John Corapi's Amazing Story [free audio tapes available]

John Corapi's Amazing Story" is just that: amazing. You'll have to listen to it yourself to appreciate how one man can go from the utter depths of despair to the heights of supernatural happiness.

Because it was the first recording released to the general public featuring Father Corapi, virtually no one in America knew who he was at the time. Of course, Father Corapi has since become one of the most influential Catholic speakers of our times, appearing at countless conferences, parish missions, and regularly on EWTN, the global Catholic television network.

I often compare Father Corapi to Saint Anthony, who also had the ineffable power of God fueling his speaking ability, giving him supernatural influence beyond the meaning of his words.

You'll find out exactly what I mean when you hear the incredible story of his life. But first, I want to tell you what happened to me when we recorded "John Corapi's Amazing Story."

In 1983, while I was an undergraduate at the University of Notre Dame, a group of students and I decided to consecrate our hearts to Immaculate Mary as members of the Militia Immaculata. One of the men in the chapel that day, was Tony Anderson. After graduating, Tony entered a small and dynamic new congregation called S.O.L.T., the Society of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity. It just so happened that Father Tony studied to be a priest alongside an unusually talented man with a water-well-deep voice, and they had just been ordained, side by side, in Rome.

Father Tony gave me a "bootleg" recording of his fellow priest, telling me, "You have to listen to this guy. His story is amazing." So I listened. I was so moved that I loosely based a character in my first novel on his story. And the Mary Foundation decided to introduce Father Corapi to the world. And now you can get to know him, too.

Since then, Father Corapi has given his testimony many times to many audiences, but I'll never forget the day we recorded "John Corapi's Amazing Story" for the Mary Foundation. He happened to be in his hometown in upstate New York. We met with a group of people in the grammar school gym where John had played as a young boy. I set up the recording equipment myself, off to the side, on the hardwood floor.

While Father gave his talk, something happened to me that has never happened before or since. There is a part near the end of the talk where Father Corapi implores listeners to "Answer the call!" You'll know it when you hear it. It's powerful.

During this riveting section, even though I was alone and off to the side in a stale-aired gym several yards from the nearest listener, I smelled the most beautiful fragrance I've ever smelled in my life. It was overwhelming, like heavenly flowers. I looked around to see if someone had spilled a bottle of perfume near me. No one was nearby. There were no flowers in the gym, of course.

The fragrance graced my nostrils for several minutes; it dawned on me what was happening. I had heard stories about the "gift of fragrance" before, usually the scent of roses to indicate that Our Lady was nearby in a supernatural way. Now it was happening to me, Bud Macfarlane, just another guy from New Jersey!

I'm not the kind of person this type of thing happens to. And I'm not a "flowers" kind of guy. I don't like perfume, but this fragrance was different. It was powerful but not in a way that was off-putting. It was as if I was inhaling Beauty itself. It was, in a word, miraculous.

After the recording was complete, I thanked Father Corapi, then went to the people who, although far away, were seated closest to me. They had not smelled anything out of the ordinary. I told Father Corapi about it, and he just nodded in a knowing kind of way.

I drove back to the Mary Foundation, recording in hand, knowing for certain that we had something that was going to help countless souls. And so it has. As I look back on the experience, I often wonder exactly what kind of flower I was smelling.

What it the fragrance of a rose? No, it wasn't roses; I know that smell pretty well, since roses are the only flowers I buy for my wife. The more I reflect upon that incredible day, and every time I listen to "Father Corapi's Amazing Story," the more certain I become that the lovely fragrance from heaven which I smelled during the recording was that of...lilacs.

When you hear "John Corapi's Amazing Story," you'll understand the significance of lilacs.

Corapi

From Addict To Evangelist

Fr. Corapi

I would go down Rodeo Drive in my new red Ferrari and people would turn their heads and say, 'That must be somebody.' My 2,000-square-foot bedroom was larger than most people's house.

by Eric Retzlaff (Our Sunday Visitor)

ohn Corapi learned to love truth the hardway--by embracing falsehood.

Despite a 1950s Catholic elementary education, he swallowed a popular lie that could have killed him, and nearly did.

"At 14 or 15, I began to think I was the definitive interpreter of what was real," he told Our Sunday Visitor recently. "It was the attitude that you don't accept any authority outside yourself, so every individual becomes God."

Now a nationally known priest-preacher, he never tires of recalling for his audiences where that attitude led him.

All through his younger years he yearned "to be somebody," to stand out, to be noticed and admired. He got his wish, and more.

His quest led him to California during the real estate boom of the 1970s. In a few years, he became a millionaire.If "success is measured in dollars and cents," as he believed then, he had achieved "the American Dream."

"I was eating and drinking with the wealthy," said the small-town native. "I fell into fast-lane living, with fast women."

"I would go down Rodeo Drive in my new red Ferrari and people would turn their heads and say, 'That must be somebody.' My 2,000-square-foot bedroom was larger than most people's houses.

"But I was out of touch with reality. Reality is God."

How out of touch he was became apparent when an attractive young entertainer at a party introduced him to what she called her "best friend" --cocaine.

His American Dream disappeared literally up his nose as cocaine became a $10,000-a-week habit. Physically and psychologically devastated, he landed in a hospital, and for months, he said, "I didn't eat, speak or function normally. I was sick at heart because I had made it and lost it."

"I saw no way out, only absolute darkness. The only thing I wanted was death.

"I begged God to help me, but nothing happened, because I wasn't ready to give up sin," he said. The darkness lasted for three years.

After a failed comeback in real estate, he returned to his home in Hudson, N.Y. In his desperation, he began to pray the Rosary, and he turned his heart to God:

"I cried out to God, 'If you are real, and I don't know if you are, you need to rescue me now.'"

Repentant Tears

Then something happened. "I cried tears of very real repentance," said Father Corapi, who is now director of faith formation in the Diocese of Sacramento, Calif. "I fell into a deep peace, and my first real sleep in years."

Later, he made his first confession in nearly 20 years.

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