Digital Marian Helper Winter_2016-2017

What that means is that those who take him up on his suggestion will proclaim their intentions to fight discouragement; be merciful in deed, word, and prayer; keep before their eyes their own weakness and sin, trust- ing that contrite hearts please the Lord; and declare their belief that the Lord can transform them into saints. The tool with which to do so is the 33 Days to Merciful Love retreat program written by Fr. Michael Gaitley, MIC, which incorporates the spirituality of St. Thérèse of Lisieux. “There’s hope. You can make a difference in your family, your communities, your country, the world,” says Fr. Gaitley, the priest in the video. “How? By becom- ing saints, and it’s not so difficult.” Not so difficult? As day turned to night on Tuesday, Oct. 11, Fr. Slezak welcomed his parishioners into the since-shuttered school of Holy Trinity Parish in the city of Cohoes to find out. Not so crazy Alice Benamati left work early to be here. An hour’s pay forfeited. She’ll do so each Tuesday for the next four weeks until she stands in Albany’s Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception with hundreds from around the diocese, including Bishop Scharfenberger, to recite the prayer of consecration from 33 Days . Self-effacing and clearly relishing the fact she success- fully goaded her husband, David, into joining her, Alice shrugs, saying, “This is not one crazy church lady with the idea to get people to pray. This is coming from the C 7H?7D > ;BF;H ǙšǙM ?DJ;H (&',#'- ǙšǙcWh_Wd$eh]Ǚ 9 In the most ‘post-Christian’ region a diocese gets down to business