Lenten Campaign 2025
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“I baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.” These are the words that thousands of catechumens around the world are preparing to hear on Easter night when they are baptized. Throughout Lent, Aleteia is sharing with you the stories of some of these men and women, who are happy to become children of God. Read all of the testimonies here.
“For the love of Christ urges us on, because we are convinced that one has died for all; therefore all have died. (…) So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!” (2 Cor 5:14,17)
As Easter approaches, Livia, who is in her forties, is preparing to be renewed by the grace of baptism. When she starts to talk about Christ, she’s filled with an irrepressible joy. On the other end of the phone line, her voice breaks. “Sorry if I cry!” she apologizes, before reassuring us, “They are tears of joy.”
A practising Muslim for some twenty years, this palliative care assistant at Narbonne Hospital converted to Catholicism after a long personal journey. Of Gabonese origin, she actually comes from a family with a Catholic tradition. However, her parents weren’t practicing their faith, and sending the young girl to a Catholic school wasn’t enough to convince her.
“When I was around 13, I started to take an interest in Islam,” she told Aleteia. ”I ended up converting a little later and had my first son very young, at 18, without even being married.”
A faith journey
She arrived in France in 2016 and met a man with a Catholic background who became her husband. Livia felt a “void” setting in as she became less assiduous in her practice of Islam. “I cut myself off from God more and more, and ended up feeling the need to reconnect with Him,” she explains. Her in-laws are practicing Catholics.
“I became interested in Christianity, but I didn’t want to rush into anything. The reasoning was simple: Christianity is about following Christ, so I had to get to know Christ,” explains Livia.
Without further ado, she went to the Jehovah’s Witnesses with her bible in hand. “When I was little, in Gabon, there was this church right across from my house. I knew that these people studied the Bible [which they misused, refuting the divinity of Christ, the Trinity, the existence of hell or the immortality of the soul, Editor’s note] so I went there to see for myself.”
It was there that she “met Jesus,” her heart touched by the sacrifice of Christ on the cross. “I felt ready to accept him as my savior.” Having been warned by her husband about the sectarian nature of the Jehovah’s Witnesses, Livia was directed by her mother-in-law to the Franciscans of Narbonne. There, parishioners welcomed her and guided her before she began her catechumenate in September 2024.
No turning back
Today, Livia testifies clearly: her conversion has transformed her life. “Jesus occupies my whole life. I’ve understood that he wasn’t just a simple prophet: he is the way, the truth and the life. It’s a relationship of love that illuminates everything. It’s this absolute love that moved me so much that I followed him,” she says, her voice choked with emotion.
If doubts cross her mind, Livia knows that she won’t turn back. ”I manage to overcome all that thanks to Jesus. As soon as the doubts come, I know that the enemy is behind them, so I know I’m on the right track. Doubt doesn’t come from God.” And she concludes, “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God” (Lk 9:62).
And today we celebrate...