| Laura said the prayers,
but she didn't know why it was, or why it happened, and nothing
had ever happened to explain it-nothing at all. Then Mommy told
her about her dream, her vision of the angels, and Mommy and Laura
became very good friends.
Laura liked to walk in Mount Vernon Square, and all day she
had wanted to take a walk there but she didn't have anyone to walk
with and there Mommy was, the answer to her prayer. They took
a walk in Mount Vernon Square and looked at the pigeons and talked
and wandered around. Mommy told her all about me and how suddenly
the offer of a scholarship at the Academy came about. Mommy couldn't
decide if she should go. It was going to be a big expense, and she
didn't want to ask for any help. She knew she'd have to if she went.
Laura was eager for her to take advantage of it. She felt Mommy
was really supposed to go.
Laura decided, too, to have eternal prayers said for me. She
was Catholic. Catholics give lots of money to the church to be used
in different ways.
She wanted to give some money to the church and have masses
and prayers said for me. So she took Mommy over to the Catholic
Church way out in West Baltimore. It was a monastery called St.
Joseph's Passionist Fathers.
There was a chapel next to the monastery, an old church. After
Laura gave the contribution of her money that she had worked hard
for, Mommy was given a certificate of eternal prayers being said
by the fathers for me.
Then Laura said, "If Linda doesn't need those prayers,
she can give them to someone else who will. Let's go into the church
right by us here."
They went in together, through the chapel into the church.
Laura took holy water and blessed herself with it. She told Mommy
to do it. Mommy did, but not very seriously. She didn't do a very
good job, because she kept thinking, "I wonder if there are
any germs in this holy water. All these people are dipping their
fingers in there, and, after all those fingers have been dipped
in there, you know there must be lots of colds and things to be
gotten from it."
She knew she really shouldn't be thinking that, but she was
anyhow. They said some prayers and came out into the little place
that held the holy water font.
They stood between the font and the racks of periodicals. Laura
picked one up. In it was a story about Pope Pius X, and the story
was about his trip. He had to borrow money, he had to pawn everything
he had, but he made this trip that ended in his becoming Pope Pius
X.
He was a wonderful man whose name had been Sarto, and he was
a tailor. He loved children very, very much, and he is called the
Children's Pope.
He was always in debt because he always gave everything he
had to others, or to anybody who needed his help. Laura was reading
this paragraph, and they were standing right near the holy basin
where the water was kept. While she was reading about the fact the
Pope had to borrow money to make the trip, water was suddenly sprinkled
all over Mommy. She stepped back and, looking up at the ceiling,
wondered where the water could be coming from.
She called the sexton. She said, "Sexton, the ceiling
must be leaking!" He said, "It can't be, because the organ's
up above." Mommy said, "Well, it must be my imagination."
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