Ligia Maria, 32, a native Colombian, left a third order religious community in Italy to come to the United States to learn English and study cinematography. She was living in Los Angeles and feeling lonely, so one Sunday during Mass she began praying for a spouse. “After Mass, I noticed an ad for CatholicMatch in the back of the bulletin and signed up for three months.”
Justin, 37, had been a CatholicMatch member on and off over the years. He decided to subscribe again because he felt like he was wasting time on Facebook and that CatholicMatch would be a more valuable use of his time.
Not long after joining, he had what could be called a supernatural experience in Mass. “I felt that God was telling me that I would meet my spouse in the next six months and that I should prepare myself,” Justin says. “ Afterwards, I started reading about the Theology of the Body.”
Meeting Ligia Maria
Approximately a month and a half later, in February 2013, he and Ligia Maria started communicating online. The funny thing is that Justin had messaged her on Christmas day in 2012, but she didn’t see the message until around Valentine’s Day. “I was fasting to find the right person and then I noticed Justin’s message. I was like ‘oh, my goodness why haven’t I seen this message until now?’”
Ligia Maria was only interested in men who were open to relocating to Colombia, so in her first message to Justin, she made this clear. Justin’s reply w
as satisfactory. “In the right situation, I would be open to that.’”
The two talked via email for a few weeks and then they began Skyping. “We really connected spiritually and I discovered that we liked to practice our faith in the same way, which was really important to me,” she explains.
The relationship moved along quickly. They talked and prayed together every day. “My English pronunciation was not very good, so I think that he could understand about half of what I would say,” she laughs.
After a month of Skyping, Justin flew from Vermont to Los Angeles to meet Ligia Maria in person. He found a place to stay for the weekend, which was located just two streets down from her apartment. That weekend went so well that shortly afterward, Justin moved out to Los Angeles.
Justin says that they were inseparable. The only time he spent at his apartment was to sleep and shower.
Wedding in Colombia
By August 2014, Justin and Ligia Maria were engaged and planning their wedding to be celebrated on the December 8, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. “The wedding was absolutely beautiful,” Justin remembers. “We got married in this teeny tiny chapel that could hold about 30 people. My parents and sister attended. It was the first time I had met her parents and it was our parents first meeting. Initially, my parents were scared to come to Bogota, Colombia, but once they got there, they had the absolute time of their lives.”
Ligia Maria and Justin will never forget the wedding homily. Their priest, inspired by the Holy Spirit, said: “I feel here the presence of Our Lady and I think she is really blessing you both… She is very happy with this wedding because the grace of the Lord is calling you both to get married… Mary is going to do a lot of miracles with you both and you are called to announce this love to the world with your vocation,” she says.
Advice
Justin wants CatholicMatch members to know that it’s important to be open to possibilities when you are trying to meet your spouse.
“The right person and situation can be different than the one you have pictured in your imagination. Being open to possibilities was the thing that helped me to move to Los Angeles to be near to Maria—even if Los Angeles was one of the last cities I was thinking to move—and now I’m happily married”
