ST. ALEXIUS - OUR LADY OF THE ANGELS - ST. PAUL’S
PARISHIONERS MIKE AND MARY S
Trusting in
ometimes, when you ask God for something, He responds unexpectedly. This was most certainly the case for St. Paul’s parishioners Mary and Mike Thomas! Having been acquaintances in high school in Foley, Minn., they didn’t stay in contact after graduation. Mary began working as a nursing assistant at a hospital in St. Cloud and married her husband, John, in 1964. The couple moved to Sauk Centre and had two children. They were active at St. Paul’s in a variety of different ways, from bringing Communion to the homebound, to being active in the Divine Mercy prayer group. But in 2009, John passed away. “Sometime after John passed away, I was sitting in our sunroom praying,” Mary says. “I had John’s picture on one side of me and the merciful Jesus picture on the other — I looked at them and I said, ‘You
know, John, Fr. Todd said you are more available to me now than you were when you were living on earth, so you talk to the merciful Jesus and you find me somebody that can make me laugh again.’ That was my prayer, and then I let it go.” Not long afterward, Mary found herself at her 50th high school reunion, with an old friend joining her table. Mike was living in Colorado, but happened to be in town and decided to attend the event, despite not having a formal invitation. “When he got back to Colorado, he started sending me little cards and stuff, and he called me and we started conversing,” Mary says. After a year, Mike had moved back to Minnesota and his annulment was complete. One day, they went to chat with Fr. Greg and ended up leaving his office planning
Mike and Mary Thomas love being part of the parish community at St. Paul’s.
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