September 6, 2022 | Early Saturday morning, August 27th, a community of Catholic women gathered at the Cathedral of St. Jude the Apostle in St. Petersburg on the Feast Day of St. Monica, patron saint of mothers, for the Magnificat Prayer Breakfast.

Magnificat is a private association of the faithful within the Diocese of St. Petersburg. The mother chapter began in 1981, and ever since then has been a ministry to Catholic women through prayer, meals, intercessory prayer groups, Life in the Spirit seminars, retreats, and other opportunities for spiritual growth. The August 27th Magnificat Prayer Breakfast included not just good meals, goodie bags, and fellowship, but praise and worship through song, the praying of the Rosary, readings from Scripture, and an eagerly anticipated testimony from Sara Graf.

Sara is the current Music Director at St. Patrick Catholic Church in Largo. Music was always her way to serve and worship the Lord. She is an advocate for Natural Family Planning and a creativity coach. She grew up in Brooklyn, NY as a Southern Baptist. 

Sara shared with the group the intensity of her spiritual upbringing and how it deeply affected her. She mentioned she was “an intensely anxious child, living in near constant fear of being left behind, remaining on Earth to face the tribulation of the coming of Christ alone.” 

Believing that the Catholic Church wasn’t as wrong as her upbringing suggested, Sara embarked on an 8-year journey searching for the truth. She even secretly ordered Catholic books like, “Catholicism and Fundamentalism” and “Why Catholics Are Right.”

Sara’s talk was a moving testimony of her journey from a life of wandering as a small child in the negative world of 1990s secularism to coming home to the Catholic Church as an adult with lots of questions about her faith. 

“The Holy Spirit spoke tenderly to me again – ‘Nothing surprises me,’” Sara said. 

Sara’s favorite Scripture passage reflects her journey to conversion in 2016: “He is not the God of disorder but of peace. As in all the churches of the holy ones” (1 Corinthians 14:33).

Sara tearfully looked back on the mercy, grace, and love of God in her life near the end of her talk. 

“How merciful is God that my life didn’t turn out how I intentionally planned it to,” she stated.

During the event, Msgr. John A. Cippel also gave a brief talk on the nature of Christian femininity, the beauty of motherhood, and the significance of our Blessed Mother Mary.