Earlier this month, Immaculee Ilibagiza, a Rwandan genocide survivor, gave her personal testimony on how to “Love Your Enemy.” She spoke to a packed crowd of more than 6,000 Catholic middle and high school students from the LA Archdiocese at the annual Christian Service 4LIFE event sponsored by LIFEsocal at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles.
How can a woman like Immaculee — whose parents and two brothers, along with almost one million others were brutally killed during the Rwandan Holocaust — be so joyful? How can she forgive the people who killed so many?
Cramped in a 3×4 bathroom with seven other women, Immaculee couldn’t speak to anyone for three months, for fear of being discovered. She spent her time praying the Rosary 27 times a day and the Divine Mercy chaplet. She also read the Bible given to her by a pastor who risked his own safety to hide the women.
Immaculee told the crowd that when she heard the killers outside the door, “I had to choose between two voices. ‘Open the door, or keep praying?’ ” She looked for a sign, asking God if the killers knew where she was hiding.
“The killers searched everywhere. They even opened suitcases. The men turned away when they got to the bathroom,” Immaculee said.
How can a woman who came from a small, poor country, who grew up in an even smaller, poorer village get on the New York Times bestseller list? Immaculee told the high school students that her survival and success is all due to praying the Rosary.
“Love is the most important thing; just seek God. If you believe you are a child of God, the sky’s the limit,” she told the high school crowd.
Full story at Angelus News.
On the New York Times Best Seller List . . . Neither the main article nor the Angelus News gives the title of the book. That would be helpful to those of us who might like to read what seems like an amazing story.
Here is one beautiful lady in both body and soul.
I plugged her name into amazon, and this is probably the book referred to. She has authored others as well. https://www.amazon.com/Left-Tell-Discovering-Rwandan-Holocaust/dp/1401944329/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?keywords=Immaculee+Ilibagiza&qid=1572274080&s=books&sr=1-1-spons&psc=1&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUExTk9RMzRaQ0ZLTUdaJmVuY3J5cHRlZElkPUEwMzU2MDQ0MkZOTTZGTVZUMFZFUiZlbmNyeXB0ZWRBZElkPUEwOTcyNjg5MkRNMkFORUpZOVE1JndpZGdldE5hbWU9c3BfYXRmJmFjdGlvbj1jbGlja1JlZGlyZWN0JmRvTm90TG9nQ2xpY2s9dHJ1ZQ==
If you plug her name onto Amazon, you can see she wrote a number of books. Here is one: Left to Tell: Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust
Pray the rosary and get on the New York Times Best Seller list. Got it.
Why not sell her message to the warlike tribes back home? She’s preaching to the choir here.
I have read her book. If every Catholic in America seriously followed her example and went through the list of everyone who ever injured you, stole from you, spoke ill of you, or destroyed parts of your life, etc., America would be an amazing place. The Our Father is powerful. No act is unforgivable. And for those who haven’t started this process, look to Christ, St Paul, Pope St John Paul and many of the saints who walked in our shoes. Christ is certainly open to forgiving our sins, we who are sinners owe nothing less to our fellow sinners. And no this does not mean you need to be close to these people again. But I can tell you from my experience that praying for them, offering my communion for them, listing their names in the adoration or mass book (1st name only, even of they live far away), has done so much to heal me and help me to live in Christ’s amazing peace and joy. Divine Mercy is beautiful. Forgive, you cannot out give God. Forgiveness is something you do for them, for yourself and the entire Church. It’s all connected.