October
Last week one of our adorers asked me if I would pray for a friend of hers who was admitted to St. Francis Medical Center after being diagnosed with pneumonia and the H1N1 flu virus. I told her to tell her friend that I would offer up a holy hour in the Adoration Chapel for a speedy recovery. After I started praying, my first thought was (as usual) a question: “What saint is best qualified to intercede with our Lord on her behalf?”
The year was 1966. I was nine years old and in fourth grade at St. Mark’s grade school. One day in class the teacher asked if anyone could recite all of the mysteries of the Rosary. Two students raised their hands – one of the girls in class… and me. The teacher asked me to stand up and recite, out loud, half of the mysteries, and then asked the girl to recite the rest of them.
When I got home from school I proudly announced to my mom that I was only one of two students in class who knew the mysteries of the Rosary. I expected her to congratulate me, but instead she was upset and expressed disbelief that none of the other students knew the mysteries.
In his book, No B.S. Sales Success, Dan Kennedy wrote about the late Fred Herman, a salesman who was considered the greatest American sales trainer who ever lived.
There was a famous priest my Grandmother Effie Williams loved to talk about. She was personally familiar with him because he was assigned to her parish for a short period of time after he was ordained. Whenever she talked about him, her face would light up. The one thing she talked about most was his eyes. She said that when he looked at you it was as if his eyes could see right through you … straight into your soul.