After years of suffering with illness, local author finds hope in Christ's compassion

Enduring years of physical and emotional suffering, Maria Sinishtaj found the only path to transformative healing was Christ

MILFORD — Over the last 24 years, Maria Sinishtaj has been on a journey of miraculous healing, both physical and spiritual. Now, she doesn’t just want to tell others about her intimate path to Jesus; she wants to help lead them on a similar journey with her newly released book, “Encountering Jesus: Your 18-inch Journey to Healing and Freedom (Mater Media).”

The book, Sinishtaj's first, features 30 guided meditations and prayers based on Bible stories of Jesus’ encounters with ordinary people, many of whom were suffering and seeking healing. Sinishtaj invites readers to immerse themselves in the biblical scenes, where they can encounter Christ’s love and healing.

“I want (readers) to know how absolutely loved they are by God,” Sinishtaj, a parishioner of St. Mary, Our Lady of the Snows Parish in Milford, told Detroit Catholic. “I know that sounds cliché and like something they have heard before, but if you were the only person in the world, if there was nobody else but you, Jesus would have left heaven, left his home and his throne to come down and take on suffering just to save you and just to be with you forever in eternity.”

Sinishtaj, a mother of four and grandmother of one, a small business owner, and a certified spiritual director, is bursting at the seams to help others know and love Jesus and to let him meet them where they are, particularly in their lowest and most hurt places.

That, she says, is where Jesus first met her and where her story of healing began.

In 2001, Sinishtaj became sick with a mystery illness that left her in chronic pain and agony, unable to function as she once had. Pain radiated from her back to her stomach, leaving her incapacitated and desperate for a cure. Sinishtaj visited countless doctors and specialists, meanwhile falling deeper into hopelessness and despair.

“We can all suffer from different diseases; it can be cancer, it can be chronic illness, it could be some other disease, but the symptoms — especially the mental and emotional symptoms — are the same,” Sinishtaj explained. “It is very isolating, you feel very afraid, you feel alone, you can fall into hopelessness. You think, ‘Is this ever going to change? Will this ever get better? Am I ever going to be the person that I was?’ Your mind starts to take you down a path of hopelessness and despair, especially when you are suffering from an invisible illness.”

Sinishtaj recalls praying for a diagnosis so that she could give her condition a name and know what she was fighting, rather than constantly punching thin air.

Finally, in 2009, she received a diagnosis of postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome, otherwise known as POTS — Sinishtaj was ecstatic as she began a course of treatment, and yet she didn’t feel better.

“I was getting better, but there was no way I wanted to live the rest of my life like this,” Sinishtaj said. “A few years into treatment, I reached the end of myself, and at that point, you can go either way. Thank God that by his grace, which I did not realize at the time, I turned to Him. I needed Him, and that’s when my real journey began.”

Sinishtaj began practicing her faith again and living a sacramental life. She prayed daily and with fervor, attended every healing service available and was confident that if she did “everything right,” God would heal her once and for all.

However, to Sinishtaj’s dismay and frustration, her body was not being healed overnight.

“I said in prayer, ‘What is happening? I am giving you everything, I am doing all the right stuff, but you are not healing me. What more do you want from me?' I felt so rejected by Him,” Sinishtaj said.

That's when, in a dream, Sinishtaj heard a crystal clear voice say, “The word of God is alive and active,” and her transformation truly began.

That voice convicted Sinishtaj that God wanted her heart and wanted to meet her needs, leading her to dive into Scripture, specifically the stories in which people encountered Jesus and were healed. Sinishtaj would put herself in the scenes and feel God’s presence loving her and touching her just as he did with the people in the stories.

“It was such a slow process, but this shift was taking place where now I was seeking Him more than my healing,” Sinishtaj said. “I was seeking Him like, ‘I want to love you, Lord, with my whole heart, my whole soul, my whole strength, and I want to serve you and follow you.' I wanted to be possessed by Him completely.”

The more Sinshitaj encountered and fell in love with God, the more she sought Him, and suddenly her illness took the back burner. Little by little, she could stand up longer without fear of passing out, talk without becoming short of breath, or look at the upper shelf at the grocery store without supporting her own head.

“Little by little, the symptoms began to disappear, and I really, truly believe that they began to disappear because I stopped focusing on them and I started focusing on Christ,” Sinishtaj said.

Sinishtaj’s desire for others to know and love God and His goodness grew as she fell more deeply in love with Him, and she began to look for ways to share with the world what He was capable of doing.

Besides becoming a certified spiritual director, Sinishtaj compiled a binder of meditations she had done that had brought her closer to God and began to share it with others. However, it wasn’t until 2019 that she began to lay the groundwork for what would become her first book, “Encountering Jesus.”

“This one came to me clearly from the Holy Spirit, and this is because I was wrestling with God about something, and then came home, opened my laptop, and I put these meditations and Scripture passages together in 3-4 days,” Sinishtaj said. “I was cooking dinner, going to my laptop, setting the table, going to my laptop. It was just coming and coming.”

Sinishtaj began to share the binder with small groups and parishes throughout the Archdiocese of Detroit, starting workshops and retreats that included the meditations, leading the discussions and providing direction.

“People participating were receiving graces and being transformed,” Sinishtaj said. “People were falling in love with Christ and telling me, ‘This is what I needed.’”

Sinishtaj hopes to continue introducing the book to people in need of a healing encounter with Christ, regardless of whether their suffering is brought on by a physical illness or not. She envisions turning the book into a guided retreat and plans to write another book of meditations.

Despite all the suffering, Sinishtaj said she “wouldn’t undo anything.”

“Suffering, sadly, is the leading cause of people losing their faith,” Sinishtaj said. “But suffering is where He meets you; that’s where He is waiting for you. If we can go a little bit deeper, it allows Him to love us right there in the area where you feel unloved, forgotten, rejected, or abandoned.

“What God wants more than anything — and I know some people can have a hard time hearing this — more than your physical healing is that He wants your heart,” Sinishtaj continued. “He wants intimacy with you, and usually, intimacy is going to bring about the physical healing. And if it doesn’t, I am going to tell you right now, it is OK — now that I know Him, I say, ‘Lord give me life, give me death, give me health, give me sickness, as long as you are with me thy will be done. I am all yours.’”