Carol Reyes - The Power of Prayer

One of the unique things about working at Central Catholic High School is that our faculty and staff members are free to practice their faith at work.  We pray with our students at the beginning of the school day, in classrooms, at Mass and Adoration, and at retreats.

Carol Reyes, our Guidance Department administrative assistant, takes full advantage of this opportunity.  Carol has worked at Central Catholic for three years, handling student files, transcripts, and grades.  “Working at Central Catholic is awesome because I can talk about God and have a crucifix, and nobody tells me not to,” she said.  “I can pray openly here.”

Carol is a parishioner at St. John XXIII Catholic Community in Perrysburg, and she is a regional board member for Cursillo, an international Catholic movement with the mission of engaging people to encounter Christ in themselves and then in others.

Carol was introduced to Cursillo in 2006 when she worked for the Adrian Dominican Sisters.  At the time, she was a single mother who was very stressed about her family.  Her children were having difficulties and she knew she had to do something to handle her stress, but she didn’t know what.  One of the sisters asked her several times to attend a Cursillo weekend, and Carol finally agreed.  The experience helped her to strengthen her relationship with Christ and to put her worries into His hands, and it changed her life.

Carol was so affected by the movement that she became a Cursillo volunteer and worked her way up as diocesan chairperson, assistant lay director, regional team member, and eventually she became part of the national executive team.  With Cursillo, Carol strives to live the organization’s motto to “make a friend, be a friend, and bring your friend to Christ.”  She tries to get to know people in their own worlds and to see where they are spiritually, and then determine when they may be ready to accept God in their lives.  She invites them to attend a Cursillo weekend, like she did.  She likens the experience to an adult version of the Kairos retreat that high school seniors make.  Both help people develop their relationship with God through prayer and meditation.

Working in the Guidance Department, Carol sometimes sees students who are having a difficult time.  “If they seem open to it, I encourage them to pray for guidance because God will answer them,” she explained.  Carol has her own experiences with God answering her prayers.  She used to pray for God to send her someone who loves God as much as she does, who would go to church with her, who loves family, and has faith.  She ended up meeting her husband, who has all these qualities and more, and she moved to Toledo when they married.

“I encourage everyone to pray because God will answer you,” she said.  “I pray for the students at Central Catholic, and I have had students come back to tell me how things worked out for them, and they thank me for praying for them.  That empowers me to continue, and I ask the students to do the same for me.”