{"id":3975,"date":"2026-11-01T11:34:56","date_gmt":"2026-11-01T06:04:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stsebastianaquem.com\/web\/?p=3975"},"modified":"2026-11-01T11:35:04","modified_gmt":"2026-11-01T06:05:04","slug":"faith-stories-nov-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stsebastianaquem.com\/web\/faith-stories-nov-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"Faith Stories &#8211; Nov 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong><\/strong><strong>Faith Over Fear: Embracing God\u2019s Plan for Life<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This Testimony is offered for the greater glory of God. While pursuing my doctoral studies and with my future wife newly employed as a school teacher, we felt called to the vocation of marriage. At a time when conventional wisdom favoured securing a job and building a house before marrying, we chose to trust Jesus and embrace this calling, with the blessings of our parents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Our Catholic faith teaches us to welcome children as precious gifts from God. Although my doctoral studies were incomplete and uncertainties weighed on me, my wife\u2019s unwavering faith strengthened me. Within a year of our marriage, the Lord blessed us with a son, a precious gift of His love.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p>When our son turned one, I received an unexpected blessing\u2014a college teaching job, I had never even prayed for!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Looking back, I see how God guided us through this phase of life. As Scripture reminds us, \u201cWith God all things are possible\u201d (Matthew 19:26). Through Jesus\u2019 grace and my wife\u2019s faith, we learnt that when we surrender our fears to God, He leads us towards blessings beyond our expectations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>-Adlete Mascarenhas (SCC 2)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"543\" height=\"56\" src=\"https:\/\/stsebastianaquem.com\/web\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/divider.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-3940\" style=\"width:242px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stsebastianaquem.com\/web\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/divider.png 543w, https:\/\/stsebastianaquem.com\/web\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/divider-300x31.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 543px) 100vw, 543px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n<p>Triumph! Triumph!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Twenty years back I attended a retreat at Divine Retreat Centre Kerala, which was my first retreat there. During the Retreat I made a good confession and prayed to Jesus and asked the Holy Spirit to descend upon me. As the sessions were going on, I could feel myself getting transformed, and during one particular session I heard a voice saying \u201cYou will be my witness\u201d and at that moment a power like an electric shock entered my body. And from then on I started praying more and more for myself and others, I started reading the Bible and my faith increased. In my life God tested me with many trials, but I did not give up, many prayers were answered. And now I am very happy with my life . I attribute all the blessings I received to Jesus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>-Ismenia Fernandes<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Faith Over Fear: Embracing God\u2019s Plan for Life This Testimony is offered for the greater glory of God. While pursuing my doctoral studies and with my future wife newly employed as a school teacher, we felt called to the vocation<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3975","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-parish","category-pormoll"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stsebastianaquem.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3975","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stsebastianaquem.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stsebastianaquem.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stsebastianaquem.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stsebastianaquem.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3975"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stsebastianaquem.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3975\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3976,"href":"https:\/\/stsebastianaquem.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3975\/revisions\/3976"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stsebastianaquem.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3975"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stsebastianaquem.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3975"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stsebastianaquem.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3975"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}