This is the message from today’s psalm, Psalm 54. How have you found this to be true?
Have you thanked God for sustaining you, from the air that you breathe to the food you eat and the work he has given you to do? Have you thanked him for hearing you, in joy and in sorrow? Have you thanked him for his protection throughout the day?
Thanking God with faith … It is the first key to opening your heart to receive the blessings God wants to give you.
“Listen, my beloved brothers and sisters.
Did not God choose those who are poor in the world
to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom
that he promised to those who love him?”
(James 2:4-5)
“God travels the earth during the day … but he sleeps in Rwanda” (Rwandan folk proverb). This “land of a thousand hills” is a place of breathtaking beauty, and yet it is also a place that has known great tragedy. For more than thirty-five years, Father Ubald has worked to bring healing and peace to his people. He needs partners who will stand with him. Will you help?
Please pray for the work of the Center for the Secret of Peace, and if you are able please make your donation here. No gift is too small. Each gift is an answered prayer.
For eight days my husband Craig and I traveled hundreds of miles with Fr. Ubald, over bumpy paths and winding roads. Despite its grim history, Rwanda is a beautiful place. Homes with miniature goats hug the roads, as banana groves and other crops line the mountainside above and the valleys below. On each side of the roads, the bright, resplendent textiles of the women’s dresses caught my eye as we drove past. And yet the large plastic jerry cans, carried by so many people, reminded us that few of these places have running water or indoor plumbing. While rich in natural beauty, Rwanda is also a place where many live in great poverty. Perhaps this is one of the reasons the Blessed Mother choose to come here in the 1980s, to remind her poor little ones that they had not been forgotten. 
We had just left the National Shrine of Our Lady of Kibeho, and heard the story of the three school girl visionaries — Alphonsine, Marie-Claire, and Anathalie — who had been visited by Our Lady between 1981 and 1987, warning that Rwanda would become a “river of blood” if hatred was not quelled by love. (For more information about the appearances and visionaries, pick up a copy of Immaculée Ilibagiza’s Our Lady of Kibeho: Mary Speaks to the World from the Heart of Africa.) Two of the three visionaries were still living: Alphonsine was a religious sister there at the shrine. Natalie was a nun in Italy. Marie-Claire and her husband had been killed in the genocide.
Not far from the National Shrine, Father Ubald is overseeing another important pilgrimage site, the Chapel of God the Father. He had hoped to open it in time for the 25th anniversary of the genocide this spring, and is trusting God to provide the additional funds — $100,000 is needed to complete construction and to build the roads, toilets, and other infrastructure the government requires for it to be open to the public. (Please pray with us, that God would provide the resources needed, and ask the Lord if you might be able to help by making a donation here.)
Next week I will give you an example of the healings that are taking place at Kibeho and in other places where Fr. Ubald is preaching and evangelizing about the power of forgiveness and mercy to bring healing and peace to those traumatized by violence. (Thank you to Katsey Long for providing these photographs, which were taken during the shooting of the documentary.)
Heidi Hess Saxton is Father Ubald’s editor at Ave Maria Press. His book, Forgiveness Makes You Free will be released in April 2019. You can read more of Heidi’s writing on her blog “Life on the Road Less Traveled.” If you are enjoying this blog series and would like to help Fr. Ubald, please make a tax-deductible donation to the Center for the Secret of Peace by clicking here.
In this blogpost series, Fr. Ubald’s editor Heidi Saxton shares her experience of visiting Fr. Ubald in Rwanda to help him finish his upcoming book with Ave Maria Press, Forgiveness Makes You Free (April 2019). More information will be posted about the release of this book in upcoming posts.
Bouncing in the back of Fr. Ubald’s SUV that first night we arrived at Rusizi, I was amazed at the number of people walking the dirt path toward the Center. The headlights shone on women with heavy burdens on their heads and shoulder, and children who peered inside and spotted us. “Mbadzungu!” (white people).
Why were these people walking toward the center so late at night? “They are coming to prepare for tomorrow,” Father explained. “There will be special healing prayers after Mass.”
When we arrived, I could see that the church that was under construction, just beyond the makeshift shelter with the outdoor altar, protected by an aluminum shelter. Tonight a screen had been raised, and they showed Father’s documentary, Forgiveness: The Secret of Peace.
I looked around. Hundreds of people had gathered on a Monday night, to prepare for a Tuesday Mass the next morning — there is a special service held on the 13th of each month to commemorate Fatima, whose message was much like that of Our Lady of Kibeho: pray for conversions, to avert the coming disaster.
“We saw your tears, and yet we did not turn,” invoked Fr. Ubald. “But do not cry any more, Blessed Mother. We are listening, and we will obey. Help us to forgive and to show mercy, that we may know peace.”
The next morning when we arrived for Mass, the grounds of the Center were already filled with thousands of people. Some made their way from the shore of Lake Kivu, stopping first at the shrine of Our Lady of Kibeho, then climbing on their knees to Jesus (see picture), whose Sacred Heart is full of mercy for all. Finally, they make their way toward Our Lady of Love, holding the Child Jesus. Many women have been healed of infertility by asking for her intercession.
Under the shelter, behind the altar, are two more statues: The first, Our Lady of Peace, offers a gentle benediction to all those who seek healing and release from the torments and traumas of the past, and to her right, her most beloved daughter, St. Josephine Bakhita, a living icon of forgiveness under unthinkable circumstances.
After the Mass and healing prayers had concluded, I went to see the chapel Father is building to accommodate those who come to pray and adore Jesus in his Eucharistic presence throughout the week. They are building it on faith … trusting that God will provide the money they need to finish the building. They need $600,000 to complete the building as well as the other additions that must be made before they will be allowed to open it to the public. You can see more pictures of the project here. If you have been touched by Father Ubald’s ministry and would like to help, please go here to make your tax deductible contribution. Thank you!
Heidi Hess Saxton is Fr. Ubald’s editor on his book Forgiveness Makes You Free (Ave Maria Press, April 2019). She and her husband Craig spent time with Fr. Ubald in June 2018. You can read more about Heidi on her blog “A Life on the Road Less Traveled.”
June 10, 2018
Dear Diary:
We’ve been anticipating this trip for months now, and spent the last week almost non-stop getting ready to leave – gathering children’s books for the Missionary of Peace school, freezing casseroles for the family to eat while we’re gone, weighing the luggage over and over to be sure we don’t go over. In between, I try to imagine what we’ll find there. After months of working with Father Ubald — questioning him over and over about his experiences, transcribing and shaping his own notes, and reading a dozen books about the history and culture of Rwanda — I am eager to meet the people at the heart of his story: his brother and sister, who also survived the genocide. Sister Donata and the Missionaries of Peace, who have labored alongside him to bring healing to the people. And of course, to meet Straton, the man so recently released from prison, who had taken responsibility for the deaths of Father Ubald’s mother and so many family members.
Try as I might, I cannot imagine what I will say to him. What could I possibly ask, and how could he possibly respond to my questions, in a way that would make sense of the great tragedy: one million Tutsi men, women, and children slaughtered in the space of just 100 days — not through the impersonal detonation of a bomb, but in bloody combat, at the hands of former neighbors and friends?
And how could it possibly be true that this kind of violence could be forgiven? And how could the two sides be so reconciled that they would once more be able to live together in peace? Clearly, there was still much reconciliation still left to do — Father had told me that he continued to receive messages from people who had killed members of his family, who were afraid to speak to him face to face. “Tell them I forgive them,” he always said. “Tell them forgiveness makes you free.”
Try as I might, I cannot imagine it. This, I need to see for myself.
Heidi Hess Saxton is Father Ubald’s editor at Ave Maria Press. His book, Forgiveness Makes You Free will be released in April 2019. You can read more of Heidi’s writing on her blog “Life on the Road Less Traveled.”
Hello! My name is Heidi Saxton, and this picture is of me and my husband Craig getting ready to board a plane to Rwanda, where we would be helping Father Ubald to finish his new book with Ave Maria Press called Forgiveness Makes You Free. It will be released in April 2019, to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Rwandan Genocide. I will post preorder information for the book, in which Father shares his story of surviving the genocide and the five keys to finding peace and healing even in the most traumatic and painful circumstances of life. You won’t want to miss it!
Bestselling author of Left to Tell, Immaculée Ilibagiza, had this to say about Father’s book in the foreword:
“Forgiveness Makes You Free is a gift of mercy from the hand of God. It tells the story of a priest who learned, step by step, to follow after Jesus and to present himself as a ‘living offering’ to God, who learned how to pray, how to forgive, how to resist the enemy, and how to receive the gifts God wanted to give him. Above all, it shows how he learned to follow after Jesus, no matter how much it cost him.”
Between now and then, I asked Father Ubald for permission to share experiences from our trip, to give you a better sense of the important work that is being accomplished among the Rwandan people through his ministry. As you read these posts in the coming weeks, please prayerfully consider how the Lord is asking you to support this important work. Thank you!
Heidi Hess Saxton is an acquisitions editor for Ave Maria Press. You can find her online through her blog Life on the Road Less Traveled.
Father Ubald 