If there was one thing Mary was actually good with, it was people in the midst of a crisis of faith. She couldn't help herself with her own neverending crisis, but with others she was just the guiding support they often needed. So she smiled gently at Nicholas and reached out to take his hand in hers, squeezing it a little.
"Come sit," she said to him. "Speak up if you want to, or just listen. There's no church here, no judging eyes. Just some lost souls trying to find light in the dark. We all need help finding that light sometimes. And afterwards," she added, "if you want to, we could go have coffee and talk. Maybe sharing those woes of yours with a willing ear could be just what you need."