Placing God in the Center with Michele Sagarino of Cross Catholic Outreach
Michele Sagarino, President of Cross Catholic Outreach, had a clear plan for her life. She was determined to make it happen.
Yet, when it was time for Michele to have children, she wasn’t getting pregnant.
God began opening Michele’s heart to His will for her life. Michele and her husband were blessed to start a family through the gift of adoption.
Soon after, Michele went on a mission trip with Cross Catholic Outreach.
Michele knew where God wanted her—to work in developing countries. She now works with the best people, transforming—by the grace of God—the worst circumstances.
Listen to this “mini retreat in a podcast” and be inspired to put God in the center of your life. Experience the Lord’s abundant will for you!
Learn more about Cross Catholic Outreach at www.crosscatholic.org.
Transcript:
Lindy Wynne (00:01.635)
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 and welcome to this mini retreat and a podcast. Welcome to this gathering, this gathering of our hearts together, tied already as sisters and brothers for those male listeners out there in Christ to hopefully come together for God's purification.
the gift of intimacy, ultimately with Christ, and also so that when we leave this mini-retreat, we leave this time together, that we can pour out what we've been given to share the love of God, the love of Christ with all those we meet. And I am so excited to be here today with Michelle Sagarino from Cross Catholic Outreach. Michelle, thank you so much for joining us.
Michele Sagarino (00:53.559)
Well, Lindy, I'm excited. I'm excited just to pause a little bit and be with you together today and retreat. It's a great honor. Thank you.
Lindy Wynne (01:01.954)
Well, and I'm so excited that you already said the word pause because that's exactly what this is. And Michelle, I know that you spend your days pouring out and that you have given a resounding yes to the Lord. And we've talked before in many retreats in a podcast and really at the heart of our faith is Catholic Social Teaching and the option for the poor and the vulnerable. And Michelle, I really admire and I'm so looking forward to hearing your story.
to really understand really the pause part. The part where in the silence of your heart, in your contemplation, in your discernment with the Lord, what the Lord did to transform you and love you so you'd be where you are today. And so in that spirit of pause and prayer and contemplation, I'd love for you to open us in prayer.
Michele Sagarino (01:50.039)
I would love to, I would love to, Lindy. Thank you for all your kind words. May we have Father and Son and Holy Spirit. Heavenly Father, we come before you today seeking your strength, your guidance, and your peace. Fill us with your Holy Spirit. Give us that pause. Empower us to face the challenges and the blessings that come our way with courage and strength and guide each of us in our daily walk.
Lord, that we can discern your will. We can follow your path with wisdom and clarity. Grant us the peace that surpasses all understanding, a peace that soothes our hearts and brings tranquility to our souls. We trust in your boundless mercy and love, and I surrender my will to yours. Amen. Amen, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Lindy Wynne (02:44.426)
Amen.
Amen. Michelle, you just through the Holy Spirit, praise God, just set my heart ablaze. My goodness. Prayer is such a reflection of the heart. And I feel like you've already given us a little piece of your heart. So in that spirit, I'd love for you to start at the beginning of your story.
Michele Sagarino (02:53.222)
Michele Sagarino (03:05.387)
my gosh, isn't it hard to talk about ourselves, but we're talking about how the Lord made us and what, as we were beginning to build our relationship with Him, what were we yearning for that was missing and where did He step in and really show you your worth? And I guess if I really stepped back as a young girl,
I went to Catholic school. I always talked to everybody, Lindy. could possibly meet anywhere. And I had a really strong drive. just had a strong, strong drive. But alongside of that drive, I don't think I really felt like I completely fit in. I'm five foot 10. You can't tell on this video. Isn't it weird when you're zooming or talking to people? have no idea their height. I was tall as a young girl. I had lots of great friends, but I don't know. I just didn't feel like I...
totally fit in to where the world was. But just moving forward and going to school, going to college, that drive continued. And I started my own business in college, ended up being able to purchase a small home from that, was very proud of it, graduated college, got married, started our own company, and just really...
always had a sense of giving and volunteering and a connection with the Lord, but I think I really relied a lot on me. know, and I could just work a little harder. I could stay up a little bit later. I don't know how many women have done that and men have done that. You know, just push through, just push through. And that's what I did. And I can't say it was a bad life. It was a good life. you know, moved to Florida, had a big company, but
I just got this little knock like, this isn't you. I'm like, no, it's not really. It was in the automotive business and this just isn't you. My husband and I were doing it together. said, you know, I'm going to volunteer at a charity. I've worked for charities before. When I was a kid, I volunteered. I'm going to volunteer. So I did. I started working for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation and they told me I wasn't qualified.
Michele Sagarino (05:23.901)
I never fundraised before. I always think that's so funny. And I was like, I am qualified. I can do this for you. again, I think I had a little bit of that, like, I can do this feel, right? Well, fast forward, going through working at Cystic Fibrosis, and I feel like doing really great things together as a team for the Lord and for children around the country and helping. I felt like
I just felt like there was a little bit more, right? And so I wanted to have children and I just put that same energy into children. And Lindy, there was no child. You're one, you're two, you're three, you're four, you're five. And all the struggles and all the crying and all the waiting for signs and praying and just everything I could do, I couldn't make it happen.
And I think at that moment, God wanted me to pause, just to pause, just to realize that in this moment of struggle, it wasn't good. wasn't bad. It was. It was. And he is in that middle with me. And if I'm too busy trying to discern if it's good or bad or what am I going to do? I was missing like the whole point, the whole point. So he blessed us with a boy through adoption, Michelle
And then eight years between for a second child adoption, three follow-throughs, physical challenges, so much going on. And again, he's working, he's working. And I still had that little self-reliance for sure. So I guess when Michelle was about five, I consulted for this agency and they're an international relief agency. And I was going to do a large fundraiser for him and
know, raise money to help the children. I figured, Lord, if I can't have a child, a second child, I'm going to serve you this way. I can do good. I'm going to do this. Did he ever, ever have a turnaround for me? So I started and the founder said, it's not the agency I work for now.
Michele Sagarino (07:39.703)
He said, you're going to go on a mission trip in three days. I have a little baby, like it's five year old, they're babies, right? You know, the list you've got to create the organization in your head. He said, I want you to go to Jamaica. So I said, okay. Okay, I'll go to Jamaica. He said, we have programs there that we help with housing, with food, with bedding and hospitals. I want you to see it. I said, okay. It's a surprise visit. I said, okay. They don't know that you're coming.
This agency, Lindy, worked through government and Catholic organizations. So this was two government facilities we were going to visit, and we had provided the food, the bedding, you know, those essentials to them. And so we were going to check. So here we go.
We get off the bus, just myself and one of the leaders, because I'm just consulting, we get off the bus and we go to the first place we're supposed to visit. And this first place was a home for children that had disabilities. And that was something I had volunteered with in my youth. It was something that was near and dear to me with just all the struggles I had gone through to try to get pregnant. And so I was looking forward to seeing it.
So we get there, we open the bus and we walk in kind of like a motel shape is the only way I could like a U-shaped building you can picture. And we walk into the courtyard and I just, I just couldn't even walk another step. When I got in, I looked and on the left-hand side was a slab of cement. That cement was like 50 by 30. I'm pretty challenged with measurements, but.
big, large, from that slab of concrete, rose bars going up to the sky, just like a jail. There was no roof on this structure whatsoever. And inside this structure were these beautiful children from six to maybe 14, totally naked, in their feces, in
Michele Sagarino (09:57.609)
an animal like pose you can picture. I'm not saying they're animals. They were treated like animals. I didn't just, I just stopped. I didn't have any control. You know, I didn't, I'm not in charge. I, I just got so angry and the woman that was there was rushing around trying to show us the food we had sent, show us the bedding, show us the sheets, et cetera. And when she showed them one room,
They had literally hosed the floor. I don't need to describe why. That's where they slept. I was like so upset and I was, I was appalled. I was sickened. I just didn't even know what to do. It was horrible. So we leave that facility and the next stop was another government run facility and it was an old age home and the elderly have like a huge portion of my heart, huge portion.
volunteered after track. I'd run up and volunteer when I was in high school to help at old age homes. So I'd seen a lot, but I kind of thought maybe I'll see something like I'm familiar with here and it's going to be okay. It's going to be okay, Michelle. This facility was run by the government. We again gave them sheets, bedding, food. And Lindy, when we got there, many of the residents were tied to the floor, the bed.
What do you call it? The post of the bed on the floor, right? Chained to the bed. They had bowls of food next to them like they had dog food. I mean, I wouldn't even give that to my little puppy. And these elderly people were just lying there, some clothes, some not. was again, just just too much to bear and just too much to bear. So as we got into the van for our third stop, I was just done.
Lindy Wynne (11:25.852)
Like posts.
Michele Sagarino (11:54.903)
I like, this is not for me, Lord. This isn't for me. I don't even know what to do with what you've shown me. I'm heartbroken. I don't want to go to the third visit. I don't want to go. But we go. And the third visit was run by an order of sisters. And it was also an old age home that they had supported. And we provided all the same things. And so when we walked into there,
that resident, was open air, which was kind of neat, know, that a lot of open air in the Caribbean. And so anyway, the elderly were all around in a circle and their chairs and they were singing. They were talking to us. I could relate to them and feel connected like I feel to you right now in Christ. I felt so comfortable. The nuns were full of joy. Their food was like shared with us. And on top of that,
which just was the cherry on the top, is that the same huge bags of food we had sent to the other ministry, sorry, government run facilities, this ministry asked us if we wanted to do an outreach, giving food outside, know, handing out bags of food. So we did that, like God literally multiplied the food for his glory. He literally...
built the kingdom larger in that spot that day. He literally provided joy and transformation. you know that day, I mean, looking back all these many years, that day, I just knew that despite the fact that I like to blow dry my hair and use a curling iron and pack way too much, and I'd never been in the developing world in my life, that that is where God wanted me.
to be like throw those things away. Stand right here and just know shout it from the rooftop. If I am not in the middle of it everything or anything, it's not going to survive. It's not going to flourish. It's not going to balloon. I if I'm not in the middle of your marriage, if I'm not in the middle of how you raise your children and definitely if I'm not in the middle.
Michele Sagarino (14:17.527)
of how people try to do development work, right? How we try to do development work in the third world. Never in a million years would I have ever said, okay, Lord, I want to go to developing countries and I want to be alongside the best leaders in the world that I've ever met. But in the worst circumstances, that's what I want to do. That's what I think, how I can help you. I didn't think I could help you. I didn't feel
I didn't really feel worthy to, I didn't have an education in that, but you know what? It didn't matter because he was paving the way and from that moment on, I mean, God did end up blessing us with Ryan, our second child three years later, but from that moment on, it's like I felt like I fit. I don't think I felt like I knew how to do everything and maybe that was the purpose. Like maybe I needed to realize I can't.
make a change. There is no change without Christ. There is no change. And that if you lean into Him and you cry and you struggle and you try to stretch and you try to discern, all of that journey is beautiful. All of it, the good, the bad, all of that is so beautiful. And that's where true change comes from. And so for me, that set off a path that I tell you, Lindy, I think some of my friends thought I was.
I don't know. I'm just crazy because I just came back and just couldn't get enough of our Lord. I couldn't get enough of reading our Bible. I couldn't get enough of sharing with others, you know.
But how to be a leader, like watching these sisters, watching the priests in the field, watching all of these leaders that have no resources, no resources. What they essentially say is if the problem is harder, instead of praying an hour a day, they pray three hours a day. And they mean it. They don't just say, let's see a little prayer. They want to pray and they want to change the world. They want to bring him into the center. So for me, you know,
Michele Sagarino (16:29.301)
I think I leaned on my own understanding too much in life. I struggle with that, right? I struggle with that. And of course, as we get older, you understand a lot more, you? You have children and you go through things, but you can still kind of lean back on that sometimes. And for me, wouldn't trade. I wouldn't trade all the bad that I saw. I wouldn't trade that experience.
or anything because God used it. Those children, they got moved out of the government facility into a home called Mustard Seed, which is beautiful, run by, he's Monsignor now, Monsignor Gregory Ramkinson, who was a laugh that could just light up your whole world. And he worked with children anyway that had hydrocephalus. They didn't have to have that. Their skulls were stretched so large from the water on their brain. All these,
these things that sometimes didn't even need to be if they had the right medicine, he was taking care of these children. And so we brought those children there and they were able to sit in a chair and learn how to eat at a table and most importantly, be loved, be touched and be loved. you know, he just, God really changed my life. I did say one prayer before that trip.
was I had no idea what to expect and my prayer was I wanted to be able to love each person I met the way that I love my son, the way that I love my mama, the way that I love my best friend. And I want you to show me that. And that is what Catholic social teachings rooted in, right? Is love of one another. And that is him. And that's what really
creates the change that we see in these beautiful families. So I had to throw away my big suitcases. Well, not always, but, and I'm thankful for it because that journey, I don't know where I would be without it. I don't think I'd be a bad person per se, but the intense connection to our Lord would have had to come in.
Michele Sagarino (18:55.393)
a whole other way, right? He would have.
Lindy Wynne (18:59.469)
Michelle, you are captivating and you sharing your story is so beautiful. You just took us along really a pilgrimage of your heart. And what's coming to me is that it started with the I like you talked about self-sufficiency and I got this degree and then I graduated and then I started a business and then
you faced infertility, which I have also faced Michelle and I've never been pregnant and Michelle and I really don't know very much about each other. Michelle, we are a family through the gift of adoption. So I am a mother through the gift of adoption. So we share that as well. And so, but what I'm hearing is when you couldn't make the pregnancy happen, you couldn't fix that problem that you came to the end of yourself. And I talk about this a lot, especially when I do.
retreat work and I'm witnessing myself, it's like coming to the end of myself. I have come to the end of myself so many times in my life. I come to the end of myself every day. we are so limited, yet God is limitless. And so what I'm hearing from you is then as you did end up adopting your first child and then you were not able to at that time have another adoption or whatnot.
that then you went to do the international work for the Lord. And through all of that experience, it really became about thee, as in capital T-H-E-E, thee, Lord, may my life be totally dependent on, surrendered to, and in your will, Lord. And I love how you talked about, like your friends thought you were crazy. Michelle, I wasn't raised Catholic, and so.
Michele Sagarino (20:42.987)
Yeah.
Lindy Wynne (20:45.548)
When I got married young, when I was baptized Catholic, like people thought I was nuts. And so much of that. Yeah, that's also when you discovered that you fit and that is so beautiful. And I think that's really revelatory and that's so beautiful because you found that you fit when you really didn't fit. mean, really you were choosing something that to others could look very radical and very difficult, but the love of God is
Michele Sagarino (20:52.086)
you
Lindy Wynne (21:15.231)
It is that radical in a sense, what we're called to do with our lives and how we're called for the greater glory of God to give our lives away is just that. And then what I heard from you is the we, which is so powerful. Like I've never thought of that before. Like I to the, to we, because you said that when you went there, you went with the best leaders.
Michele Sagarino (21:35.785)
L and D.
Lindy Wynne (21:44.106)
in the worst circumstances. And when you even talked about mustard seed, the other home that was created for those children so that they they'd leave where they were, that has nothing to do with cross Catholic outreach that has to do with an entirely different group of humans and priests. And that is so powerful, Michelle. I feel so moved by that. feel so emotional because it's in the we it's that we need everybody.
And we can't do the work of the Lord without one another. Like our work is limited until we see the gift of the other both in, you and I talked a little bit about this before we started recording, the gift of life, the gift of God, God's self in every human being, including the poor and the vulnerable, as well as in one another.
Michele Sagarino (22:37.195)
And I so agree. You see fruits when the Lord is in the middle. You see like a more holistic approach. Because, Lindy, I could give you a home, you know, in these countries, we could build a home, maybe $8,000 would build a home in some of these countries. But if you're not coming alongside lifting up the spiritual leaders of that community, the priests, the nuns, the bishops,
Well, where's that whole part? That's not holistic. If you're not looking at the social because Lindy and I, we just received a water well, but we used to collect water by the river. And yes, that was terrible. But we also had community there. So how am I going to have community with Lindy? Where's that social aspect? All of those things, that holistic approach is a big, a big fruit that the Lord gives us when we're in community, right? That we're in.
I think looking at common good, caring or willing the good of someone else brings you in communion with them, brings you in communion with the Lord. that was probably a huge turning point, too. Even though a lot of us have volunteered young, and I always knew that, but really pausing and not just trying to solve.
being in communion and willing that there's a difference to that. There's a difference. That's what makes change. I don't know about you, but as a woman and working and my kids are all older now, obviously, but grandchildren, I don't know how much time there is for relationships, right? You're, you're busy. You have to make them and every relationship takes that, that time and
And I think that's the key. One of the keys that the Lord showed me, it's a key to our ministry at Cross Catholic Outreach is to be in relationship and to spend that time and honor that and to know the partners in 32 countries around the world, to know the bishops and to stay with them because they're doing mighty work to stay there and to know each other. I love that part, that relationship part. We all say we like to be relational.
Michele Sagarino (25:04.769)
But what does that mean through the eyes of our Lord? Right, does that mean?
Lindy Wynne (25:09.666)
Yes, and what I'm hearing from you is two things in regards to communion or communing or community. And the first thing you said that was so beautiful was that when we serve another or we love another or we care for another, we are in communion with the Lord. And I think that goes back to what you said about fitting in and belonging is because you were you were essentially giving your life away.
for the Lord and for like you talked about like willing the good for another human being. That's really that is really profound Michelle what you're saying like with the clarity that you're sharing that and I think that could be so helpful for all of us gathered because I think so often in the other kind of poverty the kind of poverty that Saint Mother Teresa talks about that probably everybody listening is touched by
because we live in a very different culture and circumstances is the poverty of love and the poverty of those connections and of that community. And so you're essentially sharing an answer to that. That's not really, it's not your answer. It's what you experienced by the goodness and the grace of the Lord. So loving another brings us in communion with the Lord, but then also the community.
like doing that in community and staying connected in that genuine walk and accompaniment and encouragement of one another.
Michele Sagarino (26:46.697)
I so agree. And Lindy, I could add, talking about women and leaders and us and our faith, going to Rome and meeting Sister Smorelli from the Dicastery for the Promotion of Integral Human Development. Integral Human Development is like that holistic development. That's all it means is that holistic. And she talked about this topic. She's one of the first women to be a leader in a Dicastery in Rome. So she's pretty amazing.
firecracker, but brilliant, brilliant, brilliant woman. And what she was sharing is that everything that you said is so true brings us into communion as we're willing that good, the good of another, as we're helping, as we're serving in our roles. But it's not, it's reciprocal. Am I saying that right? It's reciprocal. It's not one way we are receiving from those that we're serving. So, so.
Lindy Wynne (27:34.932)
Mm-hmm.
Michele Sagarino (27:43.029)
the beneficiaries, those beautiful, beautiful people that I met in that very first trip and to Jamaica, the elderly, they gave so much to me. And so it's important when we're serving others to allow that space to be vulnerable enough to take in somebody wanting to love you back and to give to you because that is where he's in the middle. I think right that exchange with one another.
So she's a powerful, powerful speaker, really.
Lindy Wynne (28:17.214)
I love how you spoke of that exchange and the desire to have someone love you back.
And two things come to heart for me listening to you, Cher and Michelle. And the first is that Immaculay, who I'm sure you're familiar with, was on. And she was in the Rwandan genocide. And she was hidden in a bathroom for 90 days. And when she came out, all her family had been murdered, except for one sibling that I believe was out of the country at the time.
And I, especially being a mom through the gift of adoption, was so moved. And also, much of my conversion, especially my call to be a mom through the gift of adoption, happened when I went on an immersion trip and that I was at an orphanage in Mexico in a third world or developing country. So I relate to a lot of your story there too. But Immaculay went and talked to a priest in her grief. And the priest told her to go hug the orphans.
It was like in her sorrow and in her loss and her grief, she was to go hug the children who had the sorrow and the loss and the grief that she now had because she was missing her mother and she was missing her father. And I think that that touches at the heart of the reciprocity. And also, Michelle, you're speaking to the vulnerability of love because we're all vulnerable to wanting to be loved and wanting communion. Like we're made for communion.
communion with God first and then with one another in his holy love and God's holy love. And all I can really say is that that's exactly what I've experienced by being a mother through the gift of adoption. Like two of our children are from foster care and one, the third was adopted from birth and all in very vulnerable circumstances. Yet I have been loved. I have received the love that I most long for.
Lindy Wynne (30:15.517)
with them. I mean, it makes me emotional just thinking about it. Like, so often people say like, they're so lucky or this or that. And it's like, it's not that surface level. It's it's a deep thing of the soul. It was a draw and a call and a yes and a and then a receipt like a a gift from the Lord. And it was a gift together in communion with the one who were called to commune with.
Michele Sagarino (30:42.679)
So so beautiful brings back a lot of memories I'm sure there's a lot of adoptive parents and you know that can can really relate to that when When we were going through Our follow-throughs or whatever you want to call them, you know the losses of adoption Somebody said something that is stuck with me one woman at our work That I was work where I was working shared with me that she had given up a child for adoption
And she shared with me her heartbreak and her prayers for that baby and how she felt settled because she knew God was taking care of that baby. And then one just had found out she was adopted and was going through that process of excitement. then also, this is many, many years ago before things were so open, you know, just kind of a little fear. And the one that had given up her baby said to me,
or I hate to say given up, the one that had decided to place her child for adoption said, none of us own our children. None of us own our children. The Lord owns our children. They are alone to us and they are His. And that's like very leveling. So when I prayed that prayer to say, I want to love these children as much as my child, really we should all, that's what we all are called to do. It's one of the...
largest commandments, right? The most important commandment, but it's important. And so I think, you we all go through these different struggles and we see people going down a road that we think we should be going down and I wouldn't trade it. I wouldn't trade this experience because I would want Michelle and Ryan to be my children. God wanted those two to be my children. So.
As women, think it's important to share and comfort others as they're going through that as well, the younger women.
Lindy Wynne (32:40.794)
Yes, and I love how you talked about how essentially we're called to really be a reflection of the love of our blessed mother and a mother to all. I remember my husband wrote that to me in a card. I think it was an anniversary card. It was a Mother's Day card. And it was just a couple years ago. And he said, you're a mother to all. And it really moved me. And I was like, to me, it was so touching because it felt like there was like
nothing better he could say. And he like said it all on his own because I know we're here doing this mini retreat in a podcast and you know, this is a more public thing, but we love in the intimacy and this is intimate. mean, we're, we love everyone listening. Like there's a general genuine will and hope for the very best and belonging that sense of communion for everyone gathered and that we all like I talked about earlier, like
that we leave this time together more full and more clear because the Lord is clear. Like God is not confusion, God is clarity. And God calls us to commune with one another and to love that fully and that vulnerably and to give our lives away in that sense because Michelle, I think this is another thing too, it's like at the heart of it, love is not necessarily easy or comfortable.
And I love that a friend of mine has said before like discomfort never killed anybody or like being uncomfortable. You know what I mean? But it's like that's really where the stretching happens and the growing happens. And I'm hearing so much of that in your story because here you are with these phenomenal leaders such as yourself yet in these really difficult circumstances and gut wrenching circumstances. remember
Michele Sagarino (34:14.679)
It's just...
Lindy Wynne (34:35.322)
the summer when I was 21 years old and I volunteered at this orphanage in Tijuana, Mexico, a little Pueblo outside of it. I went in the bathroom the first day and cried. I just cried out to the Lord and just also like being overwhelmed at what I was seeing and like one of the many times I'm at the end of myself, Lord.
Michele Sagarino (34:57.983)
how the Lord opens our sight, right? And He allows us to see things and to stretch and to grow. I love how there's a common language among us all. It's a common language. So when I last month went to Kenya and visited with women and men and children in the most remote areas where we're providing huge water systems that can help
Like 3,000 people, 5,000 people. As I walked a riverbed with women that was dry for miles, miles, and they dug a hole like four feet in circumference, know, not very big, and got the orange water coming up as the oxen push them out to try to get there. You know, this is what they're drinking. This is what their life is like. This is what...
burden is on them. Their children can't go to school because they're trying to get this water. But yet the Lord heard their cries and connected people all the way here in the United States to care about, to love somebody they don't even know and provide funds to build that well that they're going to be getting in the next, I think it's the next month, the one that I just saw. But to be with these women,
to not even understand a word they're saying. I mean, we have interpreters, but as I'm just walking or being with them, and yet sometimes, Lindy, I'll be with them and try to sign it or, you know, kind of mouth the words or point or do whatever, but I'll just be sitting with them. And sometimes both of us will be like pulled to tears because it's, you feel the connection. You don't have to say any words, you know. And of course, sometimes it's,
it's tears over their circumstance, but many times it's tears of joy of what God is doing, just connecting about our families as the interpreter shares. How small is our world? It is so small. We all have the same desires and yet we are in such different circumstances. And I guess when you think about the big old world, words, excuse me,
Michele Sagarino (37:17.419)
the universal church, don't you think like it's kind of a formal thing to say sometimes a universal church, but it's so true because there's all these people doing wonderful things and being called by them. And you can just watch it. You can just watch it unfold in front of you as I listen to some of your past podcasts and listen to those women, as I see people in Kenya. To me, that is so exciting, right? To just watch the church move and
The church is doing such amazing work. How can you not do a 360 and change your life and follow him? Our church is doing amazing work. He's guiding us to big, big things.
Lindy Wynne (38:00.651)
Yes, and that is so inspiring, Michelle. it reminds me like there's much scripture about like, will know them by their fruits or like you'll know whatever it is by its fruit. And what I'm witnessing in you and what I think that we can't escape is reality. And the reality is that we know by fruits and like the glorious fruits that you have witnessed and what is pouring out of you.
we know this by the fruit of ultimately big t truth god and love and that's what we all long for that's what we all hunger for ultimately is just that and it sounds like that that is being shared in communion mutually like like you're saying and really quick a memory came back to me during that time at the orphanage where this woman came by
And some of the children that were there actually had families, but their families were too poor to take care of them where other children did not have families. It just depended on the child's situation. So this woman was there and I speak Spanish and I would say I'm probably about 70 % speaking of the Spanish language. And yet it's very hard for me, like many when like with really rapid speech when I'm listening, I feel like a deer in the headlights. And I remember
sitting with a woman and holding her hands, an older woman, and I'd never met her before and we're like sitting on this bench at the orphanage and she is just sharing her story with me and crying. Like whatever was going on in her heart and her life and I'm just holding her hands, like feeling a little self-conscious that I cannot understand everything that she's saying. But when you talk about that Holy Communion that surpasses language and that's of the heart and the soul, when you were talking about that I thought of that memory.
Michele Sagarino (39:58.423)
Lindy, you can't believe this. Today, every day at Cross Catholic Outreach, we pray for the first hour. So today we had a presentation thanking God for his blessings from last year, our year ends June 30th. So we were thanking and I had been in Mass, this was a while ago when we were prepping for our new year. So it was a while ago, but I shared this story about the fruits just like you talked about. And I shared that you'll know, right? The good from the fruits.
And that many times we want five star fruits, that's what our priest was sharing, right? But probably I average like a three. And the only way that we can have five star fruit is to be connected to him. And the more we can be connected, the more you can see that fruit. So I just think it's so appropriate that God just placed that for you to say and tie it all back together, because it's a connection to him. So thank you for that. Beautiful.
Lindy Wynne (40:56.139)
Yeah, praise God. That's all God's good providence. And that's why, Michelle, and I said this in a recent podcast, too, because much like this, all these providential connections were being made. And this is why it says, and I believe it's in the Gospel of Matthew to not plan what you're going to say, but like to trust in the Lord that the Lord will provide the words for you. And so that's how we roll here at Momma's in Spirit so that it can be really Holy Spirit centered, hopefully other than
Michele Sagarino (41:19.691)
Yeah.
Lindy Wynne (41:24.715)
me centered that me to the V to the we yeah Michelle you are such a gift so speaking of good fruits how can everybody get more connected and learn more about what you do at Cross Catholic Outreach
Michele Sagarino (41:27.935)
I love that, I love that. I'm gonna remember that.
Michele Sagarino (41:41.303)
Cross Catholic Outreach is a Catholic ministry since 2001, helping the most poor around the world, 32 countries, water, housing, education, food. And you can see many different leaders like Lindy and I talked about today. You can go online to crosscatholic.org and just look at the various programs from the landing page forward. It's very easy to navigate.
and just see if God is calling you to help provide maybe food or a home or you know, there's a section there to add your prayers and our prayers, I was trying to think of the number, I think, I don't wanna expand, I think it's about 50,000 to 60,000 prayers come in every year and we pray aloud for those prayers. We take a pause and pray silently for those prayers so.
don't just have to give, join us in the most important aspect, which is prayer for one another and community. So, arschenetholic.org.
Lindy Wynne (42:42.539)
Yes. Thank you so much, Michelle. I love how you talked about how you start the day with an hour of prayer. And that really pours out. Like I can I see that in you. I witnessed that in you and the works that you all are doing. Michelle, thank you so much for being here. It has truly been a gift and a blessing. I've probably shared another podcast that I feel like I'm in a time of discernment for myself. Michelle, I'm used to things being really hard for my.
parenting and our two older children have moved out and we still have a little at home and I'm taking that pause. I really have sensed the Lord saying pause Lindy don't rely on me and just my decision making about like what I'm gonna do next. So I'm really discerning this as a contemplative and action really that's from Ignatian spirituality and so you're inspiring me so much and I just I appreciate your good example.
Michele Sagarino (43:37.569)
I appreciate you as well and that you're stepping out doing this and that we could connect. I feel like I have another friend in our church working to fulfill what he's calling us to do. So thank you, Lindy. God bless you so much.
Lindy Wynne (43:51.052)
God bless you, Michelle, and let us close in prayer in the name of the Father, Son, Holy Spirit. Amen. Dearest Lord, you are so good. You are so good. Every human being, including everyone gathered today, Michelle, is a glorious reflection of your hands, You have made and molded and shaped each one of us across the entire surface of the world.
And Michelle talked today about our universal church, Lord. Lord, we just pray that each one of us, the church is made up of each one of us, all of us together. And so we pray for what we do have control over, Lord. And that's the surrender of each of our hearts and our lives to you, to do your will and to love as you call, to commune with you so that hopefully and prayerfully by your grace, we can commune with one another.
In your name we pray, amen. Name of the Father, Son, Holy Spirit, amen. You can go to all major podcast hosting sites as well as mamasinspirit.com, M-A-M-A-S, for many more faithful podcasts. The word mamas actually comes from my time at the orphanage in Tijuana because the little girls were referred to as mama and I thought that was so endearing and sweet and so many of these children were orphans.
And it reflected to me our belovedness. It's God's daughters and it's God's children. And knowing that and allowing God into our hearts and our lives, we then can also see and love hopefully others as a mama. And hopefully by God's grace reflect the purity of heart, even though our hearts will be perfectly pure like our blessed mother. Can't wait to be together again next time. This is Lindy Nguyen with Mamas in Spirit.
May God bless you and yours always.