Our Lady of the Lost and Found: Truth and Fiction

What I now know (or think I know) about Mary, I learned in two ways: from the stories she told me while she was here and from the reading I have done since. For those of us with a bookish bent, reading a reflexive response to everything. This is how we deal with the world and anything new that comes our way. We have always known that there is a book for every occasion and every obsession. When in doubt, we are always looking things up.

Not being especially fond of library books myself (mostly because you have to give them back when you’re done but also because their spines are often broken, their pages sticky and dog-eared, marked up with other people’s jottings and grease spots), I would rather buy than borrow. Even a casual examination of my overcrowded shelves would quickly reveal the various areas of interest that have gripped me over the years. Add to these now a small shelf of books about Mary:

Mary Through the Centuries. Mary, Queen of Heaven. A Litany of Mary. A Dictionary of Mary. Miracles of Mary. Visions of Mary. Meetings with Mary. Portrait of Mary. In Search of Mary. The Secret of Mary. Encountering Mary. Mary’s Message to the World. Mary’s Journal. Healing Words from Mary. Desperately Seeking Mary….

My original intention was to write a fictionalized version of the story of Mary’s visit to me, keeping my promise, of course, to publish it under a pseudonym and call it a novel. I knew this would work to the book’s advantage because, ironically, calling it fiction would make it easier to believe. There are some truths that cannot be made credible in any other way….

—Diane Schoemperlen, Our Lady of the Lost and Found