Tomek Węgrzyn, a tall Polish man, comes from a Catholic family. However, he distanced himself from the Church and his home at a young age to escape his alcoholic father. Resourceful, he quickly found a job, began to earn a good living … and went on to party, drink, and take drugs.
In the midst of this life of debauchery, he met sweet Kasia, who was touched by the man’s gentle gaze: “I immediately saw goodness in Tomek,” she told Aleteia. “Despite all his weaknesses, he never lied to me. He was always honest with me. That’s why, when we first met, I told him he had the makings of a saint!” At the time, this made Tomek laugh. As time passed, the couple moved in together without getting married. Soon they had their first child, a boy named Victor.
“God was our only salvation”
A few months later, the couple moved to another city for professional reasons. At that time, although Tomek put drugs aside, he started to drink more than he should and fell into new addictions: “I sold anything I could to get money to play at the casino. I felt like a deranged machine, with suicidal thoughts.” So much so that Kasia’s friends became worried about her. Why was she staying with this man?
But Kasia prayed and felt supported by God. “Tom had huge addiction problems, but I knew that God was our only salvation. I loved him, so I asked God to solve this problem somehow.” Kasia was particularly upset that they were not married, “so I couldn’t receive Holy Communion, and it was very hard for me.” So she gave Tomek an ultimatum: “Either we get married, or I leave.”
Tomek accepted, and the couple began to prepare for marriage. He tells Aleteia what happened next.
“Two weeks before my wedding, I suddenly had a desire to read the Scriptures, and I started reading the Bible four to five hours a day. I cried like a baby. I felt that something good was happening. It was a time when God was preparing me for confession,” he says in retrospect.
And indeed, the day before his wedding, October 20, 2017—a day Tomek will remember for the rest of his life—he received the Sacrament of Reconciliation. “It had been more than 20 years since my last confession. There I expelled all the sins from my heart, and then I felt overwhelming love in my heart. God freed me from addictions and without any withdrawal symptoms,” he explains, full of emotion..
“The Holy Spirit changed my life in every detail. You could say that God gave me a new heart and a new mind.” Kasia, who had never stopped hoping, adds, “I never expected that God could perform such a miracle in our lives and give his daughter such a beautiful wedding gift.”
Today, the happy couple are the parents of three children, and they let the Holy Spirit guide them. They coordinate the Family in the Holy Spirit project of the Archdiocese of Wrocław and never hesitate to share their testimony or to evangelize through social networks. “We see how people open up to us because they discover hope for themselves in our story. In retrospect, I know that each of us is called to holiness, and Kasia’s words served as a guide for how I should live,” concludes Tomek.
And today we celebrate...