I started praying to Madonna della Strada – literally, “Our Lady of the Street” – on my novitiate
pilgrimage. I was going through some spiritual doubt, uncertain whether God really was with us, as
Matthew’s Gospel says. But boarding a bus in Kansas City, bound for Texas with only five dollars and a
backpack of clothes, I needed help. I asked Our Lady of the Way to pray for me.
She did. Just when I needed shelter in El Paso, a man asked me if I needed a place to stay. Later, when I
wasn’t sure how to spend some extra cash, a poor man asked me for dinner. It was so clear that Mary’s
prayers were working – and that God was, in fact, with me! Now, when something seems impossible –
like studying for final exams – I remember my pilgrimage. If Mary’s prayers could help me there, she can
help me anywhere.
—Daniel Everson, S.J., a Jesuit scholastic of the U.S. Central Southern province, is currently studying philosophy at Loyola University Chicago.