"God Loves You": An Atheist's Astonishing Path to Finding Home in the Catholic Church

"God loves you." Three simple words sparked a spiritual revolution for Srishti , transforming her from a self-described "militant atheist" with dreams of making everyone else abandon religion to a woman drawn inexplicably to the Catholic faith. On this episode of Unwritten, Srishti shares her extraordinary journey across religious boundaries.

Srishti's testimony challenges us to consider how God speaks across cultural, religious, and intellectual barriers. Her experience reminds us that sometimes faith finds us in ways we could never anticipate, through simple words and inexplicable moments of recognition. Who in your life needs to hear those transformative words today - "God loves you"?

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:07):
Welcome to Unwritten, a podcast dedicated to sharing
stories of the movement of theHoly Spirit in the world.
Today I'm your host, trevorBureka, and on today's episode
we're getting to hear fromShristi Gupta.
Have you ever had a moment thatyou just intuitively thought
this just feels right, momentthat you just intuitively
thought this just feels right?
I remember a night a few yearsago when I was living in
Oklahoma and we had gathered ata friend's house to share a meal

(00:30):
and then we were singing somesongs, praising God for his
goodness and as much assometimes, you know, maybe I
don't thrive in that environmentor feel like that's, you know,
a natural space to me.
That night I had anexperiential resonance with the
act of praising God, a sensethat just said in my heart and
my mind this is truly how I'mmade to live, and no theological

(00:53):
arguments were really swirlingin my head.
It was just a clear experienceof something mysterious, also
resonating so deeply in my mindand my heart.
In today's episode, shristiovercomes a massive difference
of religion and path in lifethrough a moment of fundamental
resonance with the presence ofGod.
Welcome to the show and listenin.

Speaker 2 (01:15):
I grew up in India.
My family is Hindu, so I grewup Hindu and in a very devout
Hindu actually, and then, aroundeighth grade, started moving
away from the Hindu faith afterstudying it and slowly became
what they call a militantatheist, which is basically
someone that really just wantsother people to also not have a

(01:38):
religion.
So by the time I came tocollege at Georgia Tech, I had
studied religions and foundthings wrong with them, and I
was very atheist.
I had two goals in life becomean astronaut and make everyone
else atheist.
The Lord clearly had adifferent plan.

(01:58):
Within a couple months incollege, I had everything that I
thought would make me happy asa college student and as someone
pursuing a career in aerospace,and I was completely miserable.
And in that space I told afriend that I was having a hard

(02:18):
time and she said that she wouldpray for me.
And I looked at her and saidthat's not going to work because
God doesn't exist.
And she didn't argue with me.
You know, usually people wouldargue with me at that point and
I was waiting for that.
She simply said no, it willwork because he exists and he
loves you.
And I'd never heard the wordsGod loves you.

(02:41):
And yeah, it started a journeywhere I started learning about
Christianity from my friends onmy floor in my dorm and slowly
started to understand whatChristianity believed.
Most of my formation actuallywas just reading the gospel of
Matthew.

(03:02):
So I was reading the gospel ofMatthew and you know, like you
start getting to know Jesus andyou start getting to know his
story and I really liked hischaracter.
He's kind of a rebel, but alsovery logical and it's great.
And then we get to the part ofthe passion.
You know his passion, death andcrucifixion, and I didn't know

(03:25):
what was about to happen next.
I'd been told that he came backon the third day.
I just expected him to kind oflike descend from heaven, like
Hindu deities did, and then theresurrection happened and I
remember sitting there andthinking what Like?

(03:45):
It's like it kind of like yourfriend died like two days ago,
three days ago, and thensuddenly now they're alive,
right Like this person that Iknow is dead, like very dead, on
Friday, and then on Sunday heis not.
Sunday he is not and it was.
It was that moment where I knewthat if this is real, then if

(04:15):
this is true, then all ofChristianity is true and I have
to be Christian, and that was it.
That's what I started lookingat and studying and, yeah, the
resurrection is very provable,and so, for me, I found more
proof for the resurrection to bereal than for not, and so I
knew I had to be Christian and Istarted looking at different
denominations.
Now you have to understand Iwas living a life very contrary

(04:37):
to the Catholic Church, andnothing in what I believed
aligned with the Catholic Church, and so Catholic Church was not
even on the list of churches Iwas looking at.
But I'd settled for theEpiscopalian Church because I
really still liked the idea of alitur like a service that was
more traditional, and I'd heardthat the Episcopalian service

(05:01):
was like that I'd never beenbefore.
So, on October 13th 2014, Idecided that I was going to go
to an Episcopalian church andtry it out, and if I liked it,
then I would be Episcopalian.
However, the Lord had differentplans.
For some reason, I couldn't getto that service, or they didn't

(05:21):
have one, but I'd heard thatthe mass was similar and we had
a mass at the Catholic Center atGeorgetown.
I had a friend who lived acrossfrom me who is very Catholic, so
I went up to her, much to hersurprise, and asked her if I
could come to mass with her.
She said yes and she gave metwo instructions.
There's going to be a lot ofsitting, standing and kneeling.

(05:42):
Do the best you can and wheneveryone starts going into the
line, don't go into the line.
I had no idea what either ofthese two things meant, but I
went with her to the 1130 ammass and in that mass the homily
was entirely about turning yourlife over simply because God

(06:03):
loves you, and it felt like thepriest was speaking to my heart
and I think that openedsomething in my heart to what
was about to come.
So for context, you know, maybemany of you have never been to
mass.
I'd never been to Mass beforein my entire life.
This was my third Christianservice.
I didn't know what was going onand I didn't know what the

(06:25):
Catholic Church believed, but atsome point in Mass we believe
that when the priest says thewords this is my body holding a
piece of unleavened bread, thatin that moment that truly
becomes the body of Christ.
I did not know this.
So that part of mass comesaround and I'm just sitting

(06:49):
there while kneeling, because myfriend told me to, and that
part of mass comes around and,yeah, the best way I can explain
what I experienced was I knewsomething was there In that
moment when the priest liftedthe body of Christ and that,
when I thought it was just bread, I knew something was there and

(07:09):
I knew I wanted it.
I had no idea what it was, butI knew something was there and
everything inside of me wantedit and at the same time yeah,
the closest I can explain it tois I felt home.
I felt home when home isactually on the other side of
world, in India, and whateverthat was.

(07:30):
I knew I would do anything forit, but I also knew you had to
be Catholic to receive that.
And so, while everyone elsekept going into the line
obviously I don't, I didn't gointo the line because I was a
good little rule follower, buteverything inside of me wanted
to.
I think at that mass I knew Iwould become Catholic, but in my

(07:56):
own stubbornness I fought it.
I went home and I asked all myProtestant friends what they
didn't like about the Catholicchurch and then learned the
teachings of the Protestantchurch and the teachings of the
Catholic church together andreally I just fell in love with
how much formation there is inthe church and how much I could

(08:17):
continue learning again andagain.
Soon I joined RCIA.
Still I did not know what thatthing was in mass, I had no idea
, but I knew I wanted it.
I found myself going back tomass again and again, just to be
there for it.
In January of that year my RCIAleader recommended that all of

(08:39):
us go and sign up for a holyhour, which I had no idea what a
holy hour was.
But whatever Dan asked us to do, I did it.
So I signed up for a holy hourfrom 11 to midnight.
He explained it as you go, sitwith God and you can pray.
And I told him I had justlearned how to pray the, our
Father, and to say try to talkto God.

(09:02):
So I didn't know how to pray,so I couldn't do that.
But then he said well, you cango sit with God and you can read
.
And I said perfect, I lovereading, I will go.
So I signed up.
What was in my head?
An hour for reading with God,and once again with Catholic
things.
I didn't know what I was doingusually, so I would just show up
early.
I showed up an hour before myactual holy hour at 10 pm at the

(09:25):
Catholic Center.
I met this girl, valeska, thatwe became fast friends and you
know I told her my story andlike what I was doing and I
didn't tell her that I was herefor a holy hour.
But at 11 pm she got up andsaid I'm going to go to my holy
hour.
Valeska was the other guardianfor that holy hour and I heard

(09:46):
those words and I was likeperfect, I'll follow you,
because I didn't even know whereto go.
So I started following her andshe asked me what are you doing?
I was like oh, I also signed upfor this holy hour.
She's like, ok, so we walked tothe chapel and I've never been
in the small chapel before,which is where holy hour was,
which is where adoration was.

(10:07):
So I walk in and she opens thedoor and I see in front of me
that same thing from mass and Iknow it is the same.
It looks a little different butit is the same.
And I point at it and I look ather and say what is that?
And she looks at me, obviouslyvery confused, and says this is

(10:28):
where we're starting, this isGod, and I remember just having
this moment of what do you meanthat is God?
Because that fits with theexperience that I'm having
internally.
Yes, that fits that.
That is something so muchgreater, but at the same time,
it looks like bread.
What do you mean that that isGod?

(10:51):
And so you know the personbefore us in Holy Hour left.
We both settled down and, umvelusca and all her kindness,
explained the catholic church'steachings on the eucharist to me
and how like that was trulyjesus present body, blood, soul

(11:14):
and divinity.
And somehow it fit.
It fit with the experience thatI'd had again and again in
front of what she called theEucharist, and it made sense
that that was God.
And so I found myself comingback every you know, every
Sunday, obviously, but everyweek, 11 to midnight, I found

(11:35):
myself sitting with what I wasbeing told was Jesus fully
present, and it continued tomake sense of my heart.
And then, on April 4, 2015, Igot baptized and I finally
received that thing, that reallythat person that I'd been

(11:56):
waiting and pining for for sixmonths, for more than six months
.
And then it doesn't stop.
It actually gets better thanthat, like you know, like
African Reformation, thatcontinued every single day and
it still does right, like I gotbaptized 10 years ago at this

(12:16):
point in 2015.
10 years ago at this point in2015.
And yeah, like receiving Jesusat mass every day and then
praying, getting to pray infront of him in my holy hour is
possibly the best gift that Ican ever receive.
The holy hour was one of thefirst things that I committed to

(12:42):
doing for the Lord.
That was not obligatory, right?
And that is actually the placewhere my heart is most deeply
united with the Lord and I meethim there every time.
And so, during my second yearas a missionary, yeah, the Lord
started putting this call on myheart to give myself to him

(13:04):
completely in consecrated life,particularly in religious life.
And but I wasn't entirely surewhat order.
I'd met plenty of religiousorders through my work as a
missionary and through Sikh and,but had never actually visited
them, and I just I just assumedthat all religious orders prayed

(13:25):
a holy hour every day, which isnot true, because not all of
them have that as part of theircharism.
And as I was visitingcommunities, I visited the
sister servants of the eternalword.
I got there in the evening andthe next morning we started the
day with a holy hour and it waswonderful.
And then the next day westarted the day again with a

(13:48):
holy hour and I realized thatwithin this community, that is
how my day would start everysingle day and it was in that
moment that I knew that the Lordwas most likely calling me
there and that's where he'scontinued to meet me.
Every time I visited them is inthose holy hours.
And, yeah, like now, godwilling, like I will be doing

(14:12):
that with them for the rest ofmy life.
So it's really beautiful thatthe way that he drew my heart to
him the first time is still theway that he continues to drew
my heart to him the first time,is still the way that he
continues to draw my heart tohim.
And, yes, those feelings, youknow, over time like go away of,
like that intensity of likethere's something here and like

(14:33):
the feelings go away, butthere's this like underlying,
settled space of no, this is theone it's almost like when you
initially meet someone and youfall in love with them, there's
this excitement and then,eventually, that excitement just
settles into a deeper, moreintimate simplicity of just

(14:53):
being with the person.
And it has happened with him.

Speaker 1 (14:59):
Thanks so much, shristi, for taking the time to
share this wonderful story ofhow God met you in the midst of
your journey to him.
God loves you.
Those are powerful words, wordsthat you and I can often be
scared to say, especially ifsomeone, in like Tristi's case,
rejected that initial desirethat her friend had to share

(15:21):
faith with her.
But those words changed herheart and I couldn't help but
wonder who needs to hear thosewords in my life, and I'd ask
you, listening today, toconsider the same for you.
Who needs to hear those wordsGod loves you from you.
We'd love for you to share thispodcast with anyone you think
who needs to remember God's lovefor them, to share this podcast
with anyone you think who needsto remember God's love for them
, and it always helps us so muchif you're able to leave us a

(15:43):
positive review wherever you'relistening.
Thanks so much for tuning in.
We hope to see you next week.