By Christine Persichette
Every Sunday morning at Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal Church, parishioners are greeted at the doors with a warm welcome.
Inside, young adults serve throughout the 10:30 a.m. Mass. They open the doors for worshippers, serve at the altar, proclaim the readings, and help take up the collection.
Helping coordinate it all from the back of the church is 72-year-old Mary Macchiaroli.
“I think it’s time when we need at a certain age to pass the torch,” Macchiaroli said. “They’re the future of the Church.”
For Macchiaroli, the mission is deeply personal.
A parishioner since she was 6 years old, she received her sacraments at Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal, was married there, and spent 36 years serving as the parish’s director of religious education.
When she retired in 2025, she could have stepped away from ministry. Instead, she approached the parish’s new pastor, Father Michael Falci, and asked if she could continue serving by leading the parish’s young adult ministry.
His answer was immediate.
“Absolutely, and it’s a big help because she is, as you would say, the pulse of the parish โ she’s the heartbeat,” Father Falci said. “She’s the one who knows the goings and comings, the history, because she has that institutional knowledge. That’s so important in a parish โ to understand how things were and where we can go.”
Despite the decades separating their ages, Macchiaroli has formed close relationships with the young adults she mentors.
“She’s a wonderful lady,” said Sonny Kwiatkowski. “She helped my family a lot through the struggles, and I made a new best friend right there. She’s a really amazing person.”
His sister, Lara Kwiatkowski, said Macchiaroli takes a genuine interest in the lives of the parish’s young people.
“She’s always asking us about what’s going on in our lives with school,” Lara Kwiatkowski said. “If one of us gets principal’s list, she’ll make sure that it’s posted there, so she really tries to be involved with everything in our lives.”
Macchiaroli said her faith is what motivates her to continue serving.
“My faith is everything in my life,” she said. “I thank God I have what I had, because I wouldn’t get through anything without it. We’ve all gone through deaths, sickness, people you’ve lost, challenges, but my faith is the only thing that keeps me going.”
While she hopes to pass that faith on to the next generation, she said the experience has been equally rewarding for her.
“I think it’s important to mentor the teens and the youth,” Macchiaroli said. “It’s part of my life, and I feel the more you give, the more you get back.”
Week after week, Macchiaroli continues greeting parishioners by name, encouraging young adults, and helping ensure they have a place to serve.
For Father Falci and the parish community, she remains the heartbeat of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal.