I saw ads in the local newspaper offering free information about Catholic beliefs and sent away for it . What excitement when the postman brought the little brown packets from the Catholic Literary League in Parkersburg , West Virginia ! A booklet about the rosary , fi een episodes , called Mysteries , in Mary ’ s life . Mary accosted by the Angel Gabriel with his grand announcement , Mary giving birth at midnight ( how did they know it was exactly midnight ?), Mary being carried to Heaven , body and soul , on the 15 th day of August . Mary being crowned Queen of Saints and Angels that same day .
Then came a book of litanies , including the Litany of the Blessed Virgin Mary . Mary addressed by glorious names : Tower of Ivory , House of Gold , Mystical Rose . Ark of the Covenant , Star of the Sea . I prayed the rosary and called out to the Morning Star , the Gate of Heaven . I was thirteen that year , 1949 .
I read about saints , male and female , who had also cried out to her . St . Bernard of Clairvaux , St . Simon Stock . And St . Bernadette of Lourdes , who had seen her standing in the wintry air at the Grotto at Massabielle , “ a golden rose on each toe .”
In late February 1950 , my mother was hospitalized for a week in the local Catholic Hospital , St . Mary ’ s . The hospital had been a secular institution until a year or so before , when it was bought by a Catholic organization and staffed by a group of nuns from Ireland . I still remember their names . Sister Finton , Sister Finian , floating around the hospital corridors in their white habits , as if they were angels who might ascend to their true home in heaven at any moment . Sister Anne Christine , scrubbing the porch of the convent next door on her hands and knees . And the Superior , Sister Rose Carmel , who took her name , no doubt , from one of Mary ’ s titles : Our Lady of Mt . Carmel .