And understandably? She's being proclaimed as a saint!
The last thing, I think, she would've wanted...she wants prayers!
Yep, Mary lived her life as someone who has given her life to the Lord. Yep, she lived her life as a saint.
And yep! She'd agree with me, I know...don't ASSUME she doesn't need prayers!
I'm grieving for the loss of Mary right now. I'm praying as hard as I can that she's laughing and rejoicing in Heaven.
But I'm not presuming it.
And so I beg you, please. Pray for her soul. She, during her life, never assumed Heaven for any of her dear friends. And that makes her a great saint. She leaves judgement to God, not to her.
So do Mary -- and me -- a favor?
Pray for her soul. If you knew her? Thank God for the privilege! If you didn't? Here's a taste of my good friend...enjoy!
“To me, the greatest virtues a Christian should cultivate are humility and a desire to help others.”
~~ Mary McHale
For seven years in the 1960s and early 1970s, Mary McHale, as an Our Lady of the Wayside Legion of Mary member, walked the streets and visited the bars of Boston’s South End, Combat Zone, and Kenmore Square areas, trying to get women to leave a destructive way of life. While often successful, far too often Mary’s efforts and those of her colleagues were thwarted. Why? Because many of the women they were trying to help were homeless and saw no alternative to their lifestyles.
That all changed in 1972 when the place she co-founded, Sancta Maria House, [link, new window, sanctamariahouse.org] opened its doors. The first overnight shelter for women in Massachusetts, the warm and welcoming place on Waltham Street provides a safe haven for 3,000 women each year. Staffed entirely by volunteers and funded solely through private donations, the ten-bed shelter provides a home-like atmosphere that sets it apart from more institutional establishments. Although she recently “retired” as house mother, Mary can, more often than not, be found there, serving her guests by her very presence.
Born in Boston, Mary and her family moved to New Brunswick, Canada, where she grew up on a small farm. The nearest Catholic church was 14 miles away.
She returned to Boston in 1948 and joined the Cathedral parish. Obtaining a job as a clerical worker at the John Hancock Mutual Life Insurance Company, she, at the time of her retirement in 1995, supervised twenty two terminal input operators.
She became a Legion of Mary member in February, 1968. “The Legion is a real way of life for me,” she says.
Mary has served the parish as a lector, a religious education teacher, a visitor to the elderly, and an extraordinary minister of Holy Communion. Among her favorite memories are Father Walter Waldron’s Christian Education and Experience Program, Sister Madeline Gallagher’s Instruction classes, and Father Bill Roche’s Scripture Study classes.
“People should consider joining our parish,” she says, “for many reasons: especially for the excellence of the liturgies. Too, the very diversity of our parish family is so representative of the Mystical Body of Christ.”
Mary’s favorite Scripture passage is from John 2—Our Lady’s words to the servers at the wedding feast at Cana: “Do whatever He tells you.”
It is evident to anyone who knows Mary—from her fellow parishioners to the myriad of people she serves—that she, indeed, takes this advice to heart.
