One day a lady stopped by my office while I was working. Now, usually I'm never in my office, but I happened to be there when this lady dropped by. When she came through the main doors, she saw me and said, "Oh, Brother Jesse!" to get my attention. I had never seen her before.

I said, "Hello, how are you doing?"

"Brother Jesse, I need to ask you a question," she said. "I need to ask you a question right now, because you have disturbed me."

I thought to myself, Oh, God, what have I done now?

"I have?" I asked.

"Yes," she said. "We watch your television program all the time."

"Well, thank you," I said. "That's very kind of you to do that. What can I do for you?"

"You don't like Mary, do you?" She asked me the question just like that.

"What?" I said. I didn't even know what she was talking about.

"You don't like Mary."

"Mary who?"

"The Virgin Mary," she said. "You don't like her, do you?"

"Yes, I do," I said. "What makes you think I don't like Mary?"

"Because I heard you say you don't pray to Mary," She said "I heard you say that in one of your sermons. You don't pray to Mary."

She continued, "I love Mary. I have several ladies who come to my house, and we pray every day to Mary. And we pray the rosary. We love Mary. But I want to let you know that we're also Spirit filled, and we love God. We just pray to Mary. Now you're telling me, you don't."

This lady was upset. I knew I could've hit her right between the chops with a theological, hermeneutical, philosophical slap. But I wanted to build a bridge instead of burn one. So I said nicely, "Why, I love Mary. The Bible says she's found favor among all women. She's the mother of Jesus."

"Well," she said, "why don't you like to pray to her?"

Now this was a very sincere woman who loved God. You could see that. That woman loved Jesus Christ. She was born again, and she loved God with all of her heart.

"You're right," I said. "I don't pray to Mary."

"You don't pray to Mary?" she asked.

"No, ma'am, I don't." I replied.

"Well, why not?"

"Because I pray like Mary prayed," I said.

"What?"

"You mean to tell me you don't pray like Mary prayed?" I asked that woman.

"Like Mary prayed?" she asked.

"You mean to tell me, as much as you love Mary, you don't pray like Mary prayed?"

She said, "Uh, well, no, not really. Ah, well, how did Mary pray?"

"Well," I said, "she prayed like her Son told her to pray. You mean to tell me all this time that you've loved Mary, you're not praying like Mary prayed? I'm shocked. I am shocked!"

"Well, how did Mary pray?" she asked.

"She prayed exactly like Jesus told her to pray - she prayed to the Father in Jesus' name," I said. "Don't you pray like that? Wouldn't you want to pray like Mary prayed?"

"Yes," she said, "I want to pray like Mary prayed."

"Well," I said, "this is how she prayed. 'Father, in the name of Jesus, I speak Your Word today.' Did you know Mary was in the Upper Room and filled with the Holy Spirit just like Philip, James and John?"

I asked that woman, "Don't you want to pray like Mary prayed? Girl, as much as you love Mary, you ought to at least pray like Mary prayed!"

"Huh, I see," she said. "I'm going to start praying like Mary prayed."

"You need to do that," I said. "When you pray, you ask the Father in Jesus' name, and the Bible says He will bless you."

Man, she left my office all smiles. She went to her little Bible study, and when they all started praying to Mary, she said, "No, no, no, we're not doing that any more."

They said, "Well, why not?"

"We're going to pray like Mary prayed," she announced. "We're going to pray like Mary prayed from now on."

"How did Mary pray?" they asked.

"Brother Jesse said Mary prayed like this." And she showed them how Jesus told Mary to pray.

Now all of them are praying like Mary prayed. They invited this priest over to their prayer meeting and said, "Don't you want to pray like Mary prayed?"

"Well," the priest said, "I don't know. How did Mary pray?"

She said, "Brother Jesse said, 'This is how Mary prayed.'" And she told him what I had told her.

Now the priest is praying like Mary prayed, I'm praying like Mary prayed and that whole Bible study group is praying like Mary prayed. Glory to God!

What did I do? I built a bridge. I could have hurt that lady, but I could see she loved God. I didn't get all dogmatic on her. Instead, I helped her, and now they're all filled with more of the Holy Ghost. Now they've got people coming to that prayer meeting who are getting blessed. They are ministering to the priest! They pray, give altar calls after mass and lay hands on the sick. They fall out in the Spirit and get healed.

It worked. Instead of hurting somebody and taking something very, very sacred and making a religious argument over it, I helped her. That's our job as Christians. We don't need to be dogmatic with people who are sincere and love God. We can build bridges; we can bring people closer together, not talk about our differences.

Source: Jambalaya for the Soul by Jesse Duplantis
Excerpt permission granted by Harrison House Publishers