A happy marriage

'This little girl is just too slow', had exclaimed Paolo turning back while he was walking along Tuscolana Road [note of the translator: one of the main roads of Rome] giving tracts about the Word of God.

The Bible School had sent the students two by two, and Paolo and Lidia had been put together. 'How does he dare to call me 'little girl!' Lidia thought with a bit of resentment.

The students of the Bible School had also the duty to visit the sick. Monday was their day off and they usually gathered together. One day, one of their groups went to visit a dear sister, a godly woman who used to pray very much, who was very old. Among the visitors were also Paolo and Lidia. The elderly sister wanted to see them alone, one after another, near her bedside and said to Paolo and Lidia: 'I saw you clothed in wedding dresses, going hand in hand up into heaven, and behind you there was a great multitude of believers following you'.

However, Paolo and Lidia thought that perhaps that sister had begun to show signs of madness. Neither of them intended to get married, both of them had dedicated their life to the Lord to serve Him. Even during the intervals between the lesson, while the other students went out and talked to one another, they remained absorbed in the study of the Word of God. And twice a week they went outside Rome in different places to hold some meetings. Lidia was so happy she could help other people to find the Saviour. That made her very happy and she thought of nothing else.

However, one day a very strange thing happened to her: she had a vision in which she saw herself near Paolo and she had the assurance that Paul would become her husband. 'Lord - she said - I want to do only your will, guide me'. She kept the secret in her heart. Apart from the greeting, previously Paolo had addressed her rarely.

After some evenings, Paolo said to Lidia: 'Tonight, I want to see you home, I need to talk to you'. Paul took her to her house and before greeting her he said to her: 'I feel you will be my wife, however, know this, that I have decided to serve the Lord. I do not offer you an easy life, rather a life with many sacrifices and maybe also starvation'. Well, that's not a problem - Lidia replied - for I too have taken the same decision'.

They prayed again, there was no doubt, God wanted them to get married, and they got married on the 4th of August 1963. Happily married they continued to work in the field of the Lord.

From: Liberati per Liberare [Delivered to deliver], Cosenza, Italy, 1980, pages 8,9

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