“I believe he saved my life … two and a half years after that priest walked into my life, I lost almost 300 pounds,” he said to the audience who responded with applause. “He challenged me to do the inner work.”
Petitfils said oftentimes self-acceptance can only come through the eyes of another.
“That priest did that for me,” he said. “He looked deep into me with a love I’d never seen before.”
Knowing that love helped him accept himself, and today has made him “a real good dad” to two young sons—and “a decent husband,” he joked.
Loving one’s self is a journey of first knowing one’s self.
“Whenever we see the ‘real’ in us,” he said. “We’ll be more able to do that in others.”
At the closing Mass, Bishop James Conley, apostolic administrator of the Denver Archdiocese, pointed out the day’s second reading, 1 Corinthians 7:32-35, at the start of his homily: St. Paul’s reflection on marriage and single life.
“You’re probably expecting me to begin with the second reading,” he said. “A rather providential reading, didn’t you think?”
He urged attendees to be transformed by Jesus.
“We were all made for great things,” he said. “When we encounter Jesus in the sacraments and in adoration, we learn to love as God loves: to die to ourselves and to lay down our lives for our friends.”
He said many singles feel single life is fraught with anxiety: a search for their vocation, as well as their place in the Church, family and community.
(Story continues below)
Subscribe to our daily newsletter
“Single life can be characterized by instability and uncertainty, about the present and the future,” he said. “It doesn’t have to be … St. Paul is encouraging single men and women to draw close to Jesus Christ; to find in him a focus on the Christian life."
“Ultimately every vocation is a call to radical love,” he said, “a vocation to make a gift of oneself in a particular way.”
Joanne Goralka, 52, from Sacramento, Calif., appreciated the message of the conference.
“A lot of times you go to single events and it’s all about meeting ‘the right one,’” she said. “This one was more about vocation, wherever it will take you."
“This conference was so spirit-filled,” she added. “It was beautiful to meet others that are strong in their faith.”
Posted with permission from the Denver Catholic Register, newspaper for the Archdiocese of Denver, Colo.