Mary played a surprising joke on me!

Each summer an important seaside pilgrimage takes place in Boulogne-sur-Mer (France). It begins with the blessing of the sea and then the following day, sailors pull a statue of the Madonna in a boat up to the cathedral. Last year my husband was part of the sailors’ team. Afterwards, he felt terribly tired, and a few days later he was diagnosed with a rare type of leukemia. He died the following summer. Shortly after his death, some friends from Boulogne invited me to sail in the boat that carries the statue of the Madonna during the annual blessing of the sea. Devastated and overwhelmed by grief—I couldn’t even pray—but I accepted their offer.

Then Mary played a surprising joke on me!

Surrounded by a net and decorated with flowers, the statue was at the prow of the boat. In the middle of the harbor, we stopped to pray for the sailors lost at sea, throwing flower wreaths into the water. Then all the other boats surrounded us and moored their boats to ours—Mary’s boat. Someone prayed for my husband, and I cried. Finally, the boats broke away from ours and we reached the harbor in a nautical procession. I saw the captain of the boat next to us trying to untie the mooring. I went up to him, undid the knot and threw the rope. He smiled at me.

And then I froze... I saw Mary facing the sea, bathed in the setting sun that made her face look shimmering red. She was there so close to me. She said to me, "Cast off the moorings, Elisabeth, you are in my boat, trust me ... set off and sail to a new life. Don’t be afraid, I am and will be with you always.”

Oh Mary! Incredible Mary, who uses the little moments of our lives to help us understand the most important things: a piece of rope at that time of such great despair! But I understood the dual message—we must not remain inactive—I had seen the captain reach out, I could have done nothing, instead I went forward giving him a probably useless hand, but I had to make that little gesture... and Mary opened my heart! ... When I thought I had no more tears, I drenched several handkerchiefs—this time with tears of gratitude.

Elisabeth Bourgois, French Catholic author of Un doigt dans le pot de confiture (A Finger in the Jar of Jam), Editions des Beatitudes 2015