ATCHISON, KS— St. Benedict’s Parish hosted Dave VanVickle, nationally known speaker, for a Lenten parish mission on March first and second.
The two-day speaking event, entitled “The Love of God and the Cross of Jesus Christ”, focused on “the timeless story of a soul’s relationship with God,” according to an announcement from St. Benedict’s Parish. VanVickle illustrated this spiritual journey through the experiences of his family.
VanVickle, who regularly speaks on spiritual warfare, has also hosted podcasts and been featured on EWTN.
On the first night of his Lenten mission, entitled “For the Lord is a Sun and Shield”, VanVickle recounted his personal testimony and gave a call to conversion. The second night, entitled “Indeed our God is a Consuming Fire”, details the testimony of VanVickle’s family and how the Lord can use suffering to draw believers closer to Him.
“All of us have experienced pain,” VanVickle said, “and the only answer to that is found within the church.”
In particular, VanVickle spoke about the experience of finding out that two of his children would have special needs, and his wife, Amber’s, battle with cancer. Throughout these challenges, the family adopted a motto.
“The only thing we care about is that we get to Heaven,” VanVickle said, “and that we bring as many people as possible with us.”
Through hardship, VanVickle realized that his prayer life had previously been “shallow.”
“My prayer life before was kind of like a cheerleader, saying ‘Yeah, God, keep going!’”
But when he no longer knew what to say, God spoke to VanVickle through silence.
“We didn’t have anything to say,” VanVickle said, recalling the moment he and his wife learned that their second child would have cerebral palsy. “The Lord had to fill that silence.”
VanVickle recalled feeling that, in the quiet moments, God held him “in the palm of His hand.”
In closing, VanVickle painted the image of what it truly means to pick up one’s cross.
“For a long time, it was like I was carrying this cross and God was up there watching,” he said. “But the sooner you realize that He is with you, hanging on the other side of that cross… that’s the only answer to the problem of pain.”
