Today we welcome people from several States in the USA who are joining us for the first time.  Most of them found their way here through Jane Stucker's Letter to the Editor in St. Anthony's Messenger, or through the Catholic Times Newspaper (La Crosse, WI diocese) article about my college alma mater, Mount Mercy.  I was the graduate he interviewed, but have not received the article so have not read it as yet, (if you have it, please send it to me) but assistant editor, Joseph O'Brien, must have written good things about the Marian Mantle Group because I am hearing from many people in that diocese.  So a big welcome to all who have joined us.  Those of us who have been with this online prayer group for a while have been waiting and are thankful for all you additional prayer warriors.

Here in the office this week we have seen how the Lord can use a little mention in print to reach to those who may need hope and support--and all of us here carry the same heartache.  Circumstances vary from minor situations to life-threatening ones, but the heartache is the same for all of us. Someone we love is no longer a practicing Catholic. 

If a little article can have such dramatic consequences, how powerful could the collective prayers of this group be?  Let us join in prayer together.  Blessed Mother, please carry our prayers to the feet of your Son.  May God have mercy on us and on our prodigals.  We ask this in Jesus' name.  Amen.

I would ask each of you to take a little time this week and contact St. Anthony Messenger and/or the Catholic Times and thank them for providing the information about the Marian Mantle Group.  When you do, please remind them that this is a common problem in the Catholic Church that no one wants to talk about.  With their help in bringing the problem to the surface, more of us will be praying and many prodigal Catholics may find their way back to the mass and the sacraments.  You might even suggest that they do a follow-up article.  As a former magazine editor, I can tell you that magazines do pay attention to the letters and emails they receive.  Here's the contact information:

Customer Service Dept.
St. Anthony Messenger Press
28 W. Liberty St.
Cincinnati, OH.  45202
1-800-488-0488
stanthony@americancatholic.org

Dan Rossini, Editor
Catholic Times Newspaper

Diocese of La Crosse, Wisconsin

Direct Dial: (608) 788-1524
drossini@dioceseoflacrosse.com

Also, there is still time to email your comments to me for the Archbishop.  I really need your input to make the document complete.  If you have questions, email me.

Those who are interested in receiving the print newsletter of the Marian Mantle Group, if we do not have your postal address, email it to maryann@marianmantle.com or reply to this email.  There is no cost.  We will soon be printing labels for the next issue of the newsletter (due to be mailed the end of June).

Thank you for your time and for your help in spreading the word about this effort to reach out to those who pray for prodigals--and for our hope that someday they may all be moved to return home to Holy Mother Church.  Meanwhile, may God bless all of us and grant us His Peace. 

Peace,

Note:  We have a couple of people in heaven who are near to our hearts, personally, who, in the beginning, we asked to pray for the intentions of this group.  If your prodigal has a parent, grandparent, God parent, or other close relative or friend who is deceased, pray for them and ask them to be a patron for this Group and to pray for us and for your prodigal loved one.  The Communion of Saints--the Church Militant on this earth today, the Church Suffering in purgatory, and the Church Triumphant in heaven-is an important part of the Marian Mantle Group.  All their prayers of intercession can't help but soften hearts so that they may be open to the nudging of the Lord and His call to come home.  The following praise report, for a young man whose mother is praying for him from heaven, was not a letter, but told to me in person. I share it with you so that we may all give thanks and praise God for that time that is coming when our own prodigal returns home.  His dad told me:

My son, stationed in Iraq, had not been a practicing Catholic.  I have been praying for him--praying with this group since it began.  He wrote to me after Easter and said he had been to Mass on Easter Sunday.  Praise the Lord!

Note:  We may search in many ways and many places but to truly recognize Jesus we need the Eucharist. 

Now that very day two of them were going to a village seven miles from Jerusalem called Emmaus, And it happened that while they were conversing and debating, Jesus himself drew near and walked with them, but their eyes were prevented from recognizing him. And it happened that, while he was with them at table, he took bread, said the blessing, broke it, and gave it to them. With that their eyes were opened and they recognized him, but he vanished from their sight. Then they said to each other, "Were not our hearts burning (within us) while he spoke to us on the way and opened the scriptures to us?" So they set out at once and returned to Jerusalem. Then the two recounted what had taken place on the way and how he was made known to them in the breaking of the bread.
                                             ~Luke 24:13,15-16,30-33,35.