Growing up in a large Irish and Acadian family in northern New Brunswick, Judy Savoy remembers kneeling on the hard wooden floor to pray the rosary every night during Lent, singing in a girl’s choir during Latin Mass, praying novenas, and going to Confession once a month.<\/p>\n
She loved the majesty, the drama and pageantry of the Catholic Church and "the mystery that God could never be fully understood." But then, like many baby-boomers, she drifted away, lost her faith for a season, and then found it in a Protestant church.<\/p>\n
Now, as Get Me Back to the Garden, I’m Choking on the Weeds, the one-woman-show she wrote and produced is showcasing her acting and comedic talents across Canada in mostly evangelical circles, she has returned to the Roman Catholic Church. <\/p>\n
In 2002, Savoy moved to Halifax. In 2003, at a party, she met a Catholic priest.<\/p>\n
"As we chatted, I found out that he had had a ‘born-again’ experience as an 18-year-old through InterVarsity Christian Fellowship through a friend of mine," Savoy said.<\/p>\n
‘Where you belong’<\/p>\n
The priest, Father James Mallon, told her the Catholic Church represented her roots, her home. "Judy, we Catholics go off and become evangelized by other denominations. Now we need to come back and evangelize the Catholic Church. This is where you belong."<\/p>\n
That summer, she went to do a musical in Prince Edward Island, and asked God where she should worship when she returned to Halifax.<\/p>\n
At a three-day conference in Summerside, P.E.I., featuring a prophetic speaker, she recalls being deep in prayer, on her knees, while the speaker led worship. He said, "You do not need more teaching, you need to worship," and she felt as if those words were meant for her.<\/p>\n
Then she says she felt something surge through her body like a bolt of lightning that started from the top of her head to her toes. She heard "The Catholic Church" three times.<\/p>\n