing. Do not give up on hope. We have to hope against hope, even in the times that I know so many people and dear friends that are battling for the souls of their children, adult children.

know, adult or young adult children. It's a tough world out there, but I just have to say hope against hope and believe in our faith, believe in God and the gift of our faith. I mean, the gift of prayer, the power, the authority that we have as parents and the sacraments and the sacraments. And I know what it came down to was one good confession that a priest finally got through to her with. And after that,

one good confession and he came out he's like she's fine she's gonna be great and since then she has never had another you know bout with anxiety and about yeah so it's this is all real it's all real do not give up hope

Lindy Wynne (38:46.62)

I feel like it's providential that you're talking about that and that you're talking about hope in this Easter podcast, Christine, because I was recently interviewed for something and someone asked me if I was to give a mother advice, what would it be? And I had no plan. I didn't know I was gonna be asked this question. And so sometimes my answers surprise me.

Christine Rich (39:09.378)

Yeah.

Lindy Wynne (39:09.468)

And I just kind of lay it all down before every interview and pray to be in God's will and surrender my heart. And I said to parent in hope rather than in fear. And I talked about that. And that's what I'm hearing from you, Christine, is to grip onto Jesus, to grip onto hope itself and to not let go. I've shared before in my chapel that I have in my little she shed.

which is the travel of Mary's mantle. You talked about the mantle. So I was like, ooh, that's providential too. I have the image of the woman like gripping. She's like holding onto the cross. And I think about gripping onto hope, like holding onto hope and hope for our children is what I'm hearing from you. So Christine, kind of full circle here, whether you meant that or not, is you being in Venerable Father Payton's office.

all the way right before or when you were resigning from work and then you ended up at home with your youngest all the way to your youngest going to college and you being at Venerable Father Peyton's grave praying. That's very beautiful. There's a lot in here that is very deep and very layered and

Sometimes in our lives, it's as we look back that we see the miraculous work of God. How do you feel about that? Thinking about that and like noticing that.

Christine Rich (40:48.332)

Well, the gift is that if I wouldn't have had like the inspiration, the courage, whatever you want to say to write the story, because the invitation was, do you want to write a story? Do you want to share a story about how a saint has worked in your life and tangibly? And again, thinking of every saint that, I I feel like I am so blessed. I think it's just the more that you have your eyes open and you're, I would call myself naive and believe.

The Saints are just like, let's just help her because she believes. Let's just. I mean, I have so many stories with Saints and yet venerable, you know, Patrick Payton was the one that was like, no, it's him. I mean, kept hearing, no, it's Father Payton. It's Father Payton. I was like, well, he's not even a Saint yet. So I had to ask, I'm like, can we write about somebody who's not even a Saint yet? And, and, the

by writing the story. I mean, and it just happens. I thought, how am I going to do this? I've never written a book. I'm never going to write a chapter of a book. And it just like poured out. So that's when you know it's from God. It just poured out and this whole story came together. And then I was able to, I hadn't recognized all of it until I wrote it down. Right. I didn't know what even the story was until I wrote it down. So that is also the beauty of journaling or the beauty of

Lindy Wynne (41:59.012)

Mm-hmm.

Christine Rich (42:09.518)

But writing a whole story, like not just journaling something like taking the time to like this happened and how you know and then writing it down and let God show you how how and where he's working. I mean that was a gift to me and then I sent it to my family and I ended up getting a FaceTime one day from my youngest who's bawling and she's like no warning. didn't give me any warning. You just sent me the story, you know and then to have her

Like, because again, she didn't see the whole story until she read it. You know, and she's like, you know, how am I to know that I was going to be the center, kind of the centerpiece of this story? And I mean, it's just what a gift. What a gift.

Lindy Wynne (42:54.676)

That is, and that is a beautiful invitation for us to write our stories and to really sit with the saints, Jesus, our blessed mother, God, the Holy Spirit, and to really sit with these miraculous works because in life, and I think sometimes in our humanity, it's very easy to see the difficult things. It's very easy to pay attention to the things that are more desolate or harder or whatnot.

And it takes real intention to look at all of God's tremendous work and to stay in that, to be in that. And you talked about like naivete or being naive. And actually I would bring it all the way back to being in your daughter's bedroom or even when your daughter was very, very young and you talked about her faithfulness. Christine, that's what I see in you. It's having that childlike faith. I wouldn't say it's naive. I think that's our calling. That's what God hopes for us and longs for us.

to be able to heal us so much and for us to have our gaze, the gaze of our hearts, the gaze of our eyes, the gaze of our souls so much on the Lord that we are more childlike and even more childlike as we continue to age, like rather than becoming more ornery or more difficult or more closed off from love to come more open to love, which you talked about Dr. Bob Schuett's podcast, the whole concept entering into Lent that he said.

continue for a lifetime is to remove the barriers to being loved, to knowing that we're God's belovedness, and then also to loving, which is so beautiful. Christine, you said something else in the beginning of the podcast that also just came full circle for me listening to you, and that was you talked about our blessed mother and about our own mothers, and it's hard to imagine the love of the blessed mother

being so great and so grand and you're sharing such a beautiful example of motherhood yourself. And I wonder what thoughts you have for us, what reflections you have for us to love our children. Like you left a company that you helped to create and you let go of things that

Lindy Wynne (45:13.096)

that in some way in your humanity that you wanted to grip onto, but instead you said yes to the Lord. And you have continued, I know, to say yes to your vocation as both mother and as grandmother and to know that that is at the heart, along with your marriage, the heart of your calling, the heart of your vocation, the heart of your covenant. And so what words would you have for us to encourage us?

And I know that you specifically talked about praying for our children and holding on to hope. How would you continue to encourage us?

Christine Rich (45:49.378)

Hmm, now I'll ask for the Holy Spirit like you did. It was funny because you said something at the beginning of this podcast and you said something about being seen. You said something, I don't remember what you said, but it again, harkened me back to the first time I talked with you and we were talking about the greatest thing.

for us, Or the greatest desire in us is to be seen and to be known and understood and be loved, right? For who we are, for who we are. And so I guess the thing that I would say is, you know, instead of just saying, don't give up on your children and don't give up on God, like always hope, it is look at those children, look at those children, not for their behavior at the moment, right?

or for whatever, the mistake that they made or the way that they talk to you or don't look at the actual thing, right? That you think you might be angry or frustrated or worried about. Like go to Jesus and say, what is it Lord? What is it that's causing this behavior? What is it? What's lacking, you know, that is causing this person? Because

this person, my child, right, to suffer and for all of us to suffer, the whole family to suffer. And I know, I mean, I can tell you what it is in some way, because I've learned it from Dr. Bob Schuetz, you know, every wound is just a lack of love. And it's a whole word love should be, right? So what is the whole Lord? How can I fill this in my child? And I really can't do it. You can do it.

You are the healer. You are the divine healer. You can heal it. Yet you've given me this child. Yet you've entrusted this child into my hands and the things that I can do for him or her while we're on this earth together. So I'm going to trust you to also guide me. And let me tell you, I mean, there's so many times I just did that and then

Christine Rich (48:07.916)

I mean, or to surrender this child to you, right? To surrender this child to you because I know you love him or her more than I ever could. And, and you show me Lord, you send the people use, cause I think, you know, sometimes our trying, trying, trying, our whatever we want to call it kind of gets in the way of what he, his plan. So yeah, I would just say look for how

Look for the lack of love. Where is that lack of love? And ask the Lord how you could fill it.

Lindy Wynne (48:42.176)

That is so beautiful. Thank you, Christine. I'm so glad that I asked that question. I know that will remain with me as I imagine it will for many, if not all of us. And Christine, you have such a beautiful heart. You've also contributed to this book. How can people get a hold of you, Christine, just to connect if someone feels so drawn?

Christine Rich (49:00.794)

it's funny because I heard you, you know, ask people that and I thought, Lord, what, know, there's so many things, right? There's so many desires I have in so many ways that I want to help you and I starting these little things. And yet today I just felt him saying, if they need you, Christine, what's the easiest way they can reach you? They can email you. They can actually just reach right out to you, right? They don't need to go to some website or this or that. So I will give you my email, which is rich.

family, R-I-C-H, my last name, richfamily6, the number six, richfamily6 at gmail.com. There's nothing that I desire more than to really help women heal because when women heal, their marriages will heal, their families will heal, and it's just going to ripple out. And I know that that's God's plan for us here right now, or for me.

Lindy Wynne (49:37.131)

wonderful.

Lindy Wynne (49:57.736)

Amen. That's so beautiful. Thank you so much, Christine. And will you please close us in prayer?

Christine Rich (50:04.686)

I will, I will, I will. In name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, amen. Father, thank you for this time. Thank you for the gifts that you are sharing with the world through Lindy. Thank you for her recognition of the importance

of everybody's stories and that like the beautiful Saint Therese that each one of us has our own story, a story of a particular soul. So thank you for the witness of everybody that has been through this past Lenten season and into this Easter season. Thank you for

being apart so tangibly in each one of our lives. Thank you for giving us our faith and our beautiful church so that we can recognize that we are a people of hope and that you are a God of hope and you are a God who keeps your promises. And you've given us the word, you've given us your son.

And that if we ever need to go looking, that we can look into that word and remind ourselves of your promises. We can look into our own lives and we can see those moments when you have made it so clear to us that you are real, that the angels are real, that the saints are real, that heaven is real.

And if and when we need to know it, that hell is also real, Lord, because you talked about it a lot when you were here on Earth. And although we would just like to not give it any attention, just give us that little nudge when we need to to get back on track. And I love that.

Christine Rich (52:25.31)

every time I go to your mother, to our Blessed Mother, that she reminds me always, always, just turn your head, Christine, just turn your direction back to my son and everything will be in right order.

We ask all of this again in your most holy name, the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. Holy Spirit.

Lindy Wynne (52:48.893)

Amen. Father, Son, Holy Spirit, amen. Thank you for that glorious prayer and for sharing your beautiful heart and story with us, Christine.

Christine Rich (52:58.51)

Thank you for everything that you do and for sharing so many stories.

Lindy Wynne (53:03.497)

Well, all glory and praise be to God. And I love how you talked about St. Tres of Lesu and a story of a soul, because I've said that before. It's like each mini retreat and podcast is the story of a soul. It's someone sharing the deepest part of themselves, faith, their heart, their very being out of love of God. And really because for all of you listening, for you, for whoever's listening to this in this moment, because your story matters, your soul matters, your heart matters, you are so.

loved. Can't wait to be together again next time. This is Lindy Wynne with Mamas in Spirit. May God bless you and yours always.