In reference to your March 31 article (“Mother Angelica, EWTN founder, dies Easter Sunday at age 92”), may a faithful viewer relate a personal story of gratitude? In the year 2000, struggling with late-stage cancer and heavy chemotherapy, I found myself so often sleepless. In the dead of night, it was EWTN’s transmissions that kept me going. Over many months, a prayerful sense of hope arose in me. How comforting to participate in holy Mass as best I could with the faithful in a small chapel in Alabama. As my health improved, I drank in the benediction services, the rosary prayed in different languages and divine mercy devotions, and was challenged by thought-provoking interviews with new converts or those returning to the Church, with missionaries in far-flung places and with lay persons like me exploring our role in the Church. Each week, I delight in the broadcasts from Rome, cherish our Holy Father’s words, feel I am with the pope as he blesses the throngs across the world.
So, thank you, dear Mother Angelica, for the grace and courage to heed God’s call, allowing millions over time to see the beauty, the vitality and the universality of holy mother Church.
Josephine Diedrich
Mary, Mother of the Church, Burnsville
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