May Monthly Prayer Reflection

Reaping from the labor of others

This month, while listening to the Yada Monthly Prayer podcast, a memory that lingered in the Amen’ing of the Scripture was a moment in Switzerland in October 2016. Having just been showered in encouragement by a number of American believers, who gathered for a writing intensive, suddenly a very quietly spoken, deeply humble man, who I had only just met, turned toward me and said in such confidence, his voice no longer as quiet as before, yet also not at all forceful or harsh, but gentle and calm: “Does your husband know that you love him?”

I immediately knew that the reason this man’s voice was no longer so quiet, but instead confident and firm, was because the Spirit of God was speaking through him. Interestingly, God had given me a verse to meditate upon the summer before, it was about submitting to our husbands as unto the Lord. Yet, at the time, I found myself pridefully arguing: “but that one doesn’t apply to me because my husband doesn’t believe in You.”

Yet, as I began to meditate upon what that one gentle man had just said to me, God began to plough up the pride in my heart. I was given the courage I needed to step out of my striving into abiding in God’s love for me. A love that had been speaking through my husband, all along. Step by step I started shedding what had been hiding the light of God within me.

I reaped bountifully from one man’s humble laboring in obedience. For, that man’s one question birthed a process of deep conversion that eventually led me into the holy Catholic Church in January 2025. It is in this holy Catholic Church that I am coming to understand the incredible blessing bestowed upon us, in getting to reap what we did not labor for.

So, as I have meditated upon this month’s Yada Scripture, I have thought not only about the Body of Christ here on earth, like that one humble man, who labored for me to reap, but also of the Church Triumphant in heaven, whose witness through and to the holy Scriptures and whose deep love for us, through their intercession (both on earth and now from heaven) continue to reap a conversion in our hearts, as Christ continues to work through them for our good.

And what a privilege it is to get to join them in that labor, as God invites us into an ever deeper conversion through them, to reap even more fruit individually and corporately. For me this month, I have been particularly blessed by the Blessed Mother, Saint Peter, Saint Stephen, Saint Therese de Lisieux and Mother Teresa. Through the witness and intercession of these saints God has humbled me, uprooted bitterness and empowered me to love, as He has loved me.

What memories stirred in you and what fruit did you reap that you did not labor for?