Digital Marian Helper Winter_2016-2017

isn’t Heaven yet,” she says. “Even St. Thérèse used to say that life is our barque, not our home.” Back in the mid-1980s, when she was a student at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, Susan would receive weekly letters from her mother, Ruth, back in Maine. In one such letter, Ruth enclosed a prayercard with a paint- ing and words from Mother Teresa. It read: “We all long for Heaven where God is, but we have it in our power to be in Heaven with Him right now — to be happy with Him at this very moment. But being happy with Him now means: loving as He loves; help- ing as He helps … serving as He serves … touching Him in His distressing disguise.” Susan read the prayer and thought to herself, “Sign me up! I want to be happy with God now!” She got right to it. This 21-year-old college student packed a bag, boarded a plane, landed in Calcutta, and ventured into its poverty-strewn and perilous streets to seek out Mother Teresa. She volunteered at Mother’s orphanages and at the famed Home for the Dying. Over the course of 11 years, Susan spent time in both Calcutta and New York working alongside this living saint, whom she said was “radiant with peace and luminous with humility. You received graces just being in her company.” In Rome, under the bright lights of CBS News, Susan was asked about this Nobel Peace Prize winner — a slight woman who stood less than five feet tall, but who built a towering legacy. “She wasn’t aware of her own greatness,” Susan told CBS News correspon- dent Seth Doane. “I felt like tapping her on the shoulder and saying, ‘Don’t you realize how significant you are?’” An agent par excellence Susan’s whirlwind canonization experience only underscored the role the Blessed Mother has played in her life. Years ago, when she had completed her first book and had no game plan for how to publish it, a friend informed her she wouldn’t be able to publish a book without an agent. Well, Susan said to herself, “I’ve never published a book before. I don’t have an agent, and I don’t know how to get an agent.” So, she turned to the Blessed Mother and asked, “Will you be my book agent?” She felt in her heart that the Blessed Mother accepted the invitation with a smile. “What’s the role of a book agent? It’s to open doors and make the right contacts for you,” Susan says. “So who’s in a better position than the Blessed Mother to open doors?” Susan has now written 10 books with Holy Mother Mary as her agent. Praying with Mother Teresa broke the top five in Amazon’s bestsellers list in the Catholicism category. “I’m just her little helper,” Susan said. “That’s why it’s an honor to publish with Marian Press and work with the Association of Marian Helpers. I have been walk- ing with Mary for a long time, and now we’re walking with Our Lady together.” Praying with Mother Teresa can be ordered at ShopMercy.org/b32 or by calling 1-800-462-7426 (Product code: B32-PWMT). Buoyed by the success of authors Fr. Michael Gaitley, MIC, and Fr. Donald Callo- way, MIC, who have become household names in the Catholic world, the Marian Fathers are expanding their book publishing efforts under their Marian Press label. “In recent years, we’ve published three to four titles a year, and our goal now is to expand to about 10 to 12 titles a year,” said Fr. Chris Alar, MIC, director of the As- sociation of Marian Helpers. “We are working hard to find authors who have something to say to broader Catholic audiences, while remaining faithful to spreading the Mari- ans’ devotion to Divine Mercy, the Blessed Mother, and the Holy Souls in Purgatory.” This fall, Amazon had three Marian Press books in its top 20 Catholic titles, includ- ing Fr. Donald’s Champions of the Rosary (which reached number 1), Fr. Michael’s 33 Days to Morning Glory , and Susan Conroy’s Praying with Mother Teresa. Meanwhile, the book proj- ects are piling up. Upcoming Marian Press releases include Dr. Robert Stackpole’s Mary: Who She Is andWhy She Matters; Theresa Bonapartis’ A Journey to Healing through Divine Mercy , medita- tions for post-abortive healing; and a book on athletes who were drawn to the priesthood, by Trent Beattie, an editor, author, and journalist for the National Catholic Register . Marian Press hits it big MH C 7H?7D > ;BF;H ǙšǙM ?DJ;H (&',#'- ǙšǙcWh_Wd$eh]Ǚ 21 IkiWd 9edheo Wj Cej^[h J[h[iWÉi YWded_pWj_ed ed I[fj$ *$