“WHEN HE HEARD THIS, MY FRIEND STARTED TO CRY BECAUSE HE KNEW THAT IT WAS OUR LADY WHO HAD LED HIM BACK TO HER SON JESUS”

HE STOPPED AND LOOKED AT MARY AND SAID TO HER, ‘ARE YOU REAL? BECAUSE IF YOU ARE I NEED YOU BECAUSE I’M DYING HERE!’

“… One friend of mine was leading a self-destructive lifestyle, he hated himself for something he had done in the past and he couldn’t forgive himself.

So for a number of years he drank heavily and took drugs. One night he stayed at his mum’s house and at the top of the stairs she had a picture of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

As he was passing it, he stopped and looked at Mary and because of the despair he was feeling he said to her, ‘Are you real? Because if you are I need you because I am dying here!’ and nothing happened so he went to bed.

NO CALL TO MARY EVER GOES UNHEARD; SOONER OR LATER SOMETHING SHE OBTAINED WILL DEFINITELY HAPPEN

A VERY UNPLEASANT SHOCK

The next morning he awoke to the sound of the Hoover going downstairs in the living room. Now it was a Sunday morning and his mum would never normally clean on a Sunday.

Then he remembered that he had hidden his stash of drugs underneath the settee in that room and he knew she had found them. The rest of that day he was in fear of the confrontation that he was sure would arise because of this discovery.

Later that day his dad came up to him and asked him to come outside. Then he held out his hands towards his son. In one hand were the drugs his mum had found and the other hand was empty.

Then his dad said to him, ‘Today I’m giving you a choice, you can take your drugs and you can leave this home because we will not watch you destroy yourself any longer, or you can take the hand of the family that loves you and you can change your life and be our son again.’

That day, he decided he wanted to change and not long afterwards the love of God touched his life in a deep way and he committed himself to live for the Lord.

HE COMMITTED HIMSELF TO LIVE FOR THE LORD

A few years later he was asked to give a talk on Our Lady at his local parish and he decided to use the picture of the Immaculate Heart of Mary from his mum’s house. When he took it down off the wall he was surprised to find the names of all his brothers and sisters written on the back with his own name written at the very bottom.

So he went to his mum and asked why his name was written on the back of the picture of Mary? She replied, “When you were in your wildest times and I was worried sick about you and I couldn’t even sleep at night, I went on a retreat and the priest said, ‘If you are worried about your children, consecrate them to the Immaculate Heart of Mary and she will look after them because she loves them even more than you do.’

When he heard this, my friend started to cry because he knew that it was Our Lady who had led him back to her son Jesus!

St Pio always used to say, ‘Pray, hope and don’t worry.’ I think that is very good advice, because there is always some situation that will worry us and rob us of our peace if we allow it to.”
Pray, hope and don’t worry!
– This is an excerpt of an article by John Pridmore which was published in “The Pilgrim” issue October 2013. More about the Archdiocese of Southwark including vocation information at http://www.rcsouthwark.co.uk (external link).