When you see someone wearing the Medal, you feel connected— there’s a sisterhood, a brotherhood; we have something in common. faced many trials, and has found strength by leaning on the Blessed Mother. “I find myself calling on her; she’s always there. She’s our protection and help.” Kathleen wasn’t always devoted to Mary, but upon hearing her friends talk about their devotion, she wondered, “Where’s my devotion?” She began building a relationship by praying three Hail Mary’s daily; then she started praying a decade of the rosary. Now, she prays an entire rosary every morning. “It’s my comfort prayer,” she says, adding, “When I hold the Medal, I feel at peace.” The first time Kathleen came to the Shrine, she was in awe of its beauty. “I’d seen it in pictures, and it’s very pretty, but it’s not until you stand in front of that statue that you realize just how awesome Mary is—for us and in our lives.” Then she poignantly adds, “I want
to be closer to her. No one knows when their last hour on earth will be, so I ask her, ‘Will you please be there to hold my hand when it’s my time?’”
and fill you with peace and joy, to me that’s Mary’s miracle.” Another member of Mt. Carmel Church, Eleanor turns to our Blessed Mother for everything. “She is always there; it’s me who doesn’t always acknowledge her.”
Eleanor Farzetta grew up praying the rosary. “My grandmother lived with us; we never saw her without WE ARE FAMILY a rosary in her hands,” she says. The Blessed Mother and St. Catherine created a family— Eleanor’s mother had many a family connected by the miscarriages; the doctor told her Miraculous Medal. Since 1832, the she couldn’t have children. “Mom Vincentians have been promoting just continued to pray the rosary the Medal and devotion to and novenas. She had 12 kids. We our Blessed Mother, creating a all felt blessed and special—in family of believers. Wearing the God’s eyes and Mary’s eyes.” She Miraculous Medal is a constant talks about the tiny miracles that reminder that those who wear the happen every day, the ones that Medal will receive great graces. are so easily overlooked: a sick friend who finds the strength Kathleen says it perfectly. and health to come to the Shrine, “People should come [to The a problem that miraculously Shrine] and look at the sheer disappears. “They’re small things,” beauty of the place. Take it in, and she says, “but when they work out then take it home with you.”
SPRING 2019 | 23
