April 28--St. Gianna Beretta Molla, Holy Woman

We often hear about how our mothers have sacrificed so much for us. They carried us for nine months, bore us, loved us, raised us, prayed for us. All this is true. However, today’s saint sacrificed her life for her child. St. Gianna Beretta Molla was a wife, a mother, a pediatrician, and above all, a saint. She had four children, but it was while she was pregnant with her youngest child that she offered her life. She had a uterine tumor, which was removed during the second month of her pregnancy. For the next seven months she prayed for the life of her child. Her plea was: “If you must decide between me and the child, do not hesitate: choose the child – I insist on it. Save him.” Her daughter, Gianna Emanuela, was born safely, but one week later, the mother, St. Gianna, died after much pain and exclamations of “Jesus I love you. Jesus, I love you.” She was 39 years old.

Heroic virtue is what the saints live and offer to us as a witness of their love for God. But their love never ends there. St. Gianna shows us how much true love is given by mothers to their children, even to the point of dying. St. Gianna is not the only one who has consciously chosen to sacrifice her life for her child. It happens every day when a mother with cancer or some other illness heroically chooses to bear her child, knowing that her own life might be at risk. But that is what love is about, giving ourselves completely for others. Bl. Pope Paul VI remembered St. Gianna as: “A young mother from the diocese of Milan, who, to give life to her daughter, sacrificed her own, with conscious immolation.” St. Gianna, pray for us.

March 9--St. Frances of Rome, Religious

Rome has two heavy hitters as patrons in Sts. Peter and Paul, who were both martyred there during the reign of the emperor Nero. But the eternal city also has a mother as a patron, St. Frances of Rome. St. Frances was born into a noble Roman family and married at the age of 12 to another Roman noble. Her marriage lasted for 40 years and she bore three children. While she was married she became a Third Order Franciscan. During an invasion of Rome people came to her farm, where she would give food and care for the sick, the starving, and the dying assisted by other Roman ladies. In 1425 she and six other women became oblates under the rule of St. Benedict. They eventually became a religious order in 1433. Their ministry was to serve the poor and work and pray for the pope and the peace of Rome.

As a mother, St. Frances of Rome suffered the death of two of her children to the plague. She opened part of her house as a hospital and bought what was necessary to help the sick. Her community of women helped others as mothers help their children.

Our mothers sacrifice themselves for us so that we may have what we need: food, clothing, comfort, medicine, and more. In times of sorrow our mothers console us. They do what must be done so that their children and their families are secure and safe. They, with our fathers, provide us with homes and love. But they do not do so alone. They have God to guide them. They have the Blessed Mother to watch over them. No family is perfect, but all families strive for happiness in their lives, which is only provided through God’s grace.

August 27: St. Monica, Holy Woman

What do you do when your child rejects the faith of the Church? Perhaps you cry. Perhaps you pray. Perhaps you appeal to your child of the goodness of the faith. Perhaps you remain faithful and continue to love your child no matter what. Perhaps you do all of these. You would be in good company. 

St. Monica’s son rejected the faith that he was raised in. He wasn’t baptized as an infant and so did not have the sacramental grace that goes with baptism. Nonetheless, St. Monica persevered through tears, prayer, appeals, and love. “She implored the local bishop for help in winning him over, and he counseled her to be patient, saying, ‘God's time will come.’ Monica persisted in importuning him, and the bishop uttered the words which have often been quoted: ‘Go now, I beg you; it is not possible that the son of so many tears should perish.’” When her son left home for his career, she followed him, even though he tricked her as to when he was leaving so she couldn’t go with him. Eventually she found him in his new city where she spoke to the bishop. Her son? St. Augustine. The bishop? St. Ambrose.

In America today, the largest religious group are Catholics. If organized as a group, former Catholics would be the second largest. The Catholic Church is losing her youth. We need to remember that raising our children Catholic is a responsibility we agreed to at their baptism. We also need to remember that our society is against our teachings in many ways. Our children are being seduced by a false understanding of autonomy, truth, and rights. We must follow in St. Monica’s footsteps by praying and living our faith.