The Greatest is Love

 

Deacon Kevin Gingras

May 15, 2022

5th Sunday of Easter

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/051522.cfm

Faith, Hope, and Love are the three Theological Virtues.  We read in 1 Corinthians:

So faith, hope, love remain, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

The greatest is love - why?  God is love and love is eternal.  When we die at our own particular judgment we can go to Heaven for eternity, Purgatory until we are ready to be in the presence of the perfect love of God, or to Damnation for eternity.  Let’s pray hard it’s not the latter!  

If and when we get to Heaven faith isn’t needed anymore since we will be in the presence of God and there is nothing left to hope for because we just attained it all, there is nothing better than Heaven, all we can hope for has been fullfilled!  Love is what remains, we will bask in the perfect Love of our Heavenly father.   

If we deserve eternal Damnation when we have our particular judgment, faith is gone as it will grant us nothing, hope is gone because it is hopeless, but we will suffer the knowledge of the Love of God that we have lost for eternity.  Love is eternal, God is eternal, God is love and love always remains, it is the greatest of the three Theological Virtues.

God gains nothing by us loving him.  God is omniscient, omnipotent, and doesn’t need our love at all but what is really cool about that downer of a statement is that while it is true God doesn’t need our love - God still WANTS our love anyway!

I’m not sure if this is still a thing but I can remember my kids making a macaroni necklace for my wife to give to her on Mother’s day.  They would paint the giant, uncooked macaroni different colors and then thread yarn through it and tie it off to make the necklace. They then presented it to her on Mother’s Day with a great big smile as if the gift was really a diamond necklace. To be bluntly honest the last thing my wife needs is a poorly painted necklace made of pasta but she accepted it and loved the kids all the more!  She didn’t need it but she wanted it because it was a gift from one of her children.  Now I’m not saying we all should make macaroni necklaces for God, no, instead what I am saying is exactly what the Gospel of Mark tells us in chapter 12, verse 30:

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.

We are God’s children and love is the gift that God wants from us.  So what are some tangible ways we can love God this way?

Love God not because it helps God, because it doesn’t, love God instead because it helps us.  We are created by God to love God so going against that is going against the very fiber of our being!  We love God by adoring him in adoration, going to Mass, and then giving God our FULL attention at Mass, evangelizing, tell others about God’s love, especially about His son Jesus Christ.  Receive the sacraments, follow God’s commandments, and try to stay in a state of grace. We know this isn’t always easy.  We see that in the reading from Acts today:

They strengthened the spirits of the disciples and exhorted them to persevere in the faith, saying, “It is necessary for us to undergo many hardships to enter the kingdom of God.”

So persevere in the faith, that is how we show God we love Him.

Love yourself too!  Sounds funny to say that but we all are God’s creation, ourselves included and sometimes we forget ourselves in that.  Don’t love yourself to the point of becoming a narcissist standing in front of a mirror flexing and telling yourself how great you are.  Love yourself enough to forgive yourself.  Get to confession, tell the priest your sins, and realize you are absolved of your sins, do not beat yourself up over them thinking you are a horrible person.

Our Gospel gives us another way to show we love God:

I give you a new commandment: love one another. As I have loved you, so you also should love one another. This is how all will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another.

We must see God in all other humans because we are all creations of God, not just those folks we like, but those we dislike, yeah, they are also part of God’s creation too!

Cardinal Sarah talking about charity, also known as love states:

It urges us to evangelize; to put it simply, the Church reveals the Love of God.  Often the absence of God is the deepest root of human suffering. Consequently, a Christian cannot perform acts of charity only for his brethren in Christ but must do so for all men without any distinction.

Faith will get you through the storm

 

Deacon Kevin Gingras

June 19, 2021

12th Sunday in Ordinary Time

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/062021.cfm

There are a few things that jumped right out at me from today’s readings. First, Jesus is a VERY sound sleeper but I’m not so sure that would be a good basis for a homily! Next is when Jesus says Quiet! Be still! to calm the storm and the sea obeys him. In chapter one of Mark, Jesus also spoke to a demon in a similar manner:

“Quiet! Come out of him!” The unclean spirit convulsed him and with a loud cry came out of him.

The demon listened to Jesus, obeyed his command like the sea did in today’s Gospel. The other thing that jumped out was a comparison to the first reading of Job and the Gospel. In both, there is a storm. God is addressing Job in that storm telling Job that it is He, God that formed the seas, controlling it, telling it where to go, setting its limits. The sea listened to its creator God. In the Gospel of Mark, it is Jesus who is controlling the sea, telling it to “be still” and the sea listened and calmed down. That’s quite the Christological study right there - Jesus' power equals God’s when we compare these two readings. It helped his disciples see who Jesus really was and it should also help us see that today in time as well. We could ask the same question they did:

“Who then is this whom even wind and sea obey?”

Thanks to great theologians, Church Doctors, and Church Fathers who gave us the definition of the Trinity we know who Jesus is today in time. Jesus is God. They are two distinct individuals yet one and the same. Today we need to rely on the entire Trinity: Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit to get us through the storms in our life! When I began the Diaconate program in the Fall of 2015 life threw some curveballs at me. We had a few issues going on. We were not financially stable at the time, to the point where I would go to the gas pump on my way to work and pray to God that my debit card would work so I can get to the office. At the same time, we also knew my dad would be dying soon and was under the care of hospice in Good Samaritan Hospital. Also, somebody else very close to me was in another hospital along with several other things we were dealing with in life at the moment. I had to tell my family why I wasn’t at the hospital as much to see my dad during these last days. I remember one of my family members saying to me that with all this going on how do you keep it together. The answer was quick and simple - God and my faith. Without that, I would have been a blubbering mess. It was my faith, the Trinity getting me through this storm in my life. My faith got me through this storm and I look back on it as a place where my faith grew, not where it went away and I offer prayers of Thanksgiving for that, for the Holy Spirit guiding me when I needed it most. I’m not angry that the storm wasn’t calmed, I’m overjoyed I made it through. If you have some time this week, read the entire book of Job. It’s an allegorical story; a dramatic telling of the problem of the suffering of the innocent. See what Job went through and not once did he curse or become angry with God. Job stayed strong through many trials. We can learn from that.

Satan will use our life’s storms to try and break us down. Our fear, our anxiety, our anger. Emotions like this, when not kept in check through prayer, will become a weapon Satan uses against us. Don’t let him! Remember how many times Jesus told us not to fear. For some reason it seems oddly fitting to quote Yoda from Star Wars who also was very wise as he said:

"Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering."

So when we have those moments of fear in our lives, doubt, anger, negative feelings cry out to Jesus (not Yoda) as the apostles did:

“Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?”

We are on this crazy journey called life. We will face trials, tribulations and storms during this journey. Remember that Jesus is always close by, don’t leave him asleep in the stern during those storms, cry out to him in the storm. He does care for you and will help you, maybe not by taking away the trial, but by giving you stability during it. Saint Faustina teaches us well how to get through these tough times as she went through many herself. She says:

"In difficult moments I will fix my gaze upon the silent heart of Jesus, Stretched upon the cross, and from the exploding flames of his merciful heart, Will flow down upon me power and strength to keep fighting"

Pray for the Dead

Kevin Gingras
November 15, 2020 - 33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/111520.cfm

An ancient Arab proverb states: "A clever woman is never without wool".  On contemplating this first reading I realized my wife Allison doesn’t obtain much wool, maybe only in her socks and a sweater or two.  I also asked her and apparently she doesn’t know how to ply the spindle and she doesn’t even know what a distaff is!  We had to Google it. 

With that said, the first reading also states: 

When one finds a worthy wife, her value is far beyond pearls.

Now, this I can hang my hat on!  I agree with this statement wholeheartedly!  Why? Because my happiness at home depends on it!  We all know the quote “A happy wife is a happy life”!

One thing for sure, at our house we try not to waste our God-given talents even if one of those gifts isn't plying the spindle.  Now in today’s Gospel parable, Matthew is talking about talents that are a weight-based currency and its value depended on if it was made of copper, gold, or silver.  The parable has multiple lessons.  First, we are all given different gifts from God.  He gave one man five talents, another two, and another received one.  Second, when we do our work well for God then more will be expected of us, kind of like a promotion from God!  Third, if we do not use our God-given gifts properly, instead we bury them and don’t use them to multiply the kingdom - well we hear it in today’s parable in the final verse:

And throw this useless servant into the darkness outside, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.

That sounds a bit dark.  This is where the second reading comes in - we are not meant for darkness and grinding of teeth however and St. Paul makes sure the Thessalonians know this as he writes to them:

For all of you are children of the light and children of the day. We are not of the night or of darkness.  Therefore, let us not sleep as the rest do, but let us stay alert and sober.

We have heard a lot lately about staying alert and sober and preparing for the end - that thing none of us want to talk about -  DEATH.  But it’s something we all must face eventually.  The other night, I was watching the movie the Lord of the Rings, The Return of the King. Towards the end, there is a scene where two main characters are in a castle in a kingdom called Gondor.  The enemy is about to burst in and things aren’t looking good for two of the characters, Pippin, a hobbit creature, and Gandalf the wizard.

  Their dialogue goes something like this (click here for video):

 "I didn't think it would end this way" says Pippin

Gandalf replies: "End? No, the journey doesn't end here. Death is just another path, one that we all must take. The grey rain-curtain of this world rolls back, and all turns to silver glass, and then you see it."

Pippen asks: "What? Gandalf? See what?"

Gandalf explains: "White shores, and beyond, a far green country under a swift sunrise."

"Well, that isn't so bad" replies Pippen.

"No. No, it isn't", ends Gandalf.

November is a time that the Catholic Church uses to focus on those who have gone to the “White Shores” before us.  Those who have died.  We have All Saints day to begin and then All Souls day.  This matches with how creation works does it not?  The plants and leaves are dying as well, and the earth is going to sleep for a bit until the resurrection of Spring.

This is where Allison comes back into the homily.  Years ago she began dragging me along to cemeteries as her chauffeur while she would pray for the dead.  She learned this tradition from Susan Tassone - aka The Purgatory Lady.  Susan even calls Allison the Purgatory Lady Jr now.  

I also have become more than just a driver.  I also pray.

Why? Because we should never assume our loved ones who have died are saints in heaven.  The best thing we can do is pray for them to help them attain heaven.  If they are already in heaven those prayers will be used to help another soul in purgatory get to heaven.  We have prayed in cemeteries all around, we try to find new ones each year we have never prayed in yet.

We pray at the graves of people we knew and also never met.  We pray for those who died in 2020, 1900, or even the 1800s.  One of the talents, or gifts that we all have is that of prayer.  To some that is a great gift where the Holy Spirit really moves them and they are gifted with wonderful prayers that they can make up on the spot.  For those of us who can’t do that we all know the prayers that the Catholic Church has taught us all through our life.  Offer up fasting and sacrifices for the Holy Souls, there are also novenas you can look up and do for the Holy Souls in Purgatory.  Find those novenas.  Do them.  Pray for the Holy Souls.  

Imagine the welcome you will get from the souls you helped attain heaven when you finally reach the destination God meant for you!

Venerable Fulton Sheen has said:

As we enter Heaven, we will see them, so many of them, coming towards us and thanking us.  We will ask who they are, and they will say ‘a poor soul you prayed for in purgatory'.

Dual Citizenship

 

Kevin Gingras

October 18th, 2020 - 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/101820.cfm

When we adopted our daughter Faith from Wuhan China, yes, Wuhan, good things can come from Wuhan!  Anyway, nothing really became official until we finished up our trip to Guangzhou and were sworn in as her parents.  At the agency in Wuhan, they even told us it’s a trial run at first, kind of like test driving a used car!  God already had told us that she was our daughter but things needed to be made official.

She became an official citizen of the United States the second our plane touched down in California.  Later, in New Bedford, we filled out an American version of paperwork to officially adopt her in the United States.  It wasn’t necessary but it would make life easier for her to have an American Birth certificate.  These were very important dates for her citizenship but they don’t compare to February 21, 2010.  That was the date of her baptism.  This was the most important part of her adoption process, citizenship into the family of God.  Something she would have never received in Communist China.

You see, we all have dual citizenship, by our birth we became a citizen of an earthly nation but by our baptism we became citizens of a heavenly Kingdom.

Earthly kingdoms will have an end.  Our heavenly citizenship will last forever, eternity.  My wife says being married to me for so long is like an eternity, she has no idea!  Eternity is so much longer than that!

Dual citizenship is what struck me in today’s Gospel: 

He said to them, "Whose image is this and whose inscription?" They replied, "Caesar's." At that he said to them, "Then repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God."

Caesar's image is on the coin so pay the tax, give to Caesar what has his image on it, it belongs to him.  We also should give to God what belongs to God. God’s image is on us.  We belong to him, give to God what belongs to God! 

As it is written in Genesis 1:27:

God created mankind in his image; in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.

Our reading from Isaiah carries this even further:

I have called you by your name, giving you a title, though you knew me not. I am the LORD and there is no other, there is no God besides me.

God created us and in doing so also placed His divine image within us.  Our dual citizenship into the family of God was made official at our baptism.

CCC 1213 states:

Holy Baptism is the basis of the whole Christian life, the gateway to life in the Spirit, and the door which gives access to the other sacraments. Through Baptism we are freed from sin and reborn as sons of God; we become members of Christ, are incorporated into the Church and made sharers in her mission

We need to reflect on how we are doing in giving to God what belongs to him.  God doesn’t just want your presence here in the pews or watching Mass online on Sundays.  God wants your presence at church of course, but also at work, at home, at the game, in other words, all the time.  

St. Paul reminds the Thessalonians that they are called out specifically by God and even strengthened yet still even though Christ had already left the earth as he writes:

before our God and Father, knowing, brothers and sisters loved by God, how you were chosen. For our gospel did not come to you in word alone, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with much conviction.

This week we all should pray to the Holy Spirit to ask for that conviction to help us repay to God what belongs to God.  It isn’t easy and that is why we need the Holy Spirit’s help to take God with us when we leave here today and bring him with us everywhere by our actions, what we say and do and also by what we DON’T say and DON’T do.  Know that God is there with us, we just have to always remember His presence.  Focus on our divine vocation while carrying out our earthly jobs and tasks to make our life on this planet so much more fulfilling.

Pope Saint John Paul the II says it well:

"Jesus has a specific task in life for each and every one of us. Each one of us is hand-picked, called by name by Jesus! There is no one among us who does not have a divine vocation!"

Persistence in Prayer

August 16, 2020, 20th Sunday in Ordinary Time

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/081620.cfm

Today’s Gospel from Matthew could be considered the very beginning of our salvation story.  We aren’t Jewish, most of us probably never were.  Jesus, so it was thought back then, had only come to save the Israelites, the Jews, and nobody else.

Now Jesus heads off to the regions of Tyre and Sidon, probably to get a bit of an escape.  Here comes the Canaanite woman, not a Jewish woman, but a Gentile and the scene that unfolds is quite remarkable.

There are so many perspectives to take from this but let’s focus on the persistence of the Canaanite woman.   Her faith begins by calling Jesus the Son of David, a title of earthly power.  She knew Jesus was a great man and could do marvelous things but she didn’t know who Jesus really was yet. Her faith led her to believe that Jesus, whoever He was, could do great things for her.  She was desperate.  The disciples were in her way, they didn’t want her daughter healed out of compassion and love, they looked at her like an annoying fly buzzing around their faces.

His disciples came and asked him, “Send her away, for she keeps calling out after us.”

Whatever Jesus had to do for her, they wanted it done and wanted her gone.  Jesus finally confronts the woman and the conversation seems harsh!  

But the woman came and did him homage, saying, “Lord, help me.” He said in reply, “It is not right to take the food of the children and throw it to the dogs.” 

Context is everything when reading the Bible.  The word Jesus used for dogs, kunaria, means a household pet and not the scroungy street dogs from Jerusalem.  When I was growing up if I called a person a dog, especially a woman it was a major insult but in this case, it was not so bad.

The Canaanite woman doesn’t even seem phased.  She has the wit of a true Greek as she responds:

“Please, Lord, for even the dogs eat the scraps that fall from the table of their masters.”

What faith!  She still doesn’t give up and her persistence pays off and her daughter is healed by the Master.  Jesus saw so much more in her faith at that moment to exclaim: 

“O woman, great is your faith!”.  

She has moved from seeing Jesus as a great man who can help her to see who He really is, and Jesus notices this transformation in her as well and the fact that she is a Gentile becomes irrelevant.

The second reading from St. Paul to the Romans spells it out clearly, Jesus’ salvific mission is to the whole world, not just the Jewish people, but to all, and this includes us!

I am speaking to you Gentiles. Inasmuch as I am the apostle to the Gentiles, I glory in my ministry in order to make my race jealous and thus save some of them.

The Caananite woman, a Gentile, a non-Jew, is one of the first to take advantage of this.  Her persistent prayer of petition to Jesus is what saves her daughter from the demon.  Our Psalms today echo those prayers of petition asking for pity, blessing, and salvation.  

Now we must reflect, how are we doing in our prayer life?  Are we still persistent in asking God for help and healing in whatever is troubling us no matter how long it’s been going on?  Some things are individual troubles that affect us personally.  Some things are prayers for our families.  Some things are issues in our towns, our church community, our state, our diocese, our nation, and the whole world.  I understand now why a great saint once said pray without ceasing! There really is a lot we should be asking God for help with right now and that’s ok, our God has very broad shoulders, trust Him to handle all of our issues we bring to him. 

This to shall pass and our troubles won’t last forever. Prayer should be the main tool we use to get us through these tough times.  Sure, we may not all receive the healing that the Canaanite woman’s daughter did but perseverance in prayer will at minimum make those tougher times much more tolerable.  Pray...pray and pray some more and don’t let other things get in your way like Jesus’ disciples tried to get in the way of the Canaanite woman.

I think St. Augustine put it far more eloquently than I have when he said: 

If God seems slow in responding, it is because He is preparing a better gift.  He will not deny us.  God withholds what you are not yet ready for.  He wants you to have a lively desire for His greatest gifts.  All of which is to say, pray always and do not lose heart.

Faith in Adversity

March 22, 4th Sunday in Lent - Year A http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/032220.cfm

Today, especially since we cannot gather together for mass in most places, please take the time to read the readings ahead of time.  Gather the family, do it together prayerfully.  Let's all keep holy the Sabbath as best we can!

If you wish you can watch a VLOG of this instead by clicking HERE!


Now onto the homily...

"I wish it need not have happened in my time," said Frodo.
"So do I," said Gandalf, "and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.” - J.R.R Tolkien - The Fellowship of the Ring.

I’ve had this quote on my desk at work for many years.  Recently I’ve seen it crop up a lot on social media.  It’s very timely and an excellent quote to ponder now.

What will we do with this time that has been given to us?  Will we stress and argue over the minute things because of this crisis we are all facing or will we spend it with the ones we love and grow closer?  Will we compile a mass of food and paper products we couldn’t use in a normal lifetime or will we instead look for ways to assist our neighbors?

In the first reading, Samuel anointed young King David, the youngest of Jesse’s children who wasn’t even presented because Jesse assumed there was no way he would be the one chosen, he was too young.  I love this line from 1 Samuel:

“Do not judge from his appearance or from his lofty stature, because I have rejected him. Not as man sees does God see, because man sees the appearance but the LORD looks into the heart.”

King David faced many trials in his career as King and even failed miserably in some of those trials.  Just read 2 Samuel 11 to see one of his biggest failures!

All of us are facing adversity right now with what is going on worldwide because of the Coronavirus.  Some have this adversity added to others that they have already been dealing with. Some far more difficult than others.  We are all having one very interesting Lent indeed, that’s for sure.  All of our fasts have become so much more extreme than expected!  It’s hard but we must try to remember Matthew 6:16-18:

“When you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites. They neglect their appearance, so that they may appear to others to be fasting. Amen, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, so that you may not appear to others to be fasting, except to your Father who is hidden. And your Father who sees what is hidden will repay you.

If you can live in such a way now, to still be filled with such joy, that's more of a proclamation of who Jesus Christ is than any homily given of who you have put your trust in!

Our psalm today says:

He guides me in right paths for his name’s sake. Even though I walk in the dark valley I fear no evil; for you are at my side With your rod and your staff that give me courage.

I have seen this faith in our own incredible parish of Holy Family.  We have had “drive-in adoration” via a window at the rectory, live streams of adoration and benediction, the rosary as well as Stations of the Cross.  Our worship hasn’t ended, it’s just been modified for the time being until this current crisis has run its course.  Once it does run its course we will come out on the other side that much stronger!

If you are one of the baptized then you too have been anointed like King David.  The Catechism of the Catholic Church states:

The anointing with sacred chrism, perfumed oil consecrated by the bishop, signifies the gift of the Holy Spirit to the newly baptized, who has become a Christian, that is, one "anointed" by the Holy Spirit, incorporated into Christ who is anointed priest, prophet, and king.

We have been incorporated into Christ with our anointing and baptism.  No amount of sheltering in place can take that away from us as we are all being forced to give up so much more this Lent than we ever could have imagined.  As the practice of “Social Distancing” should be growing let us please pray that our practice of “Spiritual Distancing” is shrinking.  May this be a time we all grow closer to Christ as we face this adversity together. Even if we cannot physically attend Mass or other church services, we are still grafted onto the vine that is Jesus Christ.

“Pain and suffering have come into your life, but remember pain, sorrow, suffering are but the kiss of Jesus — a sign that you have come so close to Him that He can kiss you.” St. Mother Teresa of Calcutta

Faith and Persistence.

Homily for October 20, 2019, 29th Sunday in ordinary time.

http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/102019.cfm

In our first reading from Exodus, we see Moses, interceding for the Israelites, as the leader of the battle.  He is standing on a hill with the staff of God raised up in his hand. So long as he kept the staff raised up Israel would do well.  If his hands lowered Isreal would begin to lose. I had to figure out what Moses' staff was made of and I found that historians think Moses’ staff was most likely almond wood, a dense and very heavy wood.  I’d imagine it would be hard to hold this out at arm’s length. To win the battle Moses needed help and that’s where his friends Aaron and Hur come in.  Without their help, the battle would be lost.  

Luke, in today’s gospel, recalls Jesus’ teaching of the parable of the persistent widow.  Like Moses, she needed help too. She asked the judge for a just decision over… and over… and over.. and over again, kind of like the kid in the back seat asking "are we there yet?" "Are we there yet?" over and over until you get where you are going. Well, finally, the Judge who had no fear of God or respect for other people, decided to give her that just decision to get her off his back.  How much more will a loving God do for us then?

In our second reading, Paul charges Timothy to be persistent in his work even if it is inconvenient.  The language is quite serious:

I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingly power: proclaim the word; be persistent whether it is convenient or inconvenient...

Paul doesn’t just say pretty please to Timothy, no, he charges him in the presence of God and Christ Jesus as well.  That’s a big deal, Paul isn’t fooling around here, he means it.

Timothy needed that helpful reminder from Saint Paul to be persistent, the widow needed persistence and the help of a fair judgment, Moses also needed persistence and help to win the battle. If it's not obvious yet, those are the two key points I want to focus on, persistence and knowing when we need help!  They go hand in hand, we sometimes even need help just so we can remain persistent as Moses did!  

Once and a while, when we are in need of assistance we can be blessed with finding an intercessor that matches our needs so incredibly well it doesn’t take an extreme amount of persistence at all.  This was the case when it came to praying for my daughter Faith and her diagnosis of scoliosis. The initial prognosis was to get her fitted with a Boston Brace to stop the curvature from getting worse and then when she stops growing she would have surgery.  I foolishly looked up what scoliosis surgery entails, don't do that! The photos of the surgery are not for the faint of heart. My wife Allison and I began to pray.

I won’t bore you with all the details of the long process but after two different braces, serious discomfort and tough painful days, a bit of anxiety and shedding some tears it struck me that we needed divine help as well.  I looked up who the patron saint of back problems is. I immediately found St. Gemma Galgani and a novena to St. Gemma asking for her intercession. A novena is simply persistently praying special prayers (that's a tongue twister!) for nine consecutive days.  Allison and I began to pray this prior to our next appointment. We also began to discover how perfect St. Gemma was for Faith’s cause. At a young age, St. Gemma had spinal tuberculosis that caused her to not only need an iron back brace but also caused her to become deaf as the disease progressed.  This was clearly a good Saint to ask for intercession on Faith’s behalf!

We finished the novena a few days prior to the visit to Boston Children’s in Waltham.  We went in for a brace shop analysis, physical therapy, and an x-ray. At the end of the appointment the doctor came in amazed at the result of the x-ray, her scoliosis not only stopped progressing but her curvature had been reduced!  This wasn’t supposed to happen but it did! If her curvature remains this reduced when she finally stops growing she won’t even need surgery!

Of course, our persistence doesn’t always happen this quickly, there are other things we have been praying about for many years now and yet we continue to pray for a resolution.  Allison and I have begun praying the St Jude novena for this other cause because he is the patron saint of lost causes. We still remain persistent in praying for help! Remember St. Monica prayed for St. Augustine 17 years before his conversion and look at what a remarkable saint he became after his conversion!

There are many people and things that help us to remain strong and persevere in our faith in addition to the saints.  We should all be using scripture as our spiritual gymnasium as well, and visiting this gym often, really believing in what Saint Paul said in his letter to Timothy about the Word of God:

Remain faithful to what you have learned and believed, because you know from whom you learned it, and that from infancy you have known the sacred Scriptures, which are capable of giving you wisdom for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.

Why does God want us to hear and know these things?  Because life isn’t always a stroll through a forest path on a crisp Fall day.  Sometimes we will have to walk over mountains we encounter or trudge through the swamps of life and when we go through these tough times, we, like Moses, need our friends to help hold up our arms.  We need to have learned to be persistent in the bad, to help us remain focused on Jesus through the bad as well as the good. Our goal is heaven and we can’t let anything take our focus away from that prize.

Like St. Catherine of Siena said:

Nothing great is ever achieved without much enduring.

On August 7, 2011 a snippet from the Gospel was:

Matthew 14 : 29-31

He said, “Come.”
Peter got out of the boat and began to walk on the water toward Jesus.
But when he saw how strong the wind was he became frightened;
and, beginning to sink, he cried out, “Lord, save me!”
Immediately Jesus stretched out his hand and caught Peter,
and said to him, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?”

This gospel has reminded me how God had called my family to adoption and how during that entire adventure we needed to fix our eyes on Jesus and not look away.  Looking away would cause fear and doubt, things never given to us by God.


During that entire trip God graced me with the strength to stay focused on him.  Things just didn't bother me too much.  The plane that needed to be towed back in Wuhan before we embarked to Guangzhou due to some issue it had and then we flew it in it moments later didn't bother me.  Faith's Visa having the wrong date on it and getting the corrected one at the last minute wasn't too bad, I knew we would deal with it.  Having to sweat it out in the heat of Guangzhou wasn't to worrisome.  Having Faith glue herself to me and avoid Allison wasn't that bad.  These are things that, without God being my focus, would have sent me into a tailspin.


I need a reminder of that now.  My faith (no, not my daughter Faith, my religious faith) needs a recharge, it has been slipping.  God/Jesus hasn't been my focus of late.  I've kind of been taking them for granted.  I need to get back into focus, avoid the evil that bombards me daily and turn to the good that is Jesus Christ.  In prayer, in my thoughts, in my actions, in my words.


I'm hoping that this blog will help me to do that, to focus more on my Faith as I write about it and analyze why I am Catholic and what it means to me.