people’s, and he could finally relax. It seemed that the relief Jim had sought for so long in prayer could finally be his with the opening of a can or bottle. Dangerous path The discovery led Jim down a dangerous path, fraught with serious risks and increasingly powerful chemical dependence. Wanting to move forward in life, Jim was only stumbling in the dark, struggling to keep his footing. Finally, he found himself in the dust, unable to rise on his own. When Jesus appeared to St. Faustina, He seemed to step out of the shadows in her cell, bearing all light before Him in the rays of mercy that flowed from His Heart. Today, when Jim Dotzler contemplates the Divine Mercy Image, “I see the black hole I used to be in, and Jesus, the Light, coming to lift me out.” Jim could only struggle helplessly in the trap of addiction until, he says, “Jesus came into the black hole of mental illness, blessing me, healing me.” Finding peace First, there was the moment when Jim knew he had no choice anymore but to call for help. Next came the anguished prayer that was a challenge and a plea: “How are You going to calm me down?” And then, there was mercy. One day, not long after making contact with a therapist, Jim came across the sung Divine Chaplet on EWTN. “This is different,” he thought. “This is beautiful.” This, he quickly realized, was God’s response. This was how the Lord was going to calm him down. Praying the Divine Mercy Chaplet gave Jim a kind of peace that no amount of drinking ever had. Jim returned to full communion with the Church, this time “with an adult faith,” fed by prayer and the Sacraments. In 2006, he entered the seminary. During his two years there, Jim spent many hours in Eucharistic Adoration, where he especially loved to pray the Chaplet. “Jesus was remaking me every day,” he recalls. Circumstance, not identity After Jim discerned that the priesthood was not his vocation, he felt called to the married state and began dating, but his hyperhidrosis continued to make him unwilling to touch other people. In prayer, however, Jim learned that his condition was not his identity but simply a circumstance. It was a cross designed to bring him closer to God, not away from human relationships. Through a Catholic dating website, Jim met his wife, Jackie. Married since 2009, they are Marian Helpers who, with their three children, make an annual pilgrimage to the National Shrine of The Divine Mercy, from which the family has received “so much fruit.” Medication, therapy, diet, and exercise have helped Jim to manage his anxiety and greatly reduce the symptoms of hyperhidrosis. By far the greatest agent of change in his life, however, has been the power of God through the Divine Mercy devotion. “It’s been life-changing,” Jim says. “I don’t even want to think about what my life would have been without it.” Today, Jim is eager to share the story of how Jesus came to his rescue and “to bring the Divine Mercy message to people who are experiencing what I was experiencing.” By testifying to the transformation Jesus has wrought in his life, Jim hopes to encourage others to find healing in a life nourished by prayer and the Sacraments and illuminated by the rays of Divine Mercy, which alone can penetrate the darkness of sin and light the sinner’s way to Heaven. Jim could only struggle helplessly in the trap of addiction until, he says, ‘Jesus came into the black hole of mental illness, blessing me, healing me.’ Marian Helper • Spring 2026 • Marian.org 5 Jackie and Jim on their wedding day, 2009.
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