What We Believe, Volume Three

We all believe something. Though they may not match up perfectly with any single religious tradition or worldview, we all hold personal beliefs about the big questions in life. "What We Believe" is an occasional column where I record conversations with ordinary individuals in the neighborhood about their beliefs.

Bernadette Ogurchak is co-owner of on Ardmore Boulevard in Forest Hills.  When I stopped in to try some of the bakery’s famous scones, I asked Bernadette if there was any significance to the shop’s religious-sounding name. As it turns out, Ogurchak is a member of a religious order known as the Associate Sisters of Mercy and is actively involved in her church. The following is excerpted from our conversation.

Can you tell me about the Sisters of Mercy?

It’s people who are part of the order, but they have their own life in the mainstream. We go to a meeting once a month. Also, there’s a service project.  The service project I started is a prayer shawl ministry at Carlow College, where we make prayer shawls for anybody in need of prayer. I decided I’d really like to do the same thing in my parish, so I started a prayer shawl ministry at St. Maurice. That was five years ago, and we’ve given more than 800 prayer shawls.  They can be for anyone who’s sick, dying, or has lost a loved one, new mothers, expecting mothers, brides, someone who’s celebrating a birthday or graduation—anyone you want to let know you’re thinking of them. We have prayer shawls all over the world and have some amazing stories of recoveries from illnesses. It’s been a really gratifying ministry for me.

Obviously prayer is important to you. How do you think prayer works?

I was raised in the Catholic church and my whole life, prayer has been a really active part of it because my life has not been really easy. It just seems like every time things got to the point where I thought, I can’t go anymore, I would just pray for guidance and God has always been there for me. To anybody who’s going through a difficult time, I say you have to trust in the Lord and He will get you through. People always say, 'He doesn’t answer my prayers.' Well, maybe He doesn’t answer them the way that you want them to be answered, but they’re always answered. There have been many times even since I opened the store that I think, how are we going to get through another day or week?  And there’s always a way.  That’s pretty much how it’s been like for me.

I understand that You’ve given so many prayer shawls to other people. Did you get one yourself?

I actually had one given to me before, because I had knee replacement surgery and the ladies in my group made one for me. I spent four months with that prayer shawl wrapped around me. I went through some really, really trying times, physically and spiritually, in the last six months.  And I kept saying, “These prayer shawls work for everybody else; why can’t they work for me?”  Then one day I woke up and I just felt like, wow, I feel really good today.  And I started to recover and now I feel better than I have for years.  And I’m busier than I have been for years!

But I was in the hospital for a total of eight weeks.  And when I came out, it took every ounce of energy that I had just to get out of bed in the morning.  It was really a struggle.

How did your faith help you through that?

I don’t know whether I would have been able to withstand everything that I went through if it wasn’t for my prayer life and my belief in God and my spirituality.  My priest would come to visit me once a week in the hospital or at home, and he said, “I guess this is a really spiritually fulfilling time for you.”  I said, “Father, it’s spiritually a challenge, because I’m really testing my religion right now.  This is the hardest thing I’ve ever gone through in my life.”  And he said, “Well, you just have to trust in God, and He will be there for you.”  And He was.

Everything in your life is according to God’s time, not your own.  And when He was ready, I got better.  I think a lot of people, when they want God to do something for them, they want immediate results.  Because that’s the kind of society we live in: fast food and faster internet service and faster telephones and whatever.  But that’s not how God works.  .

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