“Thank you, Blessed Mother, for freeing my brother from the devil of alcoholism.”

Susanna Young-Hwa Park
211-444 Sangdo 4-dong
Dongjak-ku, Seoul, Korea
September 2, 2001

Praise Jesus!  I myself have received countless graces from the Blessed Mother of Naju, but today I would like to share with you the grace that my younger brother received. 

My brother had been an alcoholic for 17 years until recently.  Many people around him as well as himself had suffered so much because of it.  On those days when he was drunk and behaved in disorderly ways, not only his own home but also his whole neighborhood were greatly disturbed because of the noise he made and even the damage to property he sometimes caused.  Even several of his fellow parishioners had a hard time trying to restrain him. 

I made many efforts to help him.  I prayed every day and fasted during Lent for him, but he did not change.

This year I was again offering six consecutive novenas of rosary prayers for him.  While continuing the novena prayers, I visited Naju in May of this year.  I began praying the rosary before the Blessed Mother’s statue on the mountain in Naju, and, suddenly, smelled an intense odor of soju (a Korean liquor), of which I was so sick and tired because I had smelled it so many times for so many years.  Thinking that somebody who really liked to drink was drinking again even on the Blessed Mother’s mountain, I looked around, but there was nobody else on the mountain.  I was amazed and continued to pray, but the strong odor of soju continued.  While meditating on the Glorious Mysteries of the rosary, I could clearly see in my mind the Blessed Mother standing, trampling the serpent under her feet.  At that moment, I became certain that the Blessed Mother captured the devil of drunkenness and was trampling him under her feet.  I offered up a prayer of thanksgiving, “Thank you, Blessed Mother, for freeing my brother from the devil of alcoholism.”  When I came home, I saw my brother really not drinking alcoholic beverages any more.  He discontinued it completely.  It was a miracle!  I was totally convinced that it was a grace from the Blessed Mother. 

Glory to the Lord and praise and gratitude to the Blessed Mother!  Amen.