I first heard about this new outreach to the poor at the New Dawn conference earlier this summer when I came across a small group from Liverpool, all wearing navy blue windcheaters with Mother of Mercy written on the back. They were with Robbie, a New Dawn regular, who is also part of the group, and who was leading them in intercessory prayer for the healing sessions in the big tent. The young men, who were recovering addicts in their 20s, were all newly baptised and had been brought by Robbie to New Dawn for some spiritual uplift and healing.

I found it really impressive that men, who were homeless and so new to Christianity should be almost immediately serving the Lord and praying in this way. Such was their enthusiasm that one was even talking about becoming a priest, and was about to go to the Cenacolo community in the Lake District for drug rehabilitation. The little group were all immensely proud to belong to the Mother of Mercy Society and told me about some of the wonderful things that were happening on the streets of Liverpool. I was determined to go and see for myself, which I did at the beginning of September.

Like all things of God, the Mother of Mercy Society, which now involves over 40 people, began with one man saying “Yes” to God. This was 41 year old Paul Callaghan, a married man with three young children, who comes from Kirkby, a famous housing estate in Liverpool. As a teenager, Paul was devout enough to consider the priesthood, but when he was 14, his father died and, angry at God, he turned his back on the Church and all it stood for and instead went into the military, where he served for 10 years in some of the world’s trouble spots.

A few years after his return to the UK in 1997, he became interested in his Catholic faith again thanks to the influence of his girlfriend, Christina, who later became his wife. On the recommendation of Fr Jimmy Collin, his former parish priest and a great friend, he went on a Cursillo. Here he had a conversion experience. He comments, “The first time I felt the Holy Spirit was on Cursillo. I went to confession and afterwards we had Mass. That’s when I felt the presence of the Holy Spirit and love all around me. I was hungry for something and I didn’t know what it was.”

He wanted to do more than just be a Sunday Catholic and Fr Jimmy encouraged him to volunteer to help the Missionaries of Charity (Mother Teresa nuns) who run a small 14 bed hostel for the homeless on Seal Street in the city. This he did, helping out twice a week. He comments, “ I would sit with them and chat, and give them tea.” Full of zeal for his faith he tried to interest them in praying the rosary but they weren’t interested. “They told me that I was a good lad but this was a bit much for them,” he said. Disappointed as he was he realised there was nothing he could do but serve them and accept them as they were.

Amazing miracle!

Then eighteen months later he began to experience really bad pains in his ribs. In agony he went to the doctor, who sent him for tests. They found out that he had advanced bone marrow cancer and he was told he had six months to live. Despite these results and the excruciating pain he was in, that Thursday he went, as was his custom, to Mass at the Seal Street mission. Here Fr Jimmy happened to be celebrating Mass. Fr Jimmy’s driver, Tony, who had no idea about Paul’s recent diagnosis, approached him and told him that Our Lady had given him a word to take Paul to Holywell. This is a shrine in Wales, a few hour’s drive from Liverpool and famous for its healing waters. Thus it was that that Saturday, Tony and Bernard, another friend, drove Paul to Holywell.

Paul remembers, “They put me in the water and when I came out I found that all my pain had gone. I couldn’t believe it. I had been taking morphine drops constantly and now I found I didn’t need them anymore.” The following day, Sunday, he went, as usual, to the Seal Street mission and told the men there what had happened. They were so impressed by this amazing miracle that 10 of them prayed the rosary with him that day. Paul comments, “That’s when the rosary was born in the mission. That was two and a half years ago, and every Thursday and Saturday at 9pm, even when I am not there, they do it.”

Although he was now totally pain free Paul still had the cancer. This was baffling to the doctors. He went through a course of chemo, and his hair fell out. But he wasn’t sick or in pain, and continued his twice weekly visits to the mission to encourage the men and pray the rosary with them. “Through the power of God I was never sick and looked the picture of health,” he says. He even returned his morphine drip to the hospital.

It was while he was in hospital having a bone marrow transplant that he received what he felt was a word from Our Lady to go out on the streets and feed the homeless. He comments, “I felt it had a double meaning. To feed them with bread and tea but also with the Word of God. I rang up Fr Jimmy. ‘Our Lady has just asked me to start a ministry on the street, what am I going to call it?” “The Mother of Mercy” said Fr Jimmy, who’s known for his devotion to Mary, almost instantly.”

“It was crazy,” Paul continues. “My doctors had told me to stay inside for fear of infection, and here Our Lady was calling me to go out onto the streets.” He laughs. Paul’s faith, however, gave him courage and determination. He comments, “It wasn’t bravado. It was God who asked me and I knew he would give me the strength I needed and protect me”. He spoke to Sr Maria, the superior at Seal Street, and she gave him permission to use the convent as a base. Paul and his wife, meanwhile, using his sickness benefit money, bought three plastic trolleys, and four special giant thermoses to dispense hot drinks for the outreach. By this time, he had inspired Pip, who had been homeless himself, and Paul another resident from the hostel, and two others Denis and Marie to come and the four of them agreed to support the vision. The aim was not just to give food but also to share the love of God.

Christina, Paul’s wife comments, “The people on the streets are the forgotten people. They are often treated as if they are sub-human but they are someone’s babies and like everyone else they need to be shown love.” In the beginning it was Christina who did the sandwiches. “Like in the Bible,” she says, “we started with five loaves, but I knew it would grow.” As she made the sandwiches, she said, she would play Christian music and pray. “What is important is the love you put into it and I would ask God to bless the people on the streets, specially those who would be eating the sandwiches.”

As the word got out about what they were doing, however, more and more other people wanted to help and donations started to come in as well as people volunteering. Paul was worried that the numbers coming were threatening to disrupt the routine and life of the sisters. He realised they needed somewhere else to meet and asked Fr Kenny Hyde, a local priest who used to celebrate Mass for the sisters, if they could use his parish, St Patrick’s as a base. Fr Kenny not only agreed to let them use the church building but also started regularly going out with them as well. He comments, “We used to have four old ladies at Mass at St Patrick’s on Thursdays but once the Mother of Mercy society came, about 20-25 people came as well as our own parishioners who got involved.

The whole Mother of Mercy society is soaked in prayer. The day begins with Mass at St Patrick’s, then the Blessed Sacrament is exposed and while some of the team pray in the church, others go out with the trolleys to feed the poor. As well as lay people, Paul reckons about nine priests have been out with them at one time or another. Fr Kenny is a regular and proudly wears his embroidered Mother of Mercy windcheater. He admits he was a bit embarrassed to at first. “I felt a bit awkward about it in the beginning, going out like this, feeling that people would be looking at you. But now I have been freed from my self concern. There is something really truthful about doing this, as a priest, to be on the streets, and ministering to those in need.”

The team have a set route through the city centre, stopping off to serve the Big Issue sellers, street performers and anyone else hanging around who looks homeless. Pip tells me “I always pray that God will grant me the eyes to see, who the homeless are.” As I walked with them through the streets in the drizzling rain and cold, I was very impressed at the warmth with which the team treated the men and women they met. As well as a large array of sandwiches, lovingly prepared by ladies from the parish, tea and coffee and other goodies are offered, and probably just as important, every person is greeted by a hug. The homeless tell them their news – of jobs and accommodation found or personal items needed like warm socks or toothpaste, which the team try and respond to. Paul, also will ask them if they want a prayer or a blessing.

“Always dreamed of doing something like this”

“Very few refuse” says Fr Kenny. “We keep the prayers very simple. I just ask the Lord to protect them and keep them safe. We give them rosary beads, which are very popular, and holy pictures. It is evangelisation but not heavy. I have always dreamed about doing something like this, but never had the impetus or support until Paul suggested it.” Some months ago Fr Kenny was moved to a new parish, Our Lady of Martyrs in Croxteth, but fortunately the new priest, Fr John Southworth, was happy for the ministry to continue at St Patrick’s.

Subsequently the team decided, in response to the requests of the homeless themselves that they would go out from Fr Kenny’s new parish too following the same format of Mass, adoration and sending out and ending with prayers to the Divine Mercy. This happens on Tuesdays. Through the relationships established, the love shown, and the power of the Holy Spirit, Paul reckons about 36 people have come to God and the Catholic faith over the last two years. Some of these are people like Pip who have been or are homeless, and others are those who have been impressed by the work and have been touched by praying with the volunteers. One of the latter is Robbie’s own brother, Jimmy whose faith has been brought alive in a new way through what he has seen.

Being very well connected locally, Jimmy has pulled strings to get grants to help repair and restore the church building at St Patrick’s. The roof has now been done, the gardens and graves tidied, all paid for by the council This restoration of the building has become a metaphor for the spiritual renewal that has taken place in the parish too, over the past couple of years, and in the lives of the volunteers themselves as they have grown in their faith through their participation in the Mother of Mercy ministry.

That Paul is still alive and walking around today is an ongoing miracle. His doctors have told him that his bones have been so eaten away with the cancer and his spine is so brittle that it could snap at any moment, leaving him dead or paralysed. Yethe still is pain free, which is a source of ongoing bafflement to the medical profession and everyone else, and which God seems to be using as a sign to bring conversion to others.

Love is to be given away

“Don’t talk about me, too much,” says Paul, torn between the desire to give glory to God for the amazing way God has used him to initiate this ministry, but also reluctant to draw attention to himself. “The important thing is the Mother of Mercy Society and the work on the streets with the homeless. Who knows how long I will be around but the work must continue.” And one suspects that it will. The bonding between the group, fused by prayer and cups of coffee as well the experiences of love they have shared with the homeless on the streets, have created a tight knit, enthusiastic team that is a wonderful example of Christian community in action and a testimony to what God can do when one man, even a sick one, says “yes” to Him.

Christina says, “Before Paul was diagnosed, he was in terrible pain, and he was dragging himself round on sticks, but he still took the men to the Cathedral for Mass on Christmas day. I am proud of him. He is that kind of man. I can’t keep all that love he has just for me and the kids. Love is to be given away”.

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me, He has sent me
to bring good news to the poor, To proclaim liberty to captives. To the blind new sight,
To set the downtrodden free
To proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.”
(Luke 4:16-18)