My favorite story of 2023 was “The Astonishing Power of One Hail Mary,” as it focused on how a single prayer we should not take for granted can change even the lives of strangers. Briefly, John Petrovich was jogging past a house and saw an ambulance in the driveway.

He had learned in childhood to say a prayer for those in need whenever he sees or hears an ambulance or police siren. He blessed himself and this time said a Hail Mary for the person inside.

The next week, as he ran on the same street, a woman stopped him. “You saved my life,” she told him. She described how she had blacked out and was dying.

Regaining consciousness in the hospital, she had a vision of Jesus, who told her, “Everything is going to be fine; you’re going to be fine because this person prayed for you.” She told Petrovich how “on the palm of his hand was your face. And I have to thank you for saving my life.” He was speechless.

This incident is a perfect example of how earnest prayer can “move mountains,” as Jesus said in the Gospel. If one Hail Mary has that power, imagine the power in a Rosary’s 50 Hail Marys. The prayerful man told the Register he is learning to put “more emphasis on why we should be praying for one another … for other people in their needs and wants before us.”