Stories
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Stories *
December 2025
From Cana to El Caney
Lisa Everett,
Vice President of
MorningStar.Charity
We pulled into the village plaza of El Caney and stopped in front of the small church of San Luis Obispo, a poor mission parish on the outskirts of the second largest city in Cuba. El Caney means “longhouse” in Taino, the indigenous tongue that was once the most common language throughout the Caribbean.
San Luis Obispo is part of the Archdiocese of Santiago, which is five centuries old and once encompassed the entire island. A friend at the parish had told us two years before that the people there felt forgotten. Today would markour third visit in as many years to give a retreat for couples, this time for those preparing to marry in the Catholic Church. Ahead of our visit, we had given our friend, who worked as a chef in a tourist hotel in Santiago, money to purchase food and prepare a nice lunch for all the couples participating in the retreat.
It was lovely to see both new and familiar faces among the pews in the small church as we began the retreat, and we acknowledged our deep sorrow for how difficult life had become for them. Not only was there a chronic lack of food, medicine, electricity and sanitation, but Hurricane Melissa had added insult to injury in the past month and the mosquito-borne Chikungunya virus had reached pandemic proportions throughout the eastern end of the island.
I spoke about the sacrament of matrimony, how Christ comes and makes Himself present in the midst of their relationship, amidst all of the joys and sorrows of life. Like the keystone of an arch on which the two halves lean to become a strong and sturdy structure, Christ Himself becomes the bond between a baptized man and woman in marriage. Fred then led the couples in a meditation on John’s account of the wedding feast at Cana, inviting everyone to imagine themselves as one of the characters in the scene, using it as a springboard to listen to God and to speak to Him in return. I imagined myself as Mary, noticing that the newlyweds had run out of wine and laying the situation before her Son. Then I felt a tinge of anger rise in my heart as I lamented that here, for these couples preparing for their own weddings, it was not a matter of running out of something like wine which, however enjoyable, is not a necessity. Would that these couples were running out of wine, rather than food, medicine, electricity and sanitation, Lord! Wine was a luxury item, icing on the cake, but these couples had real needs that were not being met and I could do nothing but lay them before the Lord.
The morning ended and everyone made their way into the set of stone rooms that adjoined the ancient church. I had been expecting a nice but simple lunch given our donation for this purpose, but to my amazement, a feast had been prepared. Long tables had been set up and at each place setting was a plate laden with food—roasted meat, seasoned rice, savory vegetablesand a delicious dessert. And there were plastic cups for wine, which started flowing—not only once, but a second and even third round. And in the midst of all this, a musician appeared, a tall young man dressed in a dark suit whose hollowed cheeks bore evidence of hunger, and he began to play Spanish love songs on his violin. Another woman, a parishioner preparing for marriage, got up and started singing along with a talent and a passion that was truly beautiful to behold. I glanced around at the couples eating, drinking, talking, laughing, and singing, and tears started streaming down my cheeks. Fred and I looked at each other in amazement. It felt as if heaven had opened and here we were at Cana, an anticipatory wedding feast as it were, and Christ had outdone himself again.
I felt humbled and honored all at once. Christ had answered my prayer long before I had even voiced it. Lisa, he seemed to say, you thought you knew what these couples needed, but trust Me, this is exactly what they needed today. In the midst of so much sorrow, theyneeded to be uplifted, to taste again the joy of life, of each other, of community. And He gave us the gift of allowing us to play a part in facilitating this feast and being present to relish it and savor it like all of the other couples that day. And Mary was there once again, as she always is, laying whatever we lack before her Son and knowing that He will lavish us with His presence, His abundance, His love. And, like the servants that day at Cana and this day in El Caney, letting us be part of the miracle as long as we are willing to do whatever He tells us. Que asi sea, they often say in Spanish. May it be so, for all of us.
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August 2025
My Faith Journey
Dr. Joseph Sergio,
Treasurer of
MorningStar.Charity
The three-year journey of allowing the Holy Spirit to lead me began in 2022 when I was a 66 years-old orthodox Catholic. I had been happily married for 44 years, was the father of four adult children, and the grandfather of two. As a PhD and someone who had founded and owned successful companies, I enjoyed my work and had no intention of retiring. Today, I am fully retired and have become a missionary, an evangelist, a mentor, and a passionate lover of the Lord Jesus — and I have never been happier.
It all started on May 10, 2022, when my wife and I were returning home from a trip. As I was driving, I had problems with my eyes that got progressively worse until I couldn’t drive safely. At an emergency ophthalmology appointment, I was told that I had bleeding inside my eye and that it was affecting a nerve controlling my eye muscles. There was no identifiable cause and I was told to wait and see if it would heal on its own. Four different doctors confirmed this diagnosis. Finally, after four months, my doctor told me that since no perceivable healing had taken place, I would likely not get my normal eyesight back. He suggested that I might want to retire since I would be unable to read a computer screen again.
After this bad news, my wife suggested that I ask a spirit-filled friend who had seen some miraculous healings to pray for my eye. When I asked him, he said he would do so later that evening at 7:30 from across town. In the meantime, I had fallen asleep in my living room chair and I didn’t remember that someone was going to pray for me later. When I woke up and opened my eyes, I found that they were totally fine for the first time in four months. This was only a day after I had met with the doctor! I called my wife and she noted that it was 7:35, five minutes after the prayer had started.
This healing inspired me to learn more about the gift of healing and other spiritual gifts. I attended a conference by a Catholic apostolate that equips people to grow in the spiritual gifts, including healing and prophecy. I attended with some trepidation, as I was unfamiliar with the manifestations of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. After receiving prayer and powerful prophetic words from multiple people, my faith swelled and I sensed the Holy Spirit gently pouring a peace and joy into my heart until I thought it would explode out of my chest. I was a new person and I declared that “my life will never be the same again.”
I felt called to sell my companies so that I would be available for whatever God was calling me to do. By now, I knew that the Lord wanted me to pray more, which I was doing for hours each day. I needed to learn to be quiet and listen for His answer, and then to be obedient to what He was telling me. I started offering Him my “yes” to everything that He asked of me. Readings from the Bible came to life as though it were the first time that I heard them, and my interactions with people allowed me to “feel” who they were. I also now desired to heal others just as I had been healed.
As a result of this obedience, I took my first ministry trip to Brazil to pray for others in their homes, prayer meetings, and church services. I saw healing after healing, including a verified stage four cancer being healed. 2023 ended up being a huge year for me. Now retired, I traveled on 21 trips to conferences and overseas mission trips, every one of which I felt called to take. I couldn’t learn enough fast enough, and I felt passionately drawn to go wherever the Holy Spirit was active. I changed my life from a strategic planner and big picture thinker to listening to the Lord in prayer and doing the next right thing that He asked me to do. Sometimes it felt like I couldn’t see the ground under my next step, but I knew that I had to be obedient and walk in faith.
In 2024, I heard the Lord call me to Mozambique, the Philippines, Colombia, Zambia, Malawi, South Africa, and Cuba. I received much more clarity on the Lord’s calling on my life and how He wanted me to work with Him. Today, I am on the board of MorningStar.Charity and a core team member of that missionary apostolate. With others, I am building a school in the bush in Mozambique, helping impoverished people to start sustainable businesses and creating vocational training opportunities. While this is still an ongoing journey of revelation, I see no end in sight. There is an abundance of fruit and my life is fuller than ever. It is a life of much more peace and joy than I could ever have imagined.
June 2025
The Fragrance of Christ
Lisa Everett,
Vice President of
MorningStar.Charity
We opened the door of the sacristy and gingerly walked into the small church where a few dozen people from one of the poorest barrios in Havana had gathered. Word had spread and they were waiting for us to pray with them. At once my nostrils sensed the acrid odor—the accumulated scents of bodies that had not been bathed, clothes that had not been washed, teeth that had not been brushed. Far from the romantic notion of missionary work that my heart may have harbored in former days, here was the stark—and not so sweet smelling— reality. These humble, hidden people—men and women, young and old, with wounds which were obvious and wounds which were invisible to the eye—were there to receive from the Lord, through our touch, our gaze, our words, whatever He wanted to bestow on them that day. And we were there to see Christ and to serve Him in what Mother Teresa of Calcutta called the “distressing disguise” of the poorest of the poor. As Pope Francis would have put it, we were there to spread the fragrance of Christ.
In a moving address last August, Pope Francis emphasized that the fragrance of Christ flows from the fruits of the Holy Spirit, which are listed in St. Paul’s letter to the Galatians: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, goodness, faithfulness, and self-control. “If we cultivate these fruits, and encounter these people,” the pope remarked, “without us realizing it, someone will smell some of the fragrance of the Spirit of Christ around us. Let us ask the Holy Spirit to make us more aware that we are anointed, anointed by him.” Pope Francis further pointed out that the very name “Christian” comes from the word “Christ” which means “anointed one.” Christians are those who have been anointed with the Holy Spirit and strive to bear into the world the fruits of His presence, spreading wherever they go the fragrance of Christ. This anointing first happens in the sacrament of baptism and is powerfully symbolized by the fragrance of the sacred chrism with which new Christians are anointed. In fact, “Christ” and “chrism” come from the same root word. If you’ve ever been to the Chrism Mass during Holy Week, you may remember that to make chrism, the bishop pours sweet-smelling balsam into a canister of olive oil, stirs it together, breathes on the mixture and then consecrates it with a beautiful prayer. Within a few minutes, the fragrance of the chrism permeates the entire church.
Pope Francis saw in the tender gesture of Mary of Bethany breaking the alabaster jar of costly aromatic nard and anointing the feet of Jesus, a model of how we are to spread the fragrance of Christ among the men and women of our time. “Mary of Bethany does not use the precious nard to beautify herself, but to anoint Jesus’ feet, and in this way she spreads the fragrance throughout the house. Indeed, Mark’s Gospel specifies that Mary, in order to anoint Jesus, breaks the alabaster jar containing the fragrant ointment (cf. 14:3). Evangelization occurs when we have the courage to “break” the jar containing the fragrance, breaking the “shell” that often closes us in on ourselves…. [T]he fragrance is not for beautifying ourselves but for anointing the feet of Christ, proclaiming the Gospel and serving the poor.”
There in that humble, little church that day we broke out of our comfort zone and had the privilege of anointing the feet of Christ, the least and lowliest members of his mystical Body. Our team, accompanied by a handful of Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity who lived among the poorest of the poor in their house adjoining the church, was stationed throughout the nave to welcome and to pray for each person who stood in line. At one point, a beautiful young woman with raven hair and ebony eyes approached my group. When I asked her how we could pray for her, the pain in her heart poured out on her lips. I opened my mouth and managed a few phrases of comfort in my less-than-fluent Spanish, but my mother’s heart sensed that words were not what she needed in this moment. So I opened my arms and embraced her, and she sank into my chest sobbing. I have come to see that “missionary work” is above all a ministry of presence. His presence mediated through ours. The presence of the Holy Spirit always brings healing in one way or another— sometimes physical healing, sometimes emotional healing, sometimes spiritual healing—and He did so that day as well. And the fragrance of Christ filled that small, simple church that afternoon among Havana’s poorest of the poor and left me forever changed.