“Every evening after supper, we’d all gather for the rosary,” Norton said. As a teenager in his new home, he would cut out pictures of the Blessed Mother from issues of SOUL Magazine with the message to pray the rosary daily. “I’d ride my bike to outside phone booths and hang the pictures up,” Norton shared. “It was my way of evangelizing.”
When Norton was 21, working as a maintenance superintendent of two buildings, a favorite spot he went for breakfast was Johnny’s Restaurant in Fairfield, Connecticut. “Once, I asked the owner how business was going,” Norton said. “He told me it was very slow. I said, ‘Johnny, put a picture of the Blessed Mother in your window.’ He did, and business became very busy. Later, I saw that he added a picture of Jesus in the window.”
As a young adult, Norton met his future wife, Sandy, on a pilgrimage, and eventually they married, moved to Minnesota, and had three children — Maria, Anna, and Joseph. Amazingly, Sandy recalled seeing the Norton family on “Good Morning America” when she was a teenager.
Fifty-four years after Mother Teresa saved Norton as a baby, a donor made it possible for his entire family to be present in Rome for her canonization on Sept. 4, 2016. Amid the crowd, a sister from the Missionaries of Charity — the order Mother Teresa founded — tapped Norton on the shoulder and pointed to a place for them to stand. When they turned, no one was there. Norton and his family went to where the sister had pointed and a security guard came over and brought them to the front for the Mass. Was the nun who tapped them Mother Teresa? He often wonders.
That isn’t the only unusual experience Norton has had with a nun.
While painting a lamp post in a cemetery near a grotto of the Virgin Mary 13 years ago, Norton said he saw a religious sister in full habit who told him he was “doing a good job.” He later identified her as Sister Annella Zervas, OSB, a Benedictine sister who died in 1926 of a debilitating skin disease and who is buried in that cemetery.
Ever since that day, Norton has tirelessly worked to share Zervas’ life with others — reprinting and distributing over 100,000 copies of a booklet about her life, speaking to audiences, and doing interviews, including a video called “The Sanctity of Two Hearts.”
Norton told CNA that he was overwhelmed with joy by the letter Bishop Andrew Cozzens released on Oct. 15 announcing that the Crookston Diocese is taking preliminary steps that could lead to a cause for the canonization of Zervas.
When Norton speaks about Zervas, he often shares his story about Mother Teresa.
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The first time he was asked to speak to a church group, he was very nervous. “I went to confession and Mass and received the Eucharist,” he said. “I wanted to have a clean soul so God could work through me. I told God, ‘Whatever you want me to tell people, let it come from you.’”
Norton has given almost 100 talks now, always preparing the same way. “I tell people to just live the Gospel and let God work through you,” he said. “You don’t have to be something you are not.”
Norton also encourages people to go to confession often. “Your soul needs regular cleaning just like everything else,” he said.
Norton credits Mother Teresa with his great love for Our Lord in the Eucharist. “Before the sisters went out to take care of the poor, they would spend one hour in adoration,” he said. ”When I go for a Holy Hour — at least weekly — I pray the Stations of the Cross and look straight at the tabernacle, knowing that this same Jesus who suffered for us is there, and we can love him and have the privilege to be with him. Sometimes I think of all the activities taking place around us and tell Jesus, ‘If they only knew of your presence, Lord, they would all be here.’”
Norton said he never forgets that it was Mother Teresa’s “yes” to Jesus that gave him the life he has today. “When I do my painting jobs, people tell me how nice my work is. I tell them, ‘If Mother Teresa had not picked me up, I would not be doing this for you,’” he said.