How I pray: Bridget Curran, author of Miracles of Mary speaks to The Record’s Debbie Warrier.
The more you can bring God into your life the closer you get to Him. Mass, the Rosary and intercessory prayer are important to me. I try to attend Adoration for thanksgiving and praise so that not everything is a request. It is about building a relationship with God, telling Him about my day and making Him a friend. Before I do anything, I pray. That way, there is less of me and more of God in everything I do.
Carmelite spirituality has a strong influence on my prayer life. It has a great emphasis on silence and listening to God. Praying for priests is seen as very important so I try to pray for priests, seminarians and vocations all the time. There are many Carmelite saints who have influenced me, like St Teresa of Avila and St Therese of the Child Jesus. They were pretty amazing and great writers.
St Teresa once said a good book is an aid to prayer, and that kind of stuck with me. Another quote I like is by St Therese. She described her first Holy Communion as her “first kiss” from Jesus. I always try to remember that when I go to Mass. When I receive Holy Communion it is like receiving His kiss and embracing Him really intimately.
There was a time when I thought the Church put too much emphasis on Mary. I was afraid people idolised her or put her first before Jesus.
I would see them pray in front of a statue of Mary when the tabernacle was right there and feel frustrated. It made it difficult for me to pray the Rosary.
People told me, “If you don’t love Mary, you’re not really Catholic.” I actually thought about leaving the Church at that point.
I was miserable because I loved the Catholic Church so much and didn’t want to leave.
I clung to an image of Our Lady of Perpetual Help which I inherited from my grandmother and prayed to love and understand Mary better.
Then a local film producer rang me and offered me a research job on a TV documentary, Weeping Women, to be broadcast on Channel 7. I saw it as God’s answer to my prayer, a challenge to get to know Mary better. In the film we investigated three weeping statues of Mary – one the Church considered authentic, one inconclusive and the other considered inauthentic. We looked at the people who owned the statues and the Church’s processes for validating miracles. I wanted the audience to see that there is a lot of cynicism today and a great need for discernment, but the real miracle is God’s love at work in the world, in the Church and in our hearts.
After the documentary I felt that I had learned enough about Mary. Then a publisher rung me up and asked me if I wanted to write a book on her.
So after much more research I wrote the book, Miracles of Mary.
You’ve got to be careful what you ask God for because He gives it to you in spades. My devotion to Mary has really blossomed. I pray to her every day and my faith is better than it was, but there is always much to learn. Through my research I found that Mary was very humble and a person of prayer. Humility is essential to knowing God.
If you have a story to tell please contact Debbie via debwarrier@hotmail.com