Marriage Belongs to God

Recently, my daughter Teresa received a message from her friend who is a police officer. He told her that he feels the St. Michael medal she gave him when he became an officer just saved his life from a stray bullet in a recent shooting. He said that the climate out there for police officers has become more hostile and that the stress level for fellow officers has grown exponentially in recent times and that he is more and more grateful for the blessings and protection he receives from his St. Michael medal. Even though he is not Catholic, he believes in the power of the medal and he wears it every day behind his badge.
That gave Teresa an idea – she asked what did he think about her donating blessed St. Michael medals to the police officers in his town, and in hers, so that they could all have that protection? He said it would be so very much appreciated! (And he suggested she bring cookies – not doughnuts – too!)
So Teresa asked me for my help, and we set out to find out where to buy 210 St. Michael medals. There are special ones for police officers that have a police shield on them and say “serve and protect” on the back, and we found them online. They were delivered in no time, and my husband and I took them up to Mt. Angel Abbey nearby, and we were fortunate enough to have them blessed by Abbot Peter Eberle.
Teresa’s mother-in-law also wanted to help, and she is also not Catholic. This helped us see that even non-Catholics feel the power and reality of St. Michael and of having the medals blessed by a Catholic priest as well. This gave us confidence and hope that many of the officers would accept the donated medals even if they were not Catholic.
The following week, we went to our local Costco and bought a “Costco-sized” batch of cookies and headed to the three police stations with our blessed medals and a note telling about them to leave for the officers. We brought enough for each of the officers in our three local towns and left our cards in case if there were many left over, we could offer them to other police officers in other towns.
We honestly weren’t sure how they would be received. Of course, the ladies who worked in the front offices were so nice when they received them on behalf of the officers, but we didn’t know if the officers themselves would truly appreciate them or not. In fact, we figured if only a third of the medals were taken, it would be a huge success!
Imagine our surprise when a few days later, we each received a thank you from the police chief of the largest city! His thank you on behalf of all of his officers was so warm and heartfelt, and he said he had put one of the medals on his key chain and had it with him even as he was writing!
Next, we began to receive emails from one of the ladies in the front office who goes to our local parish, saying how much the officers appreciated the medals and you could tell, as a practicing Catholic, how thrilled she was!
But it was her last email that touched us the most. We had asked if there were very many left over, that we would like to take them to hand out at a Hometown Heroes baseball game later in the month. She immediately replied that all but ten (of the 180) medals were taken, and she wanted to know if she could give the last ten to the officers graduating from the Academy later that week.
Well, of COURSE she could!
We were truly stunned at how well the medals had been received. It shows what a need there is for spiritual support and protection for those who put their lives on the line to protect us. For those men and women it couldn’t be more clear that their “struggle is not with flesh and blood but with the principalities, with the powers, with the world rulers of this present darkness, with the evil spirits in the heavens.”
And they welcome spiritual help and protection against it.
We felt inspired by the Holy Spirit to help, and we are hoping others will as well!