Boise

Country: United States
State or province: Idaho

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Lucy Stamm
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Forgiveness and Healing - 2025-Jun-22

June 29, 2025

Several people approached the table before we spoke to them. Two groups of non-Catholic people, all male, showed real interest in the Catholic Church. (Thank you, God, for Corpus Christi Sunday!)

A woman walked up to the table as we were setting up, saying she’d been thinking she needed a Rosary and here we were! After she chose one, e. Lucy asked if she wanted us to pray for her. A look of emotional pain crossed her face, and she stated that she desired peace from her ex-husband’s family, although the divorce had been a decade or more ago. So, we prayed for her. Then she spoke with greater length to e. Chuck about the situation. At first, she talked about an ex-husband then later about her siblings. (So, perhaps both/and were giving her trouble and attacking her?) Plus, she was now homeless. As she was leaving, though she continued to lament her troubles, she kept holding the Rosary up and saying, “I really needed this.” Lord, grant her peace, the ability to forgive, security, and true healing!

“Aaron” stopped for a Rosary. When e. Lucy mentioned that with Christianity is forgiveness, it triggered him. He was carrying a load of guilt, including the firing and subsequent wrongful death (not his doing) of the teacher who’d had an unlawful relationship with him when he was a teen. He also had unforgiveness toward his father. E. Lucy asked if he’d ever been baptized Christian (and so would be eligible to receive the Sacrament of Reconciliation). He explained that he was Jewish (culturally). We explained the Jewish roots of Christianity and how we, too, are waiting for the (second) coming of the Messiah. He ended up accepting a copy of the Good News/kerygma pamphlet and a copy of our Confession/examination-of-conscience pamphlet. I think he also took a Rosary. May God lead him to peace and give him a home, as a “completed Jew”, within the Catholic Church.

A sad drama played out in the plaza for the first half of our time there, as a perhaps-homeless man screamed and cursed at two teenage boys on skateboards. The man could not let go of his rage, and the teenagers would not stop approaching him to set him off. Finally, the man walked toward where the boys had sat down, said something, and they sped away. Then the man, flush-faced and blood vessels standing out on his temple, came around the plaza to our table. We were talking to someone else, but he reached past them and snatched a red Rosary, leaving again before we could even give him a copy of the Rosary pamphlet. A few moments later, we could hear him shouting again. But soon a lone police officer approached the table to ask about the man’s behavior and whether he was threatening anyone. Then he headed his way, and the disturbance stopped. Pray for peace and forgiveness for the man, and pray for the boys that they might show mercy and grace to those less fortunate than themselves.

Somewhat later, two more police officers came through, but didn’t stop to talk with us. One of them walked playfully through fountain, skillfully avoiding the timed water pattern.

A passing woman, though declining a Rosary, said the sight of the Rosaries reminded her of her father and she thanked us for that. Pray that she follows her dad’s faithful ways.

A young-adult Catholic man came to the table and chose the bright-blue Rosary that e. Lucy was holding. It was in the school colors associated with a local Newman center, where our visitor attends Mass. May God draw him to prayer and keep him Faithful.

Three young-adult men were zooming around the plaza on electric rental scooters and took no notice of our offer of a Rosary. Finally, one of them grabbed a Rosary in passing. He must have shown it to his friends, because one of them came to the table wanting to ask questions about Catholicism. As we talked, the other two joined us. Visiting from out of state, they attend a non-Catholic Christian church with roots in another country, but were seriously considering converting to a different national church or to the Catholic Church. They had lots of questions about the Rosary, Church authority, denominationalism, and what the Catholic Church thought of Protestants. We gave them a Catechism as a reliable reference. The spirited conversation took us well past our regular stopping time. Please pray for these young men, thanking God for their dedication to Christ and for the Holy Spirit’s guidance that they may find their way home to the Catholic Church.

Before that conversation was over, e. James came walking up to the table to bring us some more Rosaries. He stayed for the rest of the session. We hope to be seeing him again regularly as he stays in town to finish settling his mother’s estate.

Altogether, the three evangelists gave away 30-35 Rosaries and its pamphlet, a Good News/kerygma pamphlet, a Confession pamphlet, a Divine Mercy prayer card, a pamphlet on the Eucharist, a copy of the Catechism, and a map of area parishes.

Please pray for us again today? Ask God to send people to us with hearts prepared to perceive their need for Our Savior Jesus Christ and His Holy Catholic Church, and that much good fruit for His Kingdom comes of today’s efforts.

God continues to bless this work! So, thank you again for your prayers and other support for this apostolate. In turn, may God protect and greatly bless you and all those you love!

“Go with the strength you have” (Judg 6:14).