I Have Nothing To Lose

Bibles and bookmarks which were given out

May I share one of the many beautiful experiences that occurred yesterday during both the Children's Rosary and the Divine Mercy Celebration held at St. Thomas the Apostle Church in West Hartford CT USA.  We met at 2:00PM for adoration and to celebrate Divine Mercy with confession, the Chaplet of Divine Mercy and veneration of the image of Jesus and His Divine Mercy.  The children's rosary gave out Bibles and bookmarks at the Divine Mercy Celebration as well as the morning rosary.  Each Bible and bookmark had a Saint's name written on it which was asked in a 9 day novena to choose an individual, family or priest to lead in their spiritual journey.  One of the women to come up and take a Bible approached me.  She told me that she had a particularly difficult week and had prayed to her father.  She opened the Bible to the first page where the name of the Saint that chose to lead her was written.  It said St. Leo the Great.  I asked her if her father's name was Leo and she said-yes.  She was almost in tears but not tears of sorrow but tears of joy.  I told her I remembered the person who said the novena to St. Leo.  He had been a quiet man who after daily Mass often remained in the back of the church while some of us stayed to pray the rosary and Chaplet of Divine Mercy.  One day a few weeks ago during Mass I asked Jesus to help show me who I should reach out to and ask to pray a novena.  When Mass ended I turned around and this man smiled at me and then winked.  This seemed to be the sign I had asked for and hence I approached him.  After explaining how the children's rosary is dedicating our upcoming year to renewal of family prayer I asked him if he would say a novena to a saint to lead a family in prayer.  After a pause of silence, his answer was "I have nothing to lose". Today at Mass I shared with him the story of the women who received the Bible.  He told me he had chosen to pray to St. Leo as it was his brother's name.  I told him by choosing to pray the novena he had touched another soul. A big smile came across his face. One person at a time, this is how we will bring joy back to our tired broken world.