By Brian K. Kravec
Those who look to him are radiant, and their faces shall never be ashamed (Ps. 34:5).
Picture Patricia with her luminous smile and warm doe eyes radiant with the love and mercy of God. She is altogether beautiful (Sol. 4:7). She is her husband’s pride and joy (Prv. 12:4), and her daughter’s comfort (Is.66:13). She is as gentile as the steady breath of a sleeping baby. She is as fierce as a lion and as fearless as a warrior in battle (Prv. 28:1).
THIS IS NOW
Patricia Sandoval, a California-born daughter of Mexican immigrants, is a renowned, full-time, international pro-life and chastity speaker who shares the good news of God’s mercy and gift of life around the globe. Patricia has shared her miraculous testimony of healing and redemption through worldwide media outlets including EWTN’s Cara a Cara, Life on the Rock, At Home with Jim & Joy, Bookmark, and Women of Grace.
LOOKING BACK
And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast. (1 Peter 5:10)
St. Thomas Aquinas is attributed for saying “To one who has faith, no explanation is necessary. To one without faith, no explanation is possible.” Certainly, without faith in God our Father as Creator and Divine Physician, one cannot reasonably reconcile Patricia as the Champion of Life that she is now with the homeless, broken, drug addict of the past.
RAISED FROM THE ASHES
Nearly two hours had passed as Patricia, heaving in breathless sobs, sat abandoned and paralyzed with fear on the curb. Post-abortion syndrome (PAS) following three abortions, and years of methamphetamine addiction, homelessness, and the traumatizing horror of employment at Planned Parenthood had reduced her beautiful figure to a to a flesh covered skeleton of protruding bones. The flawless countenance of her youth was betrayed by her sunken cheeks, her pale skin and her shadow-cupped eyes. Only patches of velvety hair remained on her scalp due to a hair-pulling disorder known as trichotillomania.
It was in this state of hopelessness and helplessness that Patricia, intuitively sensing the presence of God, our loving Father, looked up and uttered a prayer found only in the faith of her childhood.
“ You are all I have in life at this very moment. I’ve hit rock-bottom. I have nothing: no friends, no money, no drugs, no family. I’ve ruined my life. I don’t know how I got myself to this point, but I know You exist, and I know that You’re listening to me…I want to thank you for all the many blessings you have given me in my life. You have given me a beautiful childhood, a wonderful family, and I want to thank You for all of that. But now, I’ve ruined my life. I’ve ruined it all.”
It was a young waitress named Bonnie, who in docility to the Holy Spirit, looked out the window of the restaurant across the street. She was taking an order when the Lord spoke to her heart and said “…tell that young lady who is sitting on the curb that even if her mother or father should abandon her, I will never abandon or forsake her. I will be with her until the end of time.”
Bonnie came out to meet Patricia in her deepest despair. “Jesus loves you,” Bonnie told Patricia, and she lifted her up, as a little child, with the loving arms of our Savior, from the ashes of her affliction. Bonnie fed Patricia and then put her in the car. “I’m going to take you where home is,” Bonnie said. “You’re going home.”
TRANSFIGURED
While attending a Rachel’s Vineyard retreat, divine providence would merge Patricia’s journey of post-abortive healing with the life and work of Christine Watkins, MTS, LCSW. Christine is a Catholic author and the founder of Queen of Peace Media.
Christine and Patricia would spend nearly eight years writing Transfigured: Patricia Sandoval’s Escape from Drugs, Homelessness and the Back Doors of Planned Parenthood.
Patricia’s testimony is imbued with the power of the Holy Spirit. Young and old around the world who read Transfigured or hear her life-changing testimony are reclaiming the beauty and advocating the transformative power of chastity. People who were once opposed, indifferent, or lukewarm in their Catholic faith are returning to the Church and proclaiming the right to life.
“I made them [my children] a promise…since I ended their life and I didn’t give them a chance to live here on earth, and to repair all the damage that I’ve done, to other people, to myself, to them, that I would do everything in my will to defend life, and I would be the voice of those who have no voice.” – Patricia Sandoval
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as we share abundantly in Christ’s sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too. (2 Cor. 1:3-5)
The age of miracles has not passed. See for yourself. Read Transfigured. Be transfigured.