YOUNG Polish Catholic Aneta Graczyk has experienced “the truest kind” of love.
“I discovered that Jesus is true love,” she said after a recent pilgrimage to Rome and Assisi, Italy.
“He remains faithful to us and always stays by our side – even if we never give him the time of day, He is still there patiently waiting for the opportunity to sit quietly with us and fill our hearts with that overflowing love he so desires to give.”
The 25-year-old who grew up on Brisbane southside said she hadn’t always allowed herself to appreciate God’s love.
“After school I didn’t get the score I wanted for university so I applied for TAFE,” she said.
“I kept to myself, though on weekends partied with all my school friends.”
Following “an unhealthy relationship” Aneta “felt so low” she thought “Jesus can never reach me here”.
“I didn’t even feel like a Catholic any more, so Sundays (Mass) were out the window too,” Aneta said.
“Once again I was trying to fix things on my own.”
Realising Jesus “was the only one” who stayed with her, Aneta drew on “a special grace”.
“My parents, though travelling to Australia three years apart (when they migrated from Poland), both met John Paul II at the airport on the very day their flights were departing,” she said.
“It feels like a special grace was poured out on my family – holding hands, looking into the eyes of such a great and holy man, as he uttered a personal prayer from his heart that our family would be united again, twice.”
Knowing Jesus “was trying to woo” her back, Aneta went willingly, trusting in this “special grace”.
Years later and following “a beautiful conversion” during World Youth Day 2008, she then served with the National Evangelisation Teams in Coffs Harbour, New South Wales.
Life in the spotlight of God’s love is more fulfilling these days for the young woman whose Italian highlight was “walking on the same roads that St Francis walked”.
“I have my relationship back with Jesus – though it always existed, my earphones were in and I didn’t hear,” Aneta said.
“The pilgrimage shook up the very foundations in my heart,” she said.
“I discovered things in my heart that I never knew about and Jesus was calling me to make choices – to continue to live in pain and hold on to past hurts or to allow Jesus to flow in like a rushing wind and heal me.
“I felt like my spiritual journey was following the same descriptions of my physical journey from Rome – the history, the concrete, the marble, the harshness, the joys and sorrows, being in awe.
“(To) Assisi – the calmness, the stillness, the soft light, the greenery, the beautiful views and the deep breaths.”
With certain faith and growing knowledge of the Church, Aneta greets a well-lit future.
“I have come to believe that Jesus is the lover of our souls,” she said.
“He wants the best for us (and) He is perfect in every sense of the word so how could he not have the greatest plan for us?
“Our thoughts and feelings are limited, but not Gods’ – His imagination far exceeds anything that we could ever think.
“We have desires in our hearts that were planted by Him.
“What better person to see the great plan for us and make everything fit perfectly into place, thus exceeding our expectations?”
