FIAT Feature: Meet Emily Coronado

"I honestly would never have guessed how profound of an impact Rome and the TBP experience would have on my heart and my interior life."

Hello! My name is Emily Coronado. I live in the suburbs of Chicago, Illinois, and I work as a marketing and ecommerce specialist at a Catholic creative agency. I love to read, cook, bake, visit farmer's markets, travel, and host friends in my home for dinner parties and game nights. I sing in the choir at my parish, and I go out swing dancing with friends at least once a week. Life is very full, and very beautiful.

I honestly would never have guessed how profound of an impact Rome and the TBP experience would have my heart and my interior life.

Transparently, as I entered into the experience, I entered in with a number of wounds and a heaviness on my heart. Leading up to the trip, many of my friends back home remarked that they were so excited for me to experience Rome and to see the ways the Lord would work in my heart and lavish His Love upon me. It wasn't until afterwards that I understood how right they were!

I firmly believe the Lord had a two-fold plan for me for this trip - to gently knead the wounds I was carrying in order open myself up to more fully recognize the deep and unique love He has specifically for me.

On opening night, John and Ashley spoke of how this Encounter is a true gift for each and every one of us, and that they wanted to encourage us to sit back and receive. They also mentioned that the passage Hosea 2:14 had come up in prayer. Coincidentally, it had come up in mine the week prior, as well.

"Therefore, I will allure her now;

I will lead her into the wilderness

and speak persuasively [some translations, tenderly] to her.

Then I will give her the vineyards she had,

and the valley of Achor as a door of hope."

The TBP experience moves at a unique pace. One moment you're briskly walking from one church to another, while the next moment you're met with time to relax, sit, ponder, and receive. And through it all, I heard the Lord remark to me "Emily, do you know how much I love _you_?" While bustling through crowded sidewalks as Rome's signature sirens blared, intermixed with the deep ring of bells from its ancient steeples, to encountering a unique souvenir shop that he knew would delight me (and creating space for me to go and visit it!). From a long walk up a spiral staircase where many of my TBP fellows and I remarked that we had no idea where we were headed, only to be met with the most intimate and breathtaking view of the Roman skyline right at the top. He lead me quite literally to Saint friends of mine who I wasn't expecting to encounter (a statue of St. Josemaria Escriva in a nondescript corridor off the central sanctuary of the Vatican, venerating a relic of St. Mary Magdalene's foot, praying in front of St. John Paul II's tomb), and on the morning of our last full day when I woke up and realized we were nearing the Ides of March, and my little Shakespearean heart had failed to mark the occasion of being so close to the events of Julius Cesar, that night John and Ashley took us to a restaurant and led us down to the basement of the building where we stood in ancient rooms of none other than the Theatre of Pompey, right across from where Cesar's assassination took place. Little, deeply poignant specific glimpses of Love from our Lord who just wanted me to know how deep his heart is for me.

And in the quiet moments, walking and praying through each historic basilica and church we entered, without even knowing how until long after, the Lord gently kneaded out the stings of prominent wounds in my heart. Those moments of encounter were hard, but good. I'm sure the other Fellows remember the number of tears I shed, as they very kindly pressed tissues into my hand, offered an encouraging smile, or a heart-written note, or brought me in for a deep hug as we'd depart the sanctuary. We had barely known each other a week, but I felt so deeply seen, known, and taken care of - an outward manifestation of what the Lord had been telling me interiorly.

Coming home from Rome, I experienced perhaps the most intense period of spiritual attack that I had ever experienced in my life. But through the interior work the Lord had started, through the remembrances of His Love for me in Italy, and the knowledge that His Love and Goodness doesn't end when I return to American soil, I was able to bear these trials and sufferings with more determination that I'd ever thought possible. In recent months, I've remarked time and again that Rome was the foundation for the deep healing the Lord had planned for me, and what I'd learned and experienced truly carried me through a transformative period of my life.

"...the Truth and Beauty Project experience was truly foundational for the woman I've become."

One thing that surprised me most on this Immersion was the sheer number of people praying and interceding for each and every one of us! Each TBP fellow gets matched with a mentor who prays for them throughout the trip, but not only that, TBP has a whole network of prayer partners who pray for the group as a whole, AND each Fellow has 2 or 3 of these partners praying for them specifically by name. I'm grateful for all the prayer and spiritual support that I received prior, during, and after the immersion!

Today, I feel like a completely different woman from the one who stepped off the plane at Rome's Fiumicino airport. But the Truth and Beauty Project experience was truly foundational for the woman I've become. I was brought into the dessert, but, through Rome and TBP, the Lord spoke tenderly to me, reminded me of who I am, and brought about a door of Hope when I returned back home. Praise the Good Lord for His true Goodness!