I remember today an elderly woman from the front pew of my home parish when I was in high school. She was a stocky woman with tightly curled hair under a hair net and she walked with the aid of a cane. I remember her hobbling to her pew before the early morning Sunday Mass. She seemed feisty, assured of her place not just in the first pew in Mass, but in her life.  I do not remember her name.

I do remember her face fired up with faith. After Mass one day, she slowly walked up to me leaning on her cane carrying something in her hand. She handed me a devotional card of the Sacred Heart. She told me to pray the prayer on the reverse side every day. She told me she had heard that I was thinking of the seminary. The elderly woman of faith told…