A story for every day...

It is to Mary that the missionaries have recourse in unexpected perils. The Reverend Father Laverlochère, who was evangelizing in one of the regions close to the Pole, had put the power of this protection to the test when he wrote: “We had undertaken to penetrate to the most distant posts in Hudson Bay. We were three in a small canoe, embarked on one of those rapid currents and strewn with reefs which are the only ways of communication in these wild regions. The waters were so high that, more than once, we were nearly swallowed up in chasms. One day our rowers, placed above a waterfall that had to be crossed, were pulling the canoe with a rope, when all of a sudden the cable broke, and the boat was carried away like a bullet. No other prospect than to break against a tree placed in the middle of the current, or to be swallowed up in the whirlpools that the river forms below us. Our loss seemed certain, but we had just invoked Mary. This good Mother had mercy on us. The one who was steering the boat, seeing it about to hit the tree, rushed into the water; with one hand he tied himself to the branches of the tree, with the other he held on to our boat: we were saved, and soon we continued on our way, singing the praises of the One who had preserved our lives.”