Kelly Lynch was praying during Mass a few years ago, she said, when she heard the words, "He said yes."

Lynch, 39, of Landisville, knew immediately that "he" was the Rev. Mychal Judge.

"I leaned over to mom and said, 'I have a great idea for a book,' " she recalled. "I was on fire. I was so excited."

Now Lynch's children's book, "He Said Yes," with illustrations by Lancaster native M. Scott Oatman, of Ocean City, Md., has been published by Paulist Press in Mahwah, N.J.

The book, for children ages 4 to 12, is available online at www.paulistpress.com for $12.95 and will be in bookstores Sunday, Sept. 2.

Each illustration includes a hidden image related to Judge's life.

The Brooklyn-born Judge was the Franciscan priest and New York City Fire Department chaplain who was killed by falling debris from the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001.

But Judge also was a family friend who in 1990 helped Lynch, then residing in northern New Jersey, as her 7-month-old daughter, Shannon Hickey, was going through a liver transplant.

Lynch, her daughter, and Lynch's mother, Lancaster's Sharon Hickey, operate "Mychal's Message," a nonprofit organization that has provided more than 100,000 items for the homeless.

The charitable organization began when Shannon asked for socks for the homeless instead of gifts for herself to mark the 11th anniversary of her transplant.

A portion of the proceeds from sales of the book will benefit "Mychal's Message."

Lynch's father, Bob Hickey, was an altar boy for Judge at St. Joseph's Catholic Church in East Rutherford, N.J.

When he was 17, his father died and Judge helped him. He was just one of the many Judge helped.

"I can't tell you the number of people who knew him," Lynch said. "He made a difference in the lives of so many people."

The book begins with Judge saying yes as a child and shows him continuing to do that in his mission to help others.

He was just 6 years old when his father, an Irish immigrant, died. To help support his mother and two sisters, he said yes to shining shoes.

On the way to work one day, he passed St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church and stopped to talk to a friar. Soon he was stopping by regularly and dreaming about becoming a friar himself.

And that set the course for his life.

Lynch said that after the sadness of Judge's death lifted, she thought people needed to know his story.

And even though her name is listed as the author, she said the Holy Spirit wrote the book.

"The Holy Spirit guided my hand through every bit of it," she said.

She also had help from her mother, who sometimes helped her find the right word.

"We're so close, she sometimes finishes sentences for me," Lynch said.

It was Mrs. Hickey who taught Lynch to care for the less fortunate.

When Lynch was a child, her mother took her to New York City at Christmastime to give away socks.

"I remember a woman with a shopping cart asked, 'Are they new? Are they clean?' " she said. "(Homeless people) have self worth too. I learned an important lesson that day."

Lynch will sign copies of "He Said Yes" in Lancaster at Barnes & Noble at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 13, and at Borders from 10 a.m. to noon Saturday, Sept. 22.

A book-release party will be held at Tir na nOg, 5 Penn Plaza, New York, on Friday, Sept. 7.

Off the Boat will perform. For reservations, call 212-630-0249.

CONTACT US: jkern@LNPnews.com or 481-6028