by Katie Vasquez
Sixto and Maria Torres are in love, but they admit their marriage wasn’t always picture perfect.
“We were having a lot of discussion, on the verge of divorce,” said Sixto Torres, a parishioner at Shrine and Parish Church of the Holy Innocents.
The pair grew up Catholic in Ecuador but strayed from their faith as adults.
“By the time we arrived to the US, I was agnostic at that time. So in a matter of ten years i left my faith,” said Maria Torres, a parishioner at Shrine and Parish Church of the Holy Innocents.
They married in a civil ceremony in March 2019, but soon the cracks in their relationship started to show as the pandemic hit.
“Everything was shut down and we were pushed to do things by ourselves, in the marriage, and to start reflecting on whether we have to, whether we can continue living the way we’re living or we have to change,” said Sixto Torres.
The couple says the lockdown was a blessing because it forced them to dig deeper and find their faith again.
“We started having regular confession on a weekly basis, attending mass daily and, you know, started offering and sacrificing everything for God and for our marriage,” said Sixto Torres.
And while their conversion of heart wasn’t easy,
“it’s not like you go to confession and everything, magically start changing. No, faith is not magic, but you have to be like you have to work with the graces of God. If I want to fix my life, I have to choose God. I have to follow what he has to say,” said Maria.
Their hard work helped them recommit to God and each other, and they married at the Shrine and Parish church of the Holy Innocents in Manhattan on September 11, 2021.
“We’re in love. We are going to have arguments. but at the end of the day, when we are reflecting about it, we say, okay, we are at peace because we are we are willing to do that the will of God,” said Sixto Torres.
Now the Torres’ are hoping to help other couples find marital bliss, recently taking part in a talk guiding partners to a more godly union.
“You need the grace of God, to see clearly, what are the issues? What are the problems? without the help of God, you are dead, totally dead,” said Maria Torres.
Because the Torres’ understand their marriage became stronger, once they opened their hearts to God.