It Took 2 John Pauls (And a Pandemic) to Bring Them Together

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Jocelyn Aragon, 28, from the Philippines first heard about CatholicMatch in 2016 from friends she met after moving to Singapore.

She enjoyed listening to their stories about the people they had met. Jocelyn remembers, “I wasn’t interested at all to know more [for myself], I was just happy to hear their stories and experiences about how they met nice guys there.” 

But, her vocation story started long before listening to her girlfriends. “Long before that, I was already praying of God's will for me, that I may follow his will.” Jocelyn states she had years of searching and had a hard time finding a lasting relationship. “I’ve dated before but every time. . . it ended so fast. . . I’ve even thought that maybe I am not for marriage.”

Not only did she think that perhaps she wasn’t cut out for marriage, she seriously considered becoming a celibate single at one point. 

“There was a time when I came into contact with an organization of the Catholic Church which is Opus Dei that teaches about how a layperson can be a Saint just by being an ordinary citizen and you can serve God without being a nun or a priest. . . and be a Celebrate (single for God forever) and that for me is a beautiful vocation and a gift from the Lord. Opus Dei taught me a lot of values and knowledge of the doctrines of the church and I learned about God more than before. I love the organization and I felt like I found a new family.” 

She thought that she’d found where she belonged. But, according to Jocelyn, “When I tried to convince myself, I still felt empty, I knew that that decision didn't come from the bottom of my heart. So then, I rested from that searching, but I never stopped praying.”

Meanwhile, John Paul Falar, 35, had been on a search of his own. An engineer from Cebu City, Philippines, he had always wondered what the Lord wanted for him. Five years previously, he was a professional telecommunication engineer for 4 years. He’d dated a girl for a year but decided instead to pursue his childhood dream to become a priest.

He entered into a Seminary, but, after his fifth year, he attended a retreat where he finally realized that that path was not for him. After he left the seminary in March 2017 his friend told him about CatholicMatch and he decided to try it out. 

For Jocelyn, it took until two of her friends were getting married to people they met on CatholicMatch that she began to become curious, thinking, “what if their stories could also happen to me?” 

Like everything else related to her vocation, she took this idea to prayer and concluded: “that I just wanted to try this online dating, and if I met someone with potential to be a friend that He may guide me along, and of course I told myself that I should have criteria if so ever I meet a guy.”  

Her criteria were first, he must be prayerful, an ex-seminarian is a big point, second, he must know about Opus Dei and its founder, and third, must be a person who is also interested [in] me.”

She states that joining CatholicMatch that January in 2017 wasn’t simple for her. “I think I answered a hundred questions before I made it!”  But the work paid off, she got plenty of men sending her messages. However, being very tired after long days at work, she didn’t check the site very often - so infrequently, in fact, that she forgot her login password!  

Despite this, Jocelyn remembers she had “a feeling that I should go back, so I did and created a new account.” 

During a July seminar in Malaysia, she overheard a group of ladies talking about praying to Pope St. John Paul II for a love life and saying this saint was very close to the women of her beloved Opus Dei. When she went back to Singapore, she saw a prayer card of Pope John Paul II and remembers, “I read the prayer in the card wholeheartedly, I prayed that he may help me find what's God's will for me.”

In a matter of days, she received a sticker message from a man named Juan. They sent stickers back and forth until Juan asked her what her ideal date would be. 

Jocelyn thought he looked like a very interesting, decent guy so didn’t think twice about replying. When he responded, she was thrilled. A few messages in, she realized that he wasn’t signing as “Juan” at all, but rather as “John Paul”. Upon inquiring, he apologized for not mentioning it before, and said: “actually my full name is John Paul II because I  was named after Pope St. John Paul II by my father". 

Jocelyn was floored. “When he said that I was like 'really?' I didn't tell him that I prayed to Saint John Paul II !” 

But, the answers to her prayers requests kept rolling in. In another email, she asked him if he knew about Opus Dei, and John Paul replied: "Yes! St. Josemaria is the founder right?”

“At the time I didn’t remember that that was my second criteria. . . only when he said that he just actually came out from seminary three months ago.” 

Well, that reminded her, and Jocelyn decided to close her CatholicMatch account and make their relationship official.

It was a continuous getting-to-know-each-other until in September 2017, “he asked if we could be more than friends. Every day we tried to give time to each other despite the busy schedule at work, and on Sundays, we pray the rosary together.”

In May 2018 Jocelyn decided to spend her vacation in Cebu instead of with her family in Manila to meet John Paul for the first time, accompanied by her best friend from Hong Kong.  Excited to see John Paul waiting to meet her at the airport exit, Jocelyn primped herself on the plane, putting on makeup to be sure she’d look pretty. But to her despair, when she got off the plane he was nowhere to be seen!  Jocelyn recalls: “I waited and finally he came after 15 minutes, I remember . . . his hair was messy because he wasn't able to sleep from an overnight trip coming from another city, a little clumsy because he is shy, he was always smiling, and looking at me which makes me feel uncomfortable. But I can see that he is a good man with a pure heart, he's simple and transparent. That was also the first time I felt complete, I was always looking for an answer that could fill my heart, but that moment I don't have a question that needed an answer. From the bottom of my heart, it tells me this is it! It's him!” 

After the vacation together, the night before her leaving the city, John Paul opened up the topic of marriage.

Jocelyn considered this to be a proposal and thought it was too soon to decide. John Paul was willing to wait for her. 

When Jocelyn went back to Singapore, there was “not a day that I didn't miss him, that short vacation made me get used to being with him every day, and he also felt the same. We decided that maybe we should plan the marriage for March 13th, 2020.”  

Unexpected work changes made Jocelyn decide to go back to Manila early in July. She got a job right away and saw it as a gift that finally they’d be only a one-hour plane ride apart.

Things seemed to be going smoothly. 

But as the date of the wedding approached, the threat of the COVID-19 pandemic was rising. On March 12th, afraid of the impending lockdown of Manila airports, they decided Jocelyn should fly to Cebu. So, she packed up and caught a flight that very night. It turned out to be just in the nick of time, as the next day they got the news that Manila was locking down for a month. 

This news was devastating to Jocelyn because it meant that her family couldn’t be with her on her special day. “I cried a lot that day, but he comforted me like he always [does] whenever I feel down, we just have to face the reality for that moment and do what we can to go through.” 

They were wed the following day on March 14th, 2020 in a simple celebration. Two months into the marriage, the Falars are enjoying married life in Cebu and recently moved to their newly-built house and love praying the Rosary together. Jocelyn is working on learning the Bisaya language and says the only real difficulty so far is adjusting to the distance from her family. According to Jocelyn, “Now, finally, at end of the day, when  I close my eyes to sleep, he is with me beside me and when I wake up in the middle of the night it is because he's snoring, and in the morning, I am  always ready to spend the whole day with him.”

Jocelyn and John Paul’s biggest takeaway from their experience is: “We both believe that God [led] us to each other and likewise he will not abandon us if He wills it, he'll make it. We both learned that God's will is the only sure thing. . . It’s always free and unique, it's just a matter of patience and faith.”

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