An Amazing Story on Mother Angelica

I find this story truly inspiring.

From "God’s Little Trojan Horse on Crutches": Raymond Arroyo on Mother Angelica. Arroyo is the author of Mother Angelica: The Remarkable Story of a Nun, Her Nerve, and a Network of Miracles by Raymond Arroyo.

In 1981 when nobody gave this woman a chance, the bishops’ conference had already announced their plans to start and launch a cable network the year after she launched hers. They had millions of dollars at their disposal, they had scads of consultants: they had the theology they believed the contemporary church ached for. And yet, here was this little nun in Birmingham, Alabama, with no broadcast experience, no letters following her name except for the religious order that she belonged to, and $200 in the bank and she kind of bumbles into television.

She’s faced with the quandary of having to buy a satellite dish, which costs about $1.5 million but she doesn’t have the money to do so. After conning a RCA vice president into sending the thing down to her, the satellite is delivered that day in ’81 and she has to present the deliveryman with $600,000 at the point of delivery or they can’t deliver the satellite.

She goes out to greet the delivery man, and she’s stalling–she’s taking the guy on a tour of the monastery, she’s handing out cookies, anything to keep him from asking for the money. Finally, he asks for the $600,000 and she says–"Let me go pray for a minute, I’ll be right back." She goes into the chapel and she kneels down and as spouses are wont to do, she kind of tried to make her spouse feel guilty. She says, "I thought you wanted this satellite Lord and I wheeled and dealed and I got it for you and now I’m having a little problem, we need this money or I’m going to have to turn your satellite away."

And she kind of waits for the money to fall from the ceiling and it doesn’t, so she decides to get up and turn the delivery truck away. And as she walks out, one of the sisters comes running out of the monastery and says, "Mother, there is a man on the phone and he’s very insistent, he needs to talk to you and he won’t get off the line." She said, "But, I got big business out here, Sister." She says, "I know, but he’s very insistent." So she says, "Oh, give me the phone." So she talks to this guy. It’s a businessman calling from his yacht in the Bahamas. He read one of her little spiritual books she had written, a little mini book, tracts on the spiritual life, years before. He’s calling because this book changed his life, helped him reconcile with his family and he’s calling to make a donation to her book ministry, a donation of $600,000. She says, "Can you send it right now?"

He wired the funds in. That was the down payment for the satellite that to this day continues to beam EWTN all over the country. I saw the transfer papers. I didn’t believe the story myself. I pulled the records and there it was. Pretty astounding stuff. Her story is replete with things like this.