Among the thousands of people across Australia who joined the Catholic Church this Easter season was Kaila Kinna-Puru and her family who attend Our Lady Help of Christians in Culburra Beach on the South Coast.
Kinna-Puru, her husband Cody, and their five children, now aged between one and 11 years old, came to the faith after discovering their youngest child would be born with gastroschisis.
Gastroschisis is a birth defect where the intestines, and in this case also the stomach, extend outside the body through a hole in the belly button.
“When finding out the news, my husband immediately surrendered to God promising to get to know him, asking him to guide us through this unexpected journey,” Kinna-Puru told The Catholic Weekly.
She was “totally shut off to God” at the time and, even though she supported her husband’s faith journey, she said it took some time for the Lord to filter through to her own heart.
“One day out of the blue I felt this huge presence of the love of Jesus surrounding us and I was instantly convicted with my whole heart to him,” she said.
“I never understood when people said they ‘found God’ until that moment.”
Kinna-Puru said the family initially attended an Anglican church but when they attended a Catholic liturgy they “truly felt the presence of the Lord.”
Speaking to this masthead ahead of her baptism, she said the part she was looking forward to most was receiving her first Eucharist and being able to share in the gifts of the faith with her children.
“I would say to anyone considering becoming Catholic that it will be the most beautiful and life altering experience,” she said.
“Mass with the true presence of our Lord is like nothing else the world can provide.”
