His Pearl of Great Price Was Just a Click Away

The clock was ticking. He was in his 60’s and Dave wondered if he was going to single forever.

Even though he had been married before, that had ended in an annulment. So now he was worried that perhaps this was it.

He had a lot of what he described as “moody thoughts,” asking God, “When is it going to be my turn?” and “Is this the one?” So after considering whether joining CatholicMatch was God’s providence and determining that it was, he made a profile. He didn’t want to date long-distance, so he set his distance parameters for no more than an hour’s drive away. Then, he waited.

And kept waiting for about a year. Finally, right before throwing in the towel, he decided to “try one more time and I broadened my search parameters just a few miles. It was almost instantaneous after that that Martha and I connected,” he says. “Had I not made that distance expansion, we most certainly would never have met. Human reasoning can be such a dunce, sometimes,” he continued.

Thankfully, he did broaden his search because his profile was one of the very first ones that popped up in Martha’s matches.

Martha, now 53, writes that she had “dated other guys. You know, the ones that your family and friends think are the perfect match for you. How disappointed I was about these dates! I gave up dating for a while because I had bad experiences with them. And since those didn't work out, I didn't consider that online dating would be a good option.”

Photo Credit: Selah Photography

However, her adult son encouraged her to keep trying, reminding her of how good of a mother she had been to him and that she deserved to have someone take care of her for a change. Martha’s heart was touched. She says, “I had always wanted to get married, and end my life beside my dear husband, but nothing seemed to be working, as I have never been married.”

After seeing the ad for CatholicMatch in the church bulletin, she signed up and right away received matches, but none that seemed to be the right fit. So, she kept working on her profile and took the temperament test and the match portrait, hoping to portray herself more accurately to potential matches.

And sure enough, as soon as she finished, there was Dave’s profile. “It took me a week to finish! It took me so long to finish that I thought probably it was made that way so that a perfect match could pop up when I finished. Well, after I finished, Dave's profile was there, in front of me, and when I read it, I had the feeling that he was the one.”

Even though their relationship was long-distance, they made it work with prayer.

Much to Dave’s chagrin, Martha, who lived about a three-hours drive away (not within his parameters!) was perfect for him. They messaged for a few weeks, getting to know each other, and found that they had many things in common.

Martha explains that having to communicate only via message was actually a benefit for her: “I feel that sometimes it is easier to write about your feelings, rather than talk about them, so CatholicMatch worked for me in an unexpected way!”

They helped to bridge the distance by starting to pray the rosary together from afar. “We always mention that our Lord and Our Blessed Mother made our paths cross,” Martha says. Dave agrees, “It was manageable only because we always tried to pray the (long distance!) rosary together at the same time each evening, although it was not always possible for both of us.”

Our Blessed Mother successfully led another couple into marriage.

They were married last October, although their long-distance relationship wouldn’t be over yet. Now 63, Dave explains, “After our marriage, we were glad to finally reside under the same roof in my hometown!

However, we soon found that it was problematic for Martha to effectively manage her business affairs.” So, Dave began the long process of searching for a new job in Martha’s hometown of Wichita (“a daunting task for a 60+ year old gentleman!”).

The couple had a “mobile marriage” until May of 2018, when Dave finally secured a new job and could make the move to Wichita to live with Martha in her home.

Neither were sad to give up the 320 miles (round trip) commute almost every weekend that they had been doing for months.

Their advice for other couples: Don’t box yourself into a corner.

Dave says of his original profile distance parameters, “I can't believe that I was more than ready to throw in the towel and just accept my single status in perpetuity, without even trying to step out of my self-imposed exile!”

He also says, “Limits on distance or parameters, such as ‘financially secure’ as opposed to simply ‘financially stable’ should be used prudentially, and not as a de fide rule.”

Finally, “I can, therefore, only admit to a Divine inspiration as the catalyst for the distance change and this personal CatholicMatch success story.”

“The moral of our story is simply this: we should never—intentionally or not—box ourselves in when searching for a prospective spouse. The oft-repeated phrase of ‘man proposes, but God disposes’ should remind us all to leave ourselves wide-open to the wonders of God's Providence. Otherwise, one might never know of the treasure or of the Biblical ‘pearl of great price’ that might be waiting for them just a mouse-click away.”