The Power of the Cross
by Michael Dubruiel
Here you may download a free .pdf copy of The Power of the Crossby Michael Dubruiel.
You can read it on Scribd, here,
Also: Michael Dubruiel recorded a series of interviews with KVSS radio based on the book. You can find those interviews here.
Michael Dubruiel’s homepageMichael Dubruiel’s blog
Michael Dubruiel’s Amazon page
I was going home in the spring of 1980 after a three-year stint
in the United States Army, making my way along the rural
back roads of North Florida. Just south of Cross City, I came
upon a billboard that seemed totally out of place deep in the
Bible Belt, where Catholics made up less than two percent of the
local population. On the large billboard was an image of the
Blessed Virgin Mary holding out a rosary. Underneath were the
words, “Pray for the Conversion of Russia.”
Later that week I mentioned the billboard to Father Pat
Foley, the pastor of our small Catholic parish. He laughed. “Oh,
Pearl had that put up, and it’s created quite a stir.” When I asked
to meet Pearl, he suggested that I take the Eucharist to her at a
local nursing home.
The halls of the nursing home were filled with old souls,
some crying out in pain. I expected Pearl to be one of them, but
when I arrived at her door, I found a young woman in her twenties.
She was propped up in bed holding a crucifix in her arms,
with a candle burning on her bedside table. Pearl smiled and
invited me in. My new friend received the Eucharist with great
devotion, then closed her eyes and made her thanksgiving while
I stood nearby. It was an image right off a holy card.
For the next five months I continued to visit Pearl, until I left
to attend college in southern Indiana. Several times each week I
brought Pearl Holy Communion, then we would talk. Pearl had
grown up in Michigan and moved to Florida after high school.
She had been wild in her late teens and early twenties, she said,
until life dealt her an unfortunate blow—terminal cancer. Now
she lay abandoned in a nursing home; her husband rarely visited
her, her family was far away. Although she had every earthly reason
to be, she was neither sad nor dejected. In fact, she was the
most joyful person I had ever known. What was her secret?
Pearl held up the crucifix she always cradled near her. “It’s the
power of the cross,” she replied. Her sickness had helped her to
rediscover the faith of her childhood; she had experienced the
power of uniting her own suffering with the Passion and death
of the Lord. She had relinquished her own plans and opened herself
up to God’s plan for her, even if it meant a short life on earth.
This book is the fruit of those meetings I had with Pearl
almost twenty-five years ago.
Charlotte was Both 
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