Living Out Her Faith Every Day

By Carolina A. Miranda

Growing up in a family of religious nomads who migrated from church to church, Heather Cuthrell says she yearned for a deeper connection to religion from the time she was 10 and converted to Catholicism when she was 16. "It was because of the tradition and the history and the idea that it was the only [faith] we could follow back all the way to the Apostles," she says.

While attending college in Houston, she met her future husband Jim Cuthrell at a local parish. He often participated in Opus Dei events, and it was through him that Heather became familiar with the organization. Its central tenet that people should find sanctity in their everyday lives resonated with her. "I grew up my whole life where you do whatever you want during the week, and then on Sunday you're a Christian," she explains. "A lot of people don't live their faith every day. But with Opus Dei, you don't compartmentalize. You try to live your virtues." In the early 1990s, Heather and Jim joined as supernumeraries, members who live in their homes rather than in Opus Dei residences.

Some family members were worried that the couple was getting involved with a cult. But Heather says they were reassured after reading pamphlets on the organization's practices. "People form these negative opinions because they don't have the right information," she says. Now married for 15 years and living in Long Beach, Calif., with Jim and their two daughters, Heather, 39, says she appreciates the structure that Opus Dei gives her life. She sees setting aside at least an hour a day for prayer as a blessing, not a burden. "I have much more calm because I know God has a hand in whatever happens," she says. "I am not as uptight about things." The result, she feels, is that Opus Dei has helped her be a better mother and wife.

With reporting by Reported by Sean Scully