I graduated university and I had been abroad with a scholarship. During college I had fallen in love with an extremely beautiful girl. But her views were in contradiction with my ideals of life. She had a pure heart but she was influenced by persons who were not on the straight path of faith. After painful and endless talks, seeing that I couldn’t make her give up on her obstinate unorthodox ideas, we decided to break up. We loved each other very much but our ideas about the future were completely diverging.
I could not give up on a program of life and thought which I had promised to God since I was a child. The year when I was abroad was one when every moment was full of pain and longing for that girl. I made myself an armor of fake contempt for her and I refused to admit that I still loved her. No other girl could make my heart gallop when seeing her. My day was always a painful one when thinking about her.
When I arrived back home, I went to Iasi, to the relics of Saint Paraskevi. I was with my father. We worshipped them and I shed some tears there thinking of the girl of my dreams and said to the saint: Show me please if this is the girl with whom I should live, if she’s the one God have chosen for me. I was so heartbroken that I couldn’t even imagine that I would ever see her again. In that moment I felt a touch on my back: my father was pointing something to me.
At least than a meter behind the reliquary with the relics of Saint Paraskevi, the girl I loved was crying with her hand on it. Then she went to the bowl with holy water and drank a big mug of holy water. It was the answer for my question. So I didn’t hesitate. After some time I called her, we became friends again, her ideas were now clear and full of faith. Now we are married and we have three children.
Joseph
Saint Paraskevi’s Blessings – Testimonies of the worshipers, Doxologia Publishing House, p. 136-137)
