Aurélie, soon to be baptized: ‘I love who I’ve become since I’ve had Jesus in my life’

“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.

If there’s one thing that Aurélie is fiercely attached to, it’s her independence. And her freedom. At 21, the young woman has chosen to be a refrigerated truck driver and drives from Castelnaudary to Toulouse (a one-hour drive) every day. At the wheel of her vehicle, she’s alone. Well, not quite alone now, since God accompanies her.

As she prepares to be baptized during the Easter Vigil, she talks to us modestly and simply about how she met Jesus through Christophe and Catherine, a Catholic farming couple near Castelnaudary where she was on an internship.

While still studying agriculture at college, she was fully committed to her internship. Hard-working, she quickly gained the trust of Christophe and Catherine and noticed over the days “little details” that caught her attention, such as “praying at the table.”

“I didn’t know anything about that at all. I didn’t even know that there were still people who went to Mass regularly today,” she says. But above all, she found a kindness and warmth that she had never encountered before emanating from this home.

“I lost my father and he was an alcoholic, so things were a bit complicated on the family level,” she sums up matter-of-factly. Her relationship with her mother, who is deeply angry with religion, is tense. As for her two sisters, she doesn’t really talk to them anymore.

So, alongside Christophe and Catherine and their family, she felt a bit out of place. “I was a little embarrassed because I wasn’t used to seeing so much kindness,” she says, trying to sound casual even as emotion creeps into her voice. “But I was also amazed. I wanted to have that: kindness and not violence.”

She also finds this kindness in her apprenticeship. “When I made mistakes, I was never yelled at or made to feel like a loser because I’d done something wrong,” she says. “They always explained to me what was wrong so that it wouldn’t happen again and so that I could do it right the next time,” she recalls.

“I felt that by relying on Jesus, I could in turn change things in my life to be happier and above all share this joy with those around me.”

The first stage in her relationship with them led to a second one where she decided to ask Christophe directly about this faith that shone so much in their home. “I asked him what faith was, why he was a believer, and what Mass was,” Aurélie continues. “And then I asked to go to Mass out of curiosity.”

After a few Sundays, she felt the need to go “like a calling.” The more she discovered this God who loves and forgives, the more time she spent with Christophe and Catherine, the more Aurélie realized how much she could change in her life. “I felt that by relying on Jesus, I could in turn change things in my life to be happier and above all share this joy with those around me.”

The young woman decided to reach out to her family. “I waited for one of my sisters’ birthdays to make contact again,” she recalls. “We were neighbors and we weren’t talking to each other anymore, so that day I gave her a present, which I went to give her. There’s a 13-year age difference between us, and we have very different personalities, but this gesture touched her. Since then we’ve been like real sisters.”

Then it was her mother’s turn. “I was always very reactive towards my mother,” she readily admits. “But although I used to blame her for everything, I realized that I didn’t have an easy personality either. I decided to make an effort, to simply be more careful.”

And Aurélie continues: “I couldn’t just receive; I also had to give.” After a year or two, realizing that “this way of being, thinking, and living isn’t so bad,” she embarked on the catechumenate and chose Christophe as her godfather.

Aurélie

As the day of her baptism approaches, Aurélie is obviously moved. But true to herself, the young woman doesn’t want to “overdo” it. “I love who I’ve become since I’ve had Jesus in my life,” she sums up. “I’ve learned to say ‘thank you’ for what I have, for what I’m becoming, and I’m determined to continue.”

Her testimony has already borne fruit: her mother, who had refused to go to Mass, has agreed to accompany her on several occasions. “It’s as if she’s rediscovered a taste for faith!”

Read more:Vera, soon to be baptized: ‘I will finally seal my love with God’

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