44. Jaylen's Journey to Jesus: Part One - Healing from childhood trauma, addiction battles, and the cross of cancer, through Jesus

Happy Feast of Corpus Christi!

In this episode of the Veil and Armour podcast, Sheila Nonato interviews Charisse Tierney, who shares the inspiring story of her beloved friend ,Jaylen Meyer. Charisse discusses her journey as a mother, writer, and musician, and how her friendship with Jaylen blossomed through shared experiences in faith and motherhood.

The conversation delves into Jaylen's struggles with addiction, her transformative relationship with the Bible, and her eventual conversion to Catholicism. Charise highlights Jaylen's unwavering faith, her approach to suffering, and the profound impact she had on those around her, culminating in the writing of a book about her life by her friend, Charisse, with the working title of "A Beautiful Soul."

Takeaways:
-Jaylen's story is one of transformation and faith.
-The title 'Beautiful Soul' reflects Jaylen's character.
-Catechesis of the Good Shepherd is a Montessori-based spiritual formation for children.
-The Bible played a crucial role in Jaylen's healing journey.
-Jaylen's unexpected pregnancy led to her transformation into a devoted mother.
-Jaylen's conversion to Catholicism was a significant turning point in her life.
-Living a life of holiness involved simplifying her surroundings and prioritizing prayer.
-Jaylen's suffering was embraced as part of her spiritual journey.

Memorable quotes:
"She was a beautiful soul."
"She surrendered everything."

To support Charisse Tierney's work towards completing the book, "A Beautiful Soul," please visit:

https://www.charissetierney.com

https://www.youtube.com/@charissetierney

Chapters

• 0:00 The Parable of the Prodigal Son
• 3:01 Meeting Cherisse Tierney
• 9:14 Jalyn's Story Begins
• 14:55 Finding Faith Through Scripture
• 22:44 Unexpected Pregnancy as Saving Grace
• 27:16 Living a Holy Life
• 35:14 Carrying Her Cross with Grace

Transcript

Charisse Tierney: 0:00

I watched her as a mom struggling with things with her kids and trying to get their work done, and running from her in the park when all she was trying to do was round them up and get them in the van to go get lunch. She was just like any other mom, you know, in that regard, and yet, when she allowed God to work in their lives, and even through such great trial and hardship, anything is possible with God's grace and mercy. And you're not alone. We've all been through it, even Jaylen.

Sheila Nonato: 0:36

And he said there was a man who had two sons, and the younger of them said to his father, "Father, give me the share of property that falls to me. And he divided his living between them. Not many days later, the younger son gathered all he had and took his journey into a far country, and there he squandered his property and loose living, and when he had spent everything, a great famine arose in that country and he began to be in want. So he went and joined himself to one of the citizens of that country who sent him into his fields to feed swine and he would gladly have fed on the pods that the swine ate. And no one gave him anything. But when he came to himself, he said, "ow many of my father's hired servants have bread enough and to spare, but I perish here with hunger. I will arise and go to my father and I will say to him Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you I am no longer worthy to be called your son. But the father said to his servants Bring quickly the best robe and put it on him and put a ring on his hand and shoes on his feet and bring the fatted calf and kill it and let us eat and make merry For this. My son was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found, and they began to make merry.

Sheila Nonato: 2:05

The parable of the Prodigal Son and his brother, according to the Gospel of St. Luke, tells of the story of God's unconditional love for us. Today we will hear the story of a young woman named Jaylen, who battled addiction, lived through childhood trauma from abuse addiction, lived through childhood trauma from abuse and cried to Jesus to find him in studying the Word of God. Let us hear Jaylen's incredible journey to Jesus, as told by her dear friend, Charisse Tierney, from Jaylen living like the prodigal children whom we all are or have been, to claiming her rightful place as the daughter of the King of Kings. Happy Feast of Corpus Christi! His love reigns forever. Thank you and God bless.

Sheila Nonato: 2:59

Hello and welcome to the Veil and Armoru podcast. This is your host, Sheila Nonato. I'm a stay-at-home mom and a freelance Catholic journalist, seeking the guidance of the Holy Spirit and the inspiration of Our Lady. I strive to tell stories that inspire, illuminate and enrich the lives of Catholic women, to help them in living out our vocation of raising the next generation of leaders and saints.

Co-Host: 3:22

Please join us every week on the Veil and Armour podcast, where stories come alive through a journalist's lens and mother's heart.

Sheila Nonato: 3:30

Welcome to the Veil and Armour podcast and I am humbled and honored to welcome Charisse Tierney to our podcast. Thank you so much for coming and for asking me, via the Veil Armour podcast, to tell this beautiful story of your friend, which we will discuss during the interview. But if you can, please start off with a prayer.

Charisse Tierney: 3:50

Yes, I would love to, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Hail Mary, full of grace. The Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, and Blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.

Sheila Nonato: 4:15

And I would just like to introduce the listeners, our listeners, to Charisse. She has held a love for writing ever since her childhood years. She has contributed regularly to CatholicMomcom for over a decade and is a contributing author for the Catholic Moms Prayer Companion. Her writings have also been published in Family Foundations magazine and on her personal blogs, paving the Path to Purity and Montessori Piano. Charisse has over 25 years of experience as a professional clarinetist and piano and clarinet instructor. She has most recently enjoyed performing with such groups as the Wichita Symphony, the Wichita Grand Opera and Ballet Wichita.

Sheila Nonato: 4:57

When she isn't writing, performing or teaching, cherise stays busy at home in West Wichita with her husband and seven children, five of which she homeschools. She strives to live a devout Catholic lifestyle with her family and especially enjoys reading stories of the saints with her children and continually seeking ways to keep prayer and love for God central amidst the busyness of a big family life. Welcome, Charisse. And that's already such a beautiful story right there, but there's more. So yeah, so, if you can, I'm sure the readers or the listeners already know you from your writings for the Catholic publications and blogs, but can you just tell us a little bit about yourself and what have you been doing in terms of your motherhood and also your writing and your music career?

Charisse Tierney: 5:43

Right. So, yeah, I have seven children, so the bulk of my time goes towards caring for my family, caring for my children. We also recently, about a year ago, my parents moved into an assisted living facility and I have a mentally handicapped sister who moved in with us, so now we also help to care for them. But I was a full-time stay-at-home mom for over 20 years, so I know what that's like to be in the thick of diapers and nursing and toddlers and all of the chaos that can come with that. And it was during that time especially that I found a creative outlet in my writing.

Charisse Tierney: 6:37

As you mentioned, I'm a professional musician, but the younger childhood years with with my children didn't allow me a lot of time to keep up with my performing that I loved so much, um. So the writing allowed me to have a creative outlet and I started my, my blog then and um, and started writing for Catholic mom, and which I've been writing for for over 10 years now, I believe, and I've really loved being a part of that community and enjoying keeping that up, and it's been a dream to write a book. My friend Jaylen gave me a wonderful story to share and I am thrilled that God placed her in my life so that I can tell her story.

Sheila Nonato: 7:25

And can you yeah, can you please tell us? Is the book going to be titled "Beautiful Soul or that's sort of a tentative title? Can you tell us about the book that you're working on and your friend.

Charisse Tierney: 7:35

Right. So that's the working title right now, which actually came from the homily at her funeral mass. Father Jared Leis, who concelebrated that funeral mass, began his homily that way, with those two words, beautiful soul, which actually had come from a text from another priest that had worked closely with her. Father Bernie, who was with her and her family in her final hours, was with her and her family in her final hours and he let him know in a text that she had passed and he just said beautiful soul. And I think those two words really stuck with anyone who had met her.

Charisse Tierney: 8:23

Everyone saw that immediately that that was the perfect way to describe her, Anyone who visited her, especially in her final weeks and days, and saw how she had transformed and taken this illness and this cancer and her suffering and all that she had to sacrifice at the young age of 36 with four young children, and she allowed God to transform her and her family and her loved ones and her friends through that experience, and so it seemed like a natural title for the book. My hope is that by telling her story, all of her ups and downs throughout her life, that it can point towards Jesus and kind of provide almost a blueprint for the rest of us, as many of the stories of the saints do on how to live our lives better. Many of the stories of the saints do on how to live our lives better, how to get, how to journey to heaven ourselves and point always towards heaven and God and Jesus, as she always strove to do, especially in her last moments.

Sheila Nonato: 9:40

Can you tell us how did you meet Jaylen, can you?

Charisse Tierney: 9:43

tell us how did you meet?

Charisse Tierney: 9:44

Jayleyn. So Jaylen and I met about. It's been about six years ago now, I guess. My family and I moved to the city of Wichita, kansas, and I believe the first time I met her was just through a Bible study group at our parish, at our church that we went to, and I remember she's always been a giver. I remember even at that time she was the mom that would stay in the room with all the toddlers so the rest of the moms could sit and have a break and visit and discuss our Bible study. And yet she was also the mom who would pop in once in a while with oh, here's a Lenten devotional for all of you. That I found that, I think, would be wonderful, and so I got to know her a little bit through that.

Charisse Tierney: 10:44

And then, as our friendship started there, the two of us really became close when we went through Catechesis of the Good Shepherd trainings together. So we spent hours and hours in those together studying and learning, and got to where we would always sit next to each other, share our notes and our thoughts through those trainings. And then she started homeschooling and I started homeschooling soon after that, and so we started discussing homeschool ideas and it just grew and it got to where we would text regularly, we would get together for play dates, we would go on nature walks with our kids and just really enjoyed living life as homeschool moms together. And we were co-catechists in an atrium for a year and spent a lot of time there you amongst the spirituality of children and learning from them together, and discussing things. We would observe and kind of marvel together at how close children were to God. So that was a really special time to get to share with her as well.

Sheila Nonato: 11:53

And can you just explain? Catechesis of the Good Shepherd and you mentioned the atrium. For people who don't know those terms. Can you just explain? Catechesis of the Good Shepherd and you mentioned the atrium For people who don't know those terms. Can you just explain a little bit please?

Charisse Tierney: 12:02

Right. So Catechesis of the Good Shepherd is a spiritual formation program for children developed by Maria Montessori. I don't know if anyone's familiar with the Montessori educational philosophy and method. Educational philosophy and method. It's a lot of very hands-on type of learning for children so that it can work with them at their developmental level and fulfill their need to have movement, to not be stuck behind a desk just reading or hearing a lecture, but to learn through reading or hearing a lecture, but to learn through working with different materials. The atrium is a special environment or room set up just for them, for their particular age level.

Charisse Tierney: 13:00

Maria Montessori believed in having children learn from each other by combining a few ages together in each classroom. So the level one atrium has ages three to six, then the level two is six to nine and level three is nine to 12. And so the atrium would have things like a miniature altar with a small chalice and a patent that the children could work with. And as they're setting this up and they're thinking through what everything is called, it becomes very prayer-like for them. We often say that their work is their prayer, or she would say that.

Charisse Tierney: 13:32

And so our job as the catechist is to prepare the environment. So our job as the catechist is to prepare the environment. We would present scripture lessons for them. We read directly from scripture to these three to six-year-olds and they blow your mind with what they have to say and what they hear as you read the living word to them, scripture in the living room. The living word was a big part of Jalyn's conversion into the Catholic church, so I know that that spoke especially to her by being involved in that program. It's beautiful.

Sheila Nonato: 14:12

It sounds like it. I think I did. Yeah, I did do a story for The Catholic Register in Toronto many, many years ago and I did visit the atrium with the child-sized Pat and Ziborium, the altar, and yeah, it's just beautiful to see the little kids learning about the Mass in that way and then they can even touch it and it's sort of real to them right in a way they can understand, and that's beautiful.

Sheila Nonato: 14:40

and just to sort of continue on what you were saying about the scriptures, the bible, and what that meant to your friend, how did the bible play a role in her life? In her, I guess, coming to is it back to was a convert. Was she coming to the faith or coming? Okay, so coming to the faith, how did that play into that and that? How did that also help heal some wounds from her, from her childhood and from some of the struggles she had faced as an adult Right?

Charisse Tierney: 15:14

Right. So she, she had a pretty tumultuous early life. There's a lot to that story. She faced everything from experiencing and witnessing physical abuse to herself and her mother as like a three and four yearold, to experiencing her biological father. She was estranged from him for many years and she also, as she got into high school, early college years, she struggled with some alcohol, drug addiction. And so I and one of her who is her dad to her he was technically a stepfather, but who was the father figure who was in her life for the longest and who did wonderful things for her. His name was Rusty, wonderful things for her.

Charisse Tierney: 16:22

His name was Rusty and I spoke with him and he shared a story of kind of her rock bottom moment where she had had some struggles with alcohol and drugs. And he realized one night she was just out of her mind, she was on something. He wasn't sure what to do, what it was. He had a friend he thought might have an idea and be able to help called him. He said I think she probably needs to go to the hospital and get some help, you know, and so he was trying to get her to get in the car to go. It was getting difficult to pin her down and get her to agree to go and out of the blue, agree to go and out of the blue. And before this in her life she really didn't have a lot of structured religion. If there was anything in her life she had experienced, it was of a Protestant faith, but there really wasn't anything consistent or regular that she experienced growing up. And so, out of the blue, in the state she was in, she suddenly said I need a Bible, I need to read the Bible. And Rusty said she had never said anything like this before and he finally got her to go to the hospital by telling her we're going to the Bible store, because he just couldn't get her to make any sense. And she got in the car, he managed to get her there and pulled up to the hospital and he's like we're at the Bible store, let's go in. So looking back, he finds the story a little humorous because fortunately they were able to get her in there and get her the help that she needed and she did go into rehab for about six weeks right after that.

Charisse Tierney: 17:55

And she did go into rehab for about six weeks right after that, but it was during that time in rehab that she picked up a Bible and started to read it, really read it for the first time. Her husband thinks that was likely the first time she'd really read any Bible and she would pick it up and randomly read a scripture passage, and then the next time they had chapel at the rehab center, that would happen to be the passage that the chaplain would read and talk about. And this happened several times that she would randomly read something, and the next time she went into chapel that's the scripture passage that was spoken about. And so she started to think what's going on here? There's something happening, and what she was reading started to really speak to her and move her, and that was when she really turned around. She started to turn around.

Charisse Tierney: 18:51

Rehab was a big help. She wasn't fully healed at that point when she left rehab, but she had definitely turned a corner, um. And then it wasn't long after that that she met just a few weeks after she met, her husband, Nick and um. Ever since then, the, the bible, was the truly the living word for her and she, as Father said in his homily. He said she read it. Not, she never did read it as a historical text or just a book. You know she read it as something to be absorbed and lived and to really listen to and pay attention to and consider it as God speaking to her. So the Bible really was the turning point for her.

Sheila Nonato: 19:46

So the incident you mentioned when Rusty was going to take her to the hospital, that was her sort of rock bottom moment and sort of the addiction that she was facing and the Bible sort of. There was something stirring in her even before that that she was interested in reading it, although she was facing these challenges, these struggles. But there was something within her that she was yearning to to read scripture. Where was that coming from, do you know?

Charisse Tierney: 20:24

I don't know Cause I I asked Rusty had she ever talked about that before that moment? And he said, not that I know of you know it's. It's kind of seems to be just this divine intervention. Um, in that, in that moment, that that's where god was really stepping in to save her. Um, I know, I mean she had some other.

Charisse Tierney: 20:50

Of course, as I said, she lived through some physical abuse and witnessing that and the trauma of that. And and then, um, her estranged father and she had and witnessing that and the trauma of that, and then her estranged father and she had come through that and survived that. And there were a couple of separate times when she was under the influence and she rolled her car two separate times and Rusty was the one who helped her out of those predicaments. He was able to come and get her car back over with his truck that he had. And he just said it was the strangest thing because not even a window was cracked and she was completely unharmed both times.

Charisse Tierney: 21:31

And he and I were talking it's just as if God had this purpose in mind for her from the beginning were talking. It's just as if God had this purpose in mind for her from the beginning, which does also. That was affirmed when her husband Nick, after she passed or no, when she was sick he was speaking with a priest about her and telling him all about her, and he said the priest was just like oh, that's so beautiful, she was chosen for this and for this purpose. So I think sometimes we're not sure where these seeds are planted or where they come from. Maybe there was some tiny seed planted somewhere. But if you just give God a little, he'll step in and take that bigger leap that needs to happen to take care of you.

Sheila Nonato: 22:24

And so, during your work, your interviews, towards writing the book, you discovered that one of, I guess, the saving graces that you had discovered was an unexpected pregnancy. How did that fit into this?

Sheila Nonato: 22:45

sort of miraculous story of healing and redemption,

Charisse Tierney: 22:47

Right. So yeah, she, like I said, she met her husband, nick, a couple of weeks after coming out of rehab and and he he told me. He said, when she told me about her past he said I couldn't believe that was the same person. She had changed so much even at that point. And her stepdad, rusty, said once she became a mom he couldn't believe that was the same person because he knew her when she had been struggling so much. So there was a big transformation there. But she and Nick had been dating for not for very long, he said. And yeah, she realized she was pregnant and, of course, very anxious about it at first, very worried. At that point she and Nick weren't even sure where their relationship was heading exactly. And Nick finally told her I think you should go talk to Rusty, your stepdad. He's helped you through so much. Go talk to him, he'll know how to guide you through this. And she did. And he just said you know, I think God placed this child in your life for some reason and brought you and Nick together for a reason, and I think you need to give him a chance and keep dating him and just see where it goes. And there was always the intention that that baby would be born. And then she agreed you know, yes, we'll try, we'll give this a try.

Charisse Tierney: 24:23

And of course then we know eventually they did get married, nick and Jaylen. They Kyson was born, and then it was a couple of years after that they did get married and that they had their challenges. I know they had. Sometimes they went through some marriage counseling together. Every marriage has struggles from time to time. But they stuck it out. And so her Stepdad, rusty, he said and Kyson is her oldest son's name and he said Kyson and Nick saved her. He said I couldn't have imagined her ever having the capability of being responsible enough to be a mom until she had to be. And then she really stepped up and that that baby saved her. And so did Nick.

Charisse Tierney: 25:18

And after she passed I talked to and Nick had told me several times too, though he's like well, she saved me Because when he met her he said he didn't feel he was as devout in the faith as he could have been, but once she converted she really drew him in and it really bolstered his faith life. And then, when I talked to Kyson after she passed he's 13 now. He said, yeah, dad always says that mom saved him and this is this little baby that she was so anxious about. And here he was sitting talking to me about how, because of her, now he's not afraid of death anymore. And he said I miss her and I get sad sometimes, but I'm so happy because I know where she is.

Charisse Tierney: 26:15

And he just had this authenticity and faith and fervor in the way he spoke. It made me think of her and her last days and the way that she spoke and I said how has that affected your personal faith life? And he said, "h yeah, I used to think of church as a chore, but now I get excited to go and I thought what a gift that she left him. And now he's this light in the world, reflecting so much that's so similar to the way she was, and all from this baby and this unexpected circumstance that she accepted and took a chance on and jumped into wholeheartedly.

Sheila Nonato: 27:09

Beautiful, and can you tell me when did she convert? Was it after going through rehab not too long after that, or did it take her a few years to come into the church?

Charisse Tierney: 27:24

Right.

Charisse Tierney: 27:27

It took a few years. It was in 2017 that she joined the church, so that was actually just before I met her. So I saw her as this on-fire convert. When I first met her, and, yeah, I couldn't. I was much like Nick. I couldn't believe the things she told me about her former way of life, but it was, yeah.

Charisse Tierney: 27:50

When she met Nick, she said, well, any church I know at all is a Protestant church and maybe you could come with me to one of those, because she knew he was Catholic and church was becoming a subject they were discussing, and so he went with her and he's like I don't know, you know? And then he said, well, why don't you come with me to a Catholic Mass? And he said, well, the first time she went to mass, she described it as a cult because she just didn't understand it, and it seemed so formulated with all of the kneeling and the standing and the responses that are the same every time and all of that. But as she kept going and reading the Bible, it started to make a little more sense to her. And then it came time to send their kids to school, and Nick was Catholic and he was like well, we send our kids to Catholic school, you know, and she was open to that because she just she didn't want to send them to public school. So she said, okay, let's do that. And they started coming home with the religion papers and things that they were learning in school and she said I want to understand more about what they're learning in school. Like, I don't fully understand all of this myself and this is where I'm sending my children. I want to understand this. So that's when she really started picking up more books about the faith stories of the saints and reading more and more about it. And Nick said she just never looked back, she just believed everything and she took everything to heart and believed it 100% and then started going to R. C. I. A. (Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults, now known as the Order of Christian Initiation of Adults or O. C. I. A.), mostly again at first just to learn more about the faith, but then it was all over after that more about the faith, but then it was all over.

Charisse Tierney: 29:52

After that she started learning more and decided that he said once she believed and was convinced that Jesus Christ founded the Catholic Church and if he founded it, then anything the church taught has to be true and we have to live that way because it came from Jesus. And he said he does think by reading the Bible and taking it in as a living word, the living word the way she did. She had developed this relationship with Jesus and God first, so she had that fervent love for Jesus and therefore anything that he said she was going to do and live 100%. So by having that relationship first and then hearing the maybe quote, unquote rules as we think of them sometimes in the church, they weren't rules to her. They were this person she loved with all her heart, showing her how to be who he created her to be and that's all she wanted.

Charisse Tierney: 30:57

And so that's when I knew her and I was just always amazed at the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd trainings and Bible studies. She was always asking questions and always trying to make sure she really understood everything. And Nick said she was always reading and he's like she didn't just read and think well, that's a nice thing that that saint did, or that's a nice devotion. She read it and said I have to live this way, we need to do this now. And this was before she ever had the cancer diagnosis and she was relentless with that. It was that way for the rest of her life.

Sheila Nonato: 31:38

And, as you again, in your research you found many beautiful things in the way that she was living holiness in her daily life. Like you were mentioning that, you found out that she was very serious about her faith, that she got a flip phone, that she moved the TV to their basement, that her house was simple and decluttered. She really wanted to hear God and get out all the distractions. Is that sort of what you have discovered?

Charisse Tierney: 32:13

Oh, yes, yeah, and I was in her home a lot. It was always so peaceful and you could definitely tell that the presence of God was there, especially at the end. But yeah, Nick, her husband said she got to a point. She said I don't want the TV up here, we need to move it out. And he said, well, I'll put it in the basement and the room where the TV had been became her reading room, her space, her quiet space.

Charisse Tierney: 32:43

And he said when he got home from work at the end of each day she'd always go into her room and read for at least an hour and she just wanted that quiet reading, prayer time. He said he would try to get her to maybe come in and watch a movie with the family sometimes, which of course she would at times. But he said there was always that priority of getting her quiet time in or of reading or of praying. That always came first. And, um, he said I kind of felt bad because there were moments I felt a little jealous. She was just always putting God first, which of course he knows. He said that's how it should be. And he's like I wish I was better at that all the time and I wish that's just how she always was.

Charisse Tierney: 33:26

Yeah, she got a flip phone, I remember when she did that and yeah, it got to be a little harder to get a hold of her sometimes, but she just was getting more disconnected from the world and more connected with God in that way, more connected with God in that way, and she really continued to pursue that. Another thing that struck me I was listening back to an interview just last night with her husband and he was talking about her practice of prayer and how she was so good at imaginative prayer, of really envisioning the scripture passage or Jesus or Mary right there with her and really putting herself in that moment with them. And he says she just she practiced it a lot. You know, I think sometimes we read about these things and we try to do them for a while and either give up or fall away, but she just kept at it and then kept getting better at it and going deeper into it by her practice of it.

Sheila Nonato: 34:37

And so all of this was it seems like it was preparing her. I'm sorry I'm going to cry, because I watched the video that you did about her and it was just I mean, just before we did the interview, so it was just so beautiful. Like I'm thinking about Holy Week this is why I'm getting teary eyed. Is that we're going to be journeying towards Calvary and awaiting the resurrection? How did Jalyn carry the cross of her terminal illness? Can you please tell us?

Charisse Tierney: 35:11

Right, I've been thinking about this a lot too. How does one suffer so well? And I had talked to Nick about that and because the comment he made was she surrendered everything. And yes, all of that she had done before. The diagnosis certainly prepared her for that, it strengthened her. But, and Nick just said once she gave everything to God and surrendered everything, everything fell into place and it just worked out so well.

Charisse Tierney: 35:45

And I was like, wait, a lot of people would not see this that way. You know, how do you call her getting a terminal illness and dying and leaving four young children working out well, you know, how do we justify that to a world that would certainly, for the most part, not see that in that way? And Jalen was very inspired by the spirituality of St Therese, st Faustina I think she especially loved the childlike way of St Therese and I know this is familiar, this idea she had from the words of St Therese. But he said she would say that you know, this world is just a boat and we're just passing through and it's just made. We're just here for whatever it takes to get us to heaven and to God. And he said so if we're not made for this world. Then he said it had to happen that way for her. She had to go through that. That was her boat, that she was on, that was her way of being purified and getting to God and to Heaven. And he said so that's why it worked so well. And I just thought that was a beautiful way to think about it, that any suffering that we go through, any hardships or challenges that we have, um, that that's, that's our boat, that's our lot, and that's it's just a means to this glorious end that we're all trying to get to. And she saw that and she lived it and she embraced it and she allowed others to see that, as her husband said, there was so much more fruit born by that than just for her, and I think she must have had an understanding of that, that that was part of her purpose. I think she must have had an understanding of that, that that was part of her purpose.

Charisse Tierney: 37:55

When she was entering her final weeks, she was on hospice and it got to be where she was hanging on for two and three weeks, longer than they really thought she would. And the hospice nurse said I don't know why she's still hanging on. I haven't really seen this before and she's like I think God has some purpose for this. I just don't know why she's still hanging on. I haven't really seen this before and she's like I think God has some purpose for this. I just don't know what it is. But in that time people were visiting her and seeing her and being inspired by her and she would always say I don't understand why people are so inspired by me. And Nick said she just kept saying that and he said I realized she was not actually doing this for anybody, she wasn't trying to look a certain way, it was all for love of God, it was all because she was in love with of pain meds.

Sheila Nonato: 38:48

Join us for part two of Jaylen's story, where we hear of her courageous battle and her journey towards Jesus, her journey towards carrying her own cross and her path to holiness.

Co-Host: 39:21

Thank you and God bless. Thank you for listening to the Veil and Armour podcast. I invite you to share this with another Catholic mom today. Please subscribe to our podcast and YouTube channel and please spread the word. Let's Be Brave, let's Be Bold and Be Blessed together.