A GATHERING OF ANGELS

A follow-up to A Miracle for St. Cecilia’s (2002) is all heart and hope: miracles happen, faith is rewarded, people are ever ready to help in a dizzying mix of challenges: mobsters, foreclosure, cancer, hit and run.

All-is-possible-with-God seems to be the subtext of this unapologetic faith-centered tale, set again in friendly Dorsetville, that begins as ailing Sister Regina Francis dies while visiting Medjugorge in Bosnia. The Virgin Mary has been appearing there for nearly two decades, and the good Sister, just before she dies, is handed a rosary—it glows—by one of the three villagers who first saw Mary. The Sister who’d accompanied Regina to Bosnia brings the rosary back to Connecticut, but not before Bob Peterson, a fellow pilgrim and Dorsetvillian, picks up the rosary and his painful arm is cured. Also back in Dorsetville, builder Barry has been swindled by a con man and is being threatened by two who claim to be the Mafia. His best friend Chester has terminal cancer, and Nellie, a middle-aged teacher, is being courted by Harry, who owns the town's favorite gathering spot, the Country Kettle. Nellie is also worried that she might lose the house her family has owned for nearly two centuries. When Father James of St. Cecilia’s is run over by the speeding mobsters, the only witness is Molly, a homeless person new in town. Then the terrible young Galligan twins set a fire in the church from which Bob Peterson’s daughter is rescued with the help of the glowing rosary. As Nellie secretly takes on extra work and begins writing a children's story, Harry worries that she's seeing another man, since she has so little time for him. Revelations, marvels, and miracles—Nellie finds an agent, who just happens to be the father of a new student, and he sells her book immediately for mega bucks—are normal in lucky Dorsetville.

Upbeat and pious, but the relentless cheer wears thin.