The Prophetess

The other night I was sitting on the patio praying. I have a personal policy that anytime someone comes to mind I either shoot them a text or call, since there's usually a reason why the Lord placed them there in my consciousness. That intuitiveness can sometimes feel like a cross, but I figure God gave it to me for a reason.

Who came to me in prayer that evening was a person I had no former contact with, but felt could help me with some things I have been struggling with. Her name was Mary.

Mary is around eighty years old. She comes to church in a frumpy jacket even when it's a hundred degrees outside, and uses a sit-down walker. She comes to church, and often stays, and prays, and stays. I had never spoken to her directly, but I knew she was a woman of prayer who seemed to have a direct line to the Blessed Mother and the Holy Spirit. When I thought about her, I recalled the words in Luke's gospel about Anna the Prophetess: “She never left the Temple but worshiped night and day, fasting and praying” (Luke 2:37).

On Monday, I took my daughter to the 5:30 Mass with me for a little daddy-daughter date, and lo and behold, there was Mary sitting reading the scriptures. I asked if I could sit next to her and she kindly obliged. My daughter and i prayed a rosary together, and after Mass I leaned in and asked Mary if she could pray over me.

We headed downstairs and sat in the uncomfortably warm foyer outside the soup kitchen. Mary recounted her time spent at the Vatican, and told my daughter and I about the time she was gifted a relic by a nun--a crucifix that had touched the blood of Padre Pio, the blood that came from his stigmata. She pulled it out from her shirt, and invited my daughter and I to touch it. She encouraged me to undertake the Seven Dolores of the Blessed Virgin Mary devotion, which she said many graces had come from for her, and then prayed with us, additionally writing our names in her little weathered notepad with a pencil so that she could continue to pray for us. She talked a lot, a bit rambly, and eventually I had to let her know we had to leave or we would be late for gymnastics.

I felt a good deal of peace upon leaving the church; a natural peace, not necessarily supernatural. Mary had cancer, her air conditioner gave out during the heatwave, but she seemed unfazed by any of these things. "The Lord will provide." It gave me a reminder and assurance that "Only one thing is important. Mary has chosen the better part, and it will not be taken from her." (Lk 10:42)

Mary is the kind of woman you want praying for you. I can't testify to her sanctity or know much about her, but anyone who spends all their waking hours in church and in prayer has their ducks in a right row, whether they are a prophetess or not. And at this moment in my life, I feel these often overlooked figures in our midst are valuable spiritual currency. I don't always pray as I should, but Jesus also had help in carrying his cross as well. In my mind, every church needs an Anna, and every sinner like myself can use a Mary in their life to pray on our behalf.