it’s Your will, Jesus,” she prayed, “would you restore my sight?” Amoment later, she says, “It was like I was in a dark room and someone turned the light on.” Leslie, then age 10, does not recall her parents’ reaction to her healing, although she knows they were very happy. She does remember the subsequent visit to the doctor. He examined her eyes and found the same atrophy of the optic nerves, the same scarring on the retinas that had caused her blindness. And yet it was undeniable that Leslie — suddenly and inexplicably — could see. She returned to school. “Things were normal again,” she recalls. Searching for God For Leslie, normal life included a quest for God. “I was always searching,” she says. “I read the Bible, but I didn’t understand about the one true Church.” Leslie attended many different churches during her young adulthood. In her 20s, she was introduced to the Rosary and “prayed it on and off ” for years. “I really fell in love with Mama Mary,” she says. But before Leslie finally made her way home to the Catholic Church, she had to pass through another terrible time of darkness. At the end of 2004, Leslie’s son committed suicide. Yet even amidst profound grief, Leslie “felt such a comfort and closeness to the Lord.” Responding to God’s invitation to draw still closer to Him, Leslie started praying the Rosary and reading the Bible more regularly. One day she realized, “I want to be Catholic. I think that’s my home.” Leslie entered the Rite of Christian Initiation program and was baptized in 2006 at the age of 50. Very soon after she became Catholic, Leslie bought a copy of Divine Mercy in My Soul. Her heart responded immediately to the Divine Mercy message, and the Chaplet became part of her daily prayers. Today, Leslie is not sure how many times she has read the Bible, and she is currently reading St. Faustina’s Diary for the third time. “I’m trying to understand my faith,” she says. As soon as Marians Fr. Chris Alar and Br. Jason Lewis’ book, After Suicide: There’s Hope for Them and for You was published, Leslie read it. The book offered her consolation and hope, not only for her son’s soul, but for that of her grandfather as well, who took his own life when Leslie’s mother was a teenager. Jesus’ message of trust in God’s mercy encourages Leslie to be “confident they are both in Heaven.” Eyes opened When the blind beggar, Bartimaeus, became aware that Jesus was passing by, he called out, “Jesus, son of David, take pity on me!” The crowds tried to hush him, but he repeated his plea until Jesus sent for him and asked what he wanted. To the blind man’s simple request — “Master, I want to see” — Jesus gave an equally simple reply: “Go in peace; your faith has saved you” (Mk 10:47, 51-52). Despite the doctors’ grim report and her parents’ lack of faith, Leslie turned to Jesus with trust, and her eyes were opened. After decades of searching and the anguish of a mother’s loss, she submitted to Christ’s loving guidance and entered His Church. Leslie’s journey shows just how much Jesus will do for a soul who has enough faith in His power and goodness simply to ask for His pity and trust that He will grant sight and salvation. Leslie’s faith in the merciful God saved her. And she has peace. On July 29, 2022, the Most Rev. Andrzej Pakuła, MIC, Superior General of the worldwide Congregation of Marian Fathers of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary, announced a change in leadership of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of Mercy Province of the United States and Argentina, which is headquartered at the National Shrine of The Divine Mercy in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. The Very Rev. Chris Alar, MIC, is the new interim Provincial Superior, succeeding Fr. Kazimierz Chwalek, MIC, who has held the position since 2011. Father Kaz had expressed a desire to be dispensed from the administrative burdens of the position and return to pastoral ministry. On Aug. 3, the Feast of the Angels, Fr. Chris was formally sworn-in (left) as Provincial Superior at the National Shrine in the presence of Marian Fathers and Brothers. Father Anthony Gramlich, MIC, rector of the National Shrine, kneels beside Fr. Chris. Please keep Fr. Chris and Fr. Kaz in your prayers, and know that they are praying for all our Marian Helpers throughout the world. Welcome new Provincial Superior!
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