It happened when I was 15.

The days of my teenage life passed fast and intense, they were filled with science, with fun, meetings with peers and help at home.

Like every teenager, I also wanted to replace my wardrobe from time to time, unfortunately due to the fact that in my family we did not have much money, clothes purchases were rare and really for  great events. And such a circumstance happened to me. One day I went shopping for pants. Going from shop to shop,  I could find anything suitable. I knew I had to buy what would be suitable for various occasions. Weary of the long search, I decided to enter the last shop with the thought that “if I find nothing here, I will return home”.

I even liked one pair of pants, so I took them off the hanger and went to the fitting room. Unfortunately, the pants turned out to be too small. Worried that nothing I managed to find  and I go home with nothing, I started getting dressed, and suddenly leaving the fitting room, I noticed that there was “something” on the ground. I bent down and I picked it up. It was  a medal with the figure of Mary.

The medal was large, not as tiny as is usually worn around the neck. Surprised by what I found, I began to look around anxiously if someone might have been around has lost it. I didn’t see anybody. After a while I asked the saleswoman whether maybe she lost such a medal, but she replied “no” and since it was me who  found it, it’s mine and I can take it. Returning home, I looked at it for a long time, wondering who was carrying such a big medallion? and how did he get there? ”. After returning home, I did not show anyone what I found. At that time I also thought that “no one normal wears such a big medallion around her neck, and when it is, it’s a devotee, ”which is why I didn’t want it either hanging around my neck, I just removed it away, and every now and then took it out and I watched, sometimes wondering how it happened that when I entered the fitting room I didn’t see it and what does it all mean. Over time, I  forgot completely about the medal I found and the whole story.

Years passed. When I was 20, I decided to enter the Congregation and then a thought appeared  “but of what?”. For this intention, I went on a walking pilgrimage to Częstochowa. There from the Vocation Center, I took several flyers, including our Congregation. In my heart I felt that it should be the so-called Marian Congregation, but also as a young girl, I paid attention to the dress of the sisters “by no chance it was not built up too much”. Looking at the flyer, it caught my attention. It said that the Sisters wear the Miraculous Medal, its photo was also posted. I made this story  because it reminds me of something. After returning home, I found the “treasure” of previous years and compared with the photo I saw in the flyer were different. The one which I had, had “holes” and the one the sisters were wearing was “full”. Despite that I noticed this difference as a sign of where I should go. After joining the congregation I got to know the symbolism and meaning of this medal. I also found out  to my surprise and joy that the sisters in Africa and Germany wear  the same medal as I found years ago. Since then, the Miraculous Medal accompanies me every day, as does each of us.

I admit that I often forget about it, and  feel guilty that I don’t wear it perhaps with the honor that is due to it, but I always make a novena before its memory, everyday I try to kiss it reverently, offering my life to Mary and looking at her, as I did when I was 15 and then not knowing that finding pants on that day wasn’t as important as finding a Wonderful mental. This medal  was one of the signs that the Congregation I am in is my true place, and the once “great” medal that maybe someone “died” was supposed to wear, I wear it on my breast with pride and without fear.

Sr.M. Noemi Stanilewicz SMI