Prayers for Prodigal Catholics
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All in God’s Plan

By Bob Gardner

We all love the image of Our Lady of Sorrows on the Marian Mantle web site. During that painful time with our son, MaryAnn found it one day on the Internet and showed it to me. It touched us both. We didn’t know how special it would become.

When MaryAnn was preparing her first "Silent Strength" talk, she decided to include that image and ordered a copy from the artist.

At that first talk, those in attendance wrote names on the mat around the painting. This was done as a sign that they were asking Our Lady’s help for certain loved ones to remain strong in their faith or to return to the Church. Each time MaryAnn gives that talk, the tradition of inscribing names of loved ones on the picture continues.

MaryAnn said it somehow seemed natural for her to turn to Our Lady of Sorrows.

She said, "I realized she knows how it feels to watch a grown child walk straight into trouble, and be helpless to stop it, but she also believed that ‘With God, all is possible.’"

MaryAnn decided to join the Confraternity of Our Lady of Sorrows. When she received the membership packet, she knew she’d seen them before, and realized why it seemed so natural for her to go to Our Lady of Sorrows. She had been very close to her grandmother who lived with Mary Ann’s parents for 21 years. In the packet was the same black beaded chaplet of Our Lady of Sorrows, the same black scapular, and the same book of prayers to Our Lady of Sorrows that her grandma had used every day. They had not changed—even the prayer book cover —in the 40+ years since she had seen them.

MaryAnn told me, "As I held those articles I felt Grandma’s love. I knew she had prayed daily for her own prodigal. I knew she was praying for mine too, and showing me that Our Lady not only understood my pain but would help me to trust God."

We hoped that this youthful image of Our Lady ("After all, she was not even 50 years old when Jesus died.") with her sad eyes looking up at her son on the cross and a single tear rolling down her cheek, would touch the hearts of many others who might be feeling helpless, hopeless, and isolated. We hoped we could all draw strength from this lady whose eyes were filled with pain, but not filled with despair. Instead, trust in God’s mercy and love still shines from them.

We were pretty sure this was all in God’s plan. Only He could have supplied such a perfect image to speak to the hearts of those of us who pray for prodigals We thanked Him for sending it. But, we had yet to learn the entire story.

A few weeks ago MaryAnn wrote to the artist, Jay Crisafulli, again. This time she asked what would be needed to get permission to reprint the image on prayer cards and use it on the web site. We had no idea if we could afford to do this. (After all, MMG has no source of funding aside from donations for booklets and recordings.)

To our surprise, Jay asked only for whatever was workable for us. Then, the first check we sent her for use of the image, she donated to the poor.

Again, we thanked God for His amazing Love. We didn’t know there were still more surprises ahead..

Later, Jay told us that she, herself, is a prodigal who returned to the Church after many years away! Upon returning, she was inspired to paint the beautiful picture of Our Lady of Sorrows.

Wow! That image that we thought we had so cleverly selected to inspire us to trust that through prayer our prodigals will someday return, was painted by one who did return! That sure tells me that God is in charge! He loves us! He and His Mother will be with us through everything!

There are now more than 1000 names inscribed around the picture of Our Lady of Sorrows. Many are names of those who have since returned to the sacraments. All are names of people who are loved—by those who wrote the name, by the Blessed Mother, on whose picture their name is written, and most of all, by the Holy, Mighty One who drew us all together to pray, and who must certainly be shaking with laughter at our surprise and delight in His Ways. Blessed be God! Blessed be His Holy Name! ♥

From "Silent Strength"  The Newsletter of the Marian Mantle Group, January, 2005
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