In this month of May, Mary’s month, Br Terrence reflects on a time in his life when he called on Mary for help and God answered his prayer.

It was in my childhood that I first started to pray the rosary. While I said the rosary, I meditated on the mysteries and I could feel that Mary, my mother, was praying with me. 

I want to share my experience with you.

I grew up Catholic, but my father was Buddhist and then he later became a Methodist. In my family we argued about Mary a lot, especially during Mary’s months of May and October. My father did not believe that Mother Mary intercedes for us. But I always asked Mother Mary to pray for my father and to ask God to change him. I think I prayed that prayer for more than 10 years but nothing happened until 2016. 

On February 4, 2016, I got up around 5.00 am, and while I was in my room I heard a voice inside me say very clearly and strongly, “check your email”. This was a very special moment for me because I believe God is always wanting to speak to us, but this time it was particularly clear. So I checked my email, and I saw an email from Fr Ken (the moderator of the MGLs) saying that he needs a new police clearance check for me from Sri Lanka because there is a name difference between my passport and the police clearance check. This happened on the feast day of our Lady of Lanka, an important Marian feast day in Sri Lanka. So I went to the headquarters in Colombo, but they said I have to change my passport name or ID name. 

I felt helpless and simply prayed. Then I went with my family to the Basilica of Our Lady of Lanka and inside the church I prayed in front of Mother Mary’s statue. While I was praying, I saw my father standing behind me and then I prayed, “Mary, this is the time to change my dad.” 

After that, we went to see a lawyer about my name change and I completed all the work and sent it to our moderator. Then we started to pray. It was around 5 pm and at around 7 pm my dad started to cry and said, “I can see Mother Mary is praying for us.” 

So, we came home with that experience and the next day I got my visa. On the following day, I came to Australia and a month later my father became the president of the Holy Rosary movement. 

I have learnt that God listens to our prayers, but sometimes we need to persevere in them. Mother Mary is always with us as we pray, she always directs us to God.