A Grateful Heart: A True Story of Answered Prayer
- Ani Vidrine
- Nov 24
- 3 min read
~by Ani Vidrine
“The ignorant work for their own profit, Arjuna; the wise work for the welfare of the world, without thought for themselves. . . Perform all work carefully guided by compassion.” The Bhagavad Gita 3:25, 26
As a clinical social worker, Aracely has devoted her life to assisting the downtrodden, especially in her work with immigrants. In her personal life, her passion is encouraging her children and supporting her husband. Aracely’s spirituality is deep and faith-filled, if not doctrinally-based.
Aracely and her husband love to travel and enjoy visiting old churches when they are exploring. During a particularly challenging time in her life, she received solace from stopping at a church and kneeling before a statue of Mary, the mother of Jesus. She prayed, “I’m just asking you to make me a better mother, the kind of mother you had to be to let go of your child.”
Some time passed, and Aracely received the courage to surrender her burden. When next she visited Mexico City, Aracely made a special stop at a church there to say thank you. Kneeling before another statue of Mary, she said, “I wanted to thank you for helping me be the mom that I needed to be.”
“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.” Matthew 7:7
As it happened, during her stay in Mexico City, Aracely was experiencing sciatic nerve pain. So when kneeling to offer her gratitude for answered prayer, she added, “Oh by the way, this sciatic nerve is killing me. Can you please send somebody to help me because I’m on vacation?” What happened next is simply grace.
Completing her prayer, Aracely left the church and with her husband accompanying her, she made her way to the plaza. The plaza was quiet, so Aracely decided to do some stretches to see if she could get a little relief from her pain. While she was stretching, a disheveled man approached her and removed a homemade sign from his back pack that read, “I do massages.” Aracely couldn't help but laugh at the irony of the situation, and the stranger asked her in Spanish why she was laughing. Aracely explained to him, “I was just at that little church in front of the Virgin Mary asking her to send someone to me, and you’re here.”
The stranger commenced giving Aracely a wonderful massage that relieved 90% of her pain. She shared, “He was rubbing so hard that I was in tears, but I could walk back without a problem.” When he was finished, Aracely asked the man how much she owed him, and he replied, “Because my gift comes from God, it’s whatever you want to pay me.” Aracely compensated the man 500 pesos (the average Mexican worker was making about 300 pesos a week at the time of this incident). So massaging her for that hour gave him his weekly pay.
Aracely marveled at the serendipity of how events unfolded right after she had expressed her gratitude and asked Mother Mary for assistance. She reflected, “I know when I’m connected to that space, those miracles happen.”
“As the sun shines and fills all space with light, above, below, across, so shines the Lord of Love and fills the hearts of all created beings.” The Shvetashvatara Upanishad 5:4