Tammy Peterson, host of the “Tammy Peterson Podcast” and wife of world-renowned psychologist Jordan Peterson, is about to become a Catholic.
After a diagnosis of aggressive cancer and during a five-week stint in the hospital she prayed the rosary.
Tammy Peterson’s story
Tammy Peterson’s relationship with the rosary began in 2015. She had a renal cell carcinoma diagnosis and painful arthritis that made it difficult to use stairs.
As her husband gained massive popularity as a media commentator, she struggled with daily tasks.
Then she had a second biopsy and worse news arrived.
Her cancer was far more aggressive than initially supposed. Her doctor gave her ten months to live.
That’s when the rosary entered her life.
The rosary
Queenie Yu, a Catholic convert, introduced Peterson to the rosary when she visited Peterson in hospital.
She brought with her a rosary Pope Francis had blessed, as well as a pamphlet on how to pray the rosary and an image of Our Lady with baby Jesus.
“Jordan and Tammy were together at the hospital and they both thought the image was beautiful” Yu recalls.
“And when she saw the rosary, she [Tammy] said ‘Oh it’s a rosary.’ I said ‘Oh you know what it is’ and she replied ‘Yes, but I don’t know how to use it’.”
She soon learned.
Over the next five weeks, while Peterson was in the hospital, she and Yu prayed the rosary together every morning and shared their thoughts about faith and family.
Today – eight years later, Peterson tells her story about her faith and health scares.
Finding God in illness
“Through my illness, I found God and what could possibly be better than knowing your own Creator?’, Peterson says.
She prayed through her physical pain, she adds.
“I’d wake up at night and I’d pray the Lord’s Prayer until I went back to sleep. I didn’t allow myself to worry,” she said.
“I pretty much prayed all night unless I was sleeping.”
During her illness, one of Peterson’s friends – Father Eric Nicolai – gave her a blessing and novena to Saint Josemaria Escriva who founded Opus Dei.
On the novena’s fifth day, Peterson was scheduled for surgery.
That was when her doctors shared exciting news – her medical issue had resolved itself. She no longer needed surgery.
Conversion
Peterson was raised in a Protestant family. Her parents stopped attending Church however, leaving her without any religious direction.
Since her association with the rosary she’s set her sights on the Catholic church. She’s recently announced her intention to begin classes in the Order (formerly Rite) of Christian Initiation of Adults (OCIA).
The OCIA is the programme the Church uses to prepare adults who hope to become Catholic.
Her husband Jordan supports her choice.
“She’s trying to aim up” he says.
“This is an extension [of] what’s happened to her in recent years, of that vow she took when she first decided we were going to get married.
“It’s a crucial thing to commit to the truth.”
Through her trials and health battles, Tammy Peterson says she has gained a powerful testimony to her faith in the Lord.
She plans to become a baptised member of the Catholic Church at Easter once she has completed her OCIA classes.
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