In January 2022, Steve Ringwald was diagnosed with two stage-4 cancers.

His wife, Debbie, knew just what to do — seek the intercession of Our Lady. “Our Lady is so good to us, even when we don’t see it; but there are times when we are given tangible evidence of just how much she cares,” Debbie Ringwald told the Register. “Things looked very bleak for several weeks. During this time, many people sent him cards with prayer thoughts and well-wishes,” Debbie continued. 

A card from her childhood friend Beverly particularly stood out. “Many years previously, she had battled breast cancer and beat it,” Ringwald explained. “Now, she sent a handwritten note with a Miraculous Medal that she was ‘returning’ to me. Included in her envelope was the card that I had sent to her 22 years previously when she was undergoing her cancer treatments.” 

At that time, Ringwald gave her personal Miraculous Medal to Beverly “because I really felt like Our Lady wanted her to have it. Bev wore it while she was undergoing her cancer treatments, and now she was returning it to me. Almost as soon as I received her note, I put the medal on, and I continue to wear it every day — a very real symbol of Our Lady’s help and Beverly’s friendship.”

A couple of weeks after this incident, “Our Lady once again gave us hope,” Ringwald continued, recounting how husband Steve was receiving chemotherapy treatments and scheduled to begin radiation. He was unable to attend Mass, and she would bring him Holy Communion. If he felt well enough on Sundays, they would eat lunch in the parking lot at the National Shrine of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal in Perryville, Missouri, their favorite place to pray. 

But one Sunday was different, as “he felt strong enough to actually walk on his own to go inside the shrine church,” his wife said. Inside, while he was deep in prayer, she took a few pictures. “One in particular really stood out,” she recounted, describing how, “kneeling in the pew, eyes closed, Steve was deep in prayer. Streams of light came in through the stained-glass windows above him, caressing his head and ricocheting into arcs of light that touched his lower body. In the background was a picture of Our Lady of Lourdes as she appeared to St. Bernadette. The rays of light seemed to be touching him right where he needed healing.” They believed “our Blessed Mother was going to be with us no matter what.”

Soon after, “Thanks be to God, Our Lady’s intercession, his incredible medical team, and the prayers of many people, Steve was doing well and had no evidence of cancer.” Two years later, the cancer returned, and he is currently receiving treatments. 

A recent scan showed some of the tumors have completely disappeared and others have shrunk significantly. But whatever the result, she emphasized, “We’re hopeful, but it’s also acceptance. So probably the biggest miracle … is hope and peace. You just don’t know how our Blessed Mother is working in people’s lives. But she’s so good.”

 

Communal Blessings

Father of Mercy Joseph Aytona, rector of the Shrine of Our Lady of Champion in Champion, Wisconsin, shared with the Register that when he was growing up, his 9-year-old cousin Rose Olivia Zara had a seizure that paralyzed her. To pray for her healing, her mother, his aunt, started a Rosary group and obtained a pilgrim statue of Our Lady of Fatima that went to the homes of all of the relatives’ families. “Beyond that, we started a big block Rosary group where we would bring the pilgrim statue of Our Lady of Fatima and pray the Rosary every day for nine days,” Father Aytona explained. 

“Unfortunately, she was never cured. But the block Rosary continued,” he said. “And that’s what changed the whole culture of our family and extended family. We became obviously closer to Our Lord through Our Lady, and three vocations came out of that”: he and his brother Jewel Aytona, both Fathers of Mercy, and his cousin, Father Francis Mendoza, pastor at St. Finbar Church in Burbank, California. 

“There are many fruits,” he said, adding a footnote to the story: About five years ago, his work with the Fathers of Mercy took him to Southern California. While there, his aunt called to tell him Olivia, as the family called her, was in the hospital, dying. “I was able to anoint her and give her the apostolic pardon before she died. I personally look at that as connected with the Rosary said for so many years.” 

 

Prayers for a Friend 

Every week, Paradisus Dei hosts a Friday morning Rosary online. Typically, more than 500 people pray together. “The spiritual impact is powerful,” observed Mark Hartfiel, vice president of Paradisus Dei.

Kevin Gibbs of Ottawa, Canada, a core team leader for the apostolate’s “That Man is You!” program, knows that impact well. When Gibbs learned that his good friend Angelo’s wife, Dora, was diagnosed with an aggressive form of breast cancer, “We put her on the prayer list and prayed for her every Friday leading up to her operation, which was in March 2021,” Gibbs told the Register. Dora recalled to the Register how she had been “feeling very distressed, very anxious and worried about the surgery.” 

Then, “moments before the staff rolled me in,” she said, “I started to feel very light and very comforted. All my anxiety and all my worries passed, and I felt as if I was being lifted into the operating room. I said to the doctor, ‘This anesthesia is very strong.’ The doctor told me, ‘I haven’t given it to you yet.’” Post-surgery, Dora, who is Greek Orthodox, said, “I told my husband I felt like there were a hundred people supporting me in that room.” He told her that Gibbs and the prayer group had been praying the Rosary. 

“I’m 100% sure that it was the support of those people that helped me through it,” said Dora, who has been cancer-free ever since. “I was very grateful and very touched — and felt closer to God.”