“Healing the Wounded Heart & the Power of Forgiveness”
October 25, 2018

Jess Echeverry is an advocate and speaker for women and families who herself has suffered homelessness, abuse and violence. After years of suffering she found the love of Jesus Christ in the Roman Catholic Church and now speaks about her life story through the experiences of her woundedness. In Holy Scripture, St. John tells us that our Resurrected Jesus still bore His wounds. Why? Join us as we go deeper into woundedness, suffering, healing and the hope that lies ahead for those who are troubled.

Biography: Jess Echeverry is a woman and family advocate and speaker.  She is a survivor of parental divorce and alcoholism, as well as emotional and physical abuse.  She suffered sexual abuse beginning at the age of 10 and her testimony includes dark times of sexual violence, becoming pregnant at 16, being forced to give up her baby and experiencing almost 3 years of homelessness on the streets of South Florida.  In 1997 she met the man she would eventually marry; this man would help her create an environment of authentic love that enabled her healing journey, her relationship with Jesus Christ and her eventual forgiveness and love for her attackers.  She converted to Catholicism in 2008.

Her husband Charlie is a Permanent Deacon for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.  Together Deacon Charlie & Jess have 5 children: 2 teenage boys still at home, 2 young adults out in the world, 1 lovely soul in Heaven and 2 English Bulldogs.  Jess is a homeschooling mother as well as the founder and Executive Director of SOFESA, a 501c(3) non-profit ministry that has been serving Southern California homeless and low-income children and their families since 1999.

Jess has previously appeared on EWTN’s The Catholic View for Women, has been interviewed by Spirit Radio’s Morning Show host Jen Brown and Guadalupe Radio’s Morning Glory host Gloria Purvis.  She has had the opportunity to share her testimony in various events throughout the country and has also been featured in a Catholic Answers Focus podcast with then host, Patrick Coffin.  Inspired by the good things God has wrought in her life, she is presently penning her first book detailing her life experiences in a way that lifts up and enlightens others who are searching for ways to heal. She is a strong and effective speaker who has been able to, with the help of God’s grace, turn those past experiences, and all the healing that she has received along the way, into real, loving help for others.