Desperate Times Call for Marian ‘Helpers’

With the Marian Helpers Center being shorthanded during the pandemic, thankfully the Marian Fathers live just a few hundred yards away, so they can help without technically leaving home. Among the Marian “helpers” are (clockwise from the top left) Fr. Diego Maximino, MIC; Br. Jason Lewis, MIC; Fr. John Larson, MIC; and Fr. Mariusz Jarzabek, MIC.

 

By Marc Massery

During the coronavirus pandemic, it’s been all hands on deck here at the Marian Helpers Center in Stockbridge, Massachusetts.

With the Marian Fathers forced to limit the number of workers coming into the Center in order to follow state health protocols, and with a continuing demand for spiritual resources, some Marian priests and brothers have rearranged their ministry duties to make time to help package and ship items and to make our religious images that we send throughout the world.

“Until the Marians got down here,we were all just exhausted, feeling like kicked puppies,” said the Marians’ materials manager, Erin Slick. “But when they arrived, I could hear my staff laughing again. The Marians have definitely lightened our load.”

Father Diego Maximino, MIC, who has been packaging prayer cards, said, “It’s a silent work, but it’s good for everybody and for the Church to spread the message of Divine Mercy. Things have changed a lot lately. I had been ministering all over, but now I have to beat home all the time because of the pandemic. But we trust in God and trust in His mercy, and sometimes we need to be prudent by social distancing.”

For Fr. John Larson, MIC, his work at the Center brings him back to his early days as a Marian novice back in 1998 when he was tasked with packing orders. He considers the changes wrought by the coronavirus an adventure, of sorts. “You’ve got to find new ways to look at things,” he said. “G.K. Chesterton said, ‘An inconvenience is only an adventure wrongly considered; an adventure is an inconvenience rightly considered.’”

Father Mariusz Jarzabek, MIC, who has been packaging Marian-themed greeting cards, said, “This is a difficult time of trial. We are separated from our family and friends, but it’s a good time for reflection. It’s a good time to think deeper, about our relationship with God, about what kind of relationship we have with Him. ‘Is He really part of my life? Does He have a place in my family and personal life?’ It’s a good opportunity to turn to God and ask Him for everything we need. He wants to give us a lot, and He is very generous, but what He gives us depends on how much we want and how much we are open to Him.

“These are very unusual circumstances for us. We are priests for the people. We minister to people. They come to us for the Sacraments. But this time of dryness, being separated from the people, is not easy, because we can’t do what we are called to do. Of course, we can keep contact by media, internet, and telephone, but it’s not the same as personal contact.”

Brother Jason Lewis, MIC, has been pressed into service, making religious images down in a basement workshop that we lovingly refer to as the “B.A.T. (behold and trust) Cave.”

“It’s been a meditative time,” he said. “I find I’m able to contemplate our Lord and be with our Lord down here. And, of course, it’s great to be able to help out.”

The Marians pray this time of upheaval is brief and that the National Shrine of The Divine Mercy can reopen to the public who yearns for the healing and renewal found through the Sacraments.

“We look forward to meeting the pilgrims again,” said Fr. Mariusz. “We need the people, the people need us, and we all need God’s grace.”

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