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Life of St. Gianna
Dear Friend,
Today, the 28th of
April, we celebrate the feast day of St. Gianna Beretta Molla - a
devoted wife, mother and physician - and one of our patron saints.
Today is also the feast day of the greatest of Marian apostles, St.
Louis De Montfort, and other great saints such as St. Peter Chanel,
martyr and patron of Oceania.
 A saint is a
person who practiced virtue to a heroic degree. They are heroes of
virtue! That is why the Holy Catholic Church canonizes saints and sets
them as models for all of us. In a very special way, the saints are
our sure guides along the path that leads to Heaven.
One of the
hallmarks of the saints is that they show through their lives, their
words and their actions, an aspect of the spirit of Our Lord Jesus
Christ that is diametrically opposed to the spirit of the devil, the
flesh and the world.
In our society and culture which have
become so totally secularized, dulling our ears to Christ’s call to
holiness and leading us to betray the gift of His life within us, the
friendship, example and intercession of the saints is more important
to us than ever.
The saints have known in their lives the struggle with the world
and its allurements. They have all faced the choice between the
comforts of the world and the consolations of the Cross. They have
known the temptations to betray Christ’s life in them in order to win
favor with the anti-Christian forces of the culture. Saints show us
how to remain close to Christ; and in our trials and temptations, they
come to our assistance with their prayers.
In the case of St. Gianna Beretta Molla, she lived in our modern
world. What is the prevalent spirit of our modern world? And how did
St. Gianna live and act according to the spirit of Jesus Christ in
opposition to the spirit of the world?
Click here to watch the life of St. Gianna Beretta
Molla
In contrast to the spirit of the world, St. Gianna put God’s
will FIRST! “Whatever God wants!” was the fundamental principle that
guided her journey on this earth.
Another aspect of the spirit
of the world, the devil and the flesh is the abhorrence of the Cross
of Our Lord Jesus Christ and the rejection of the value of
suffering.
St. Gianna’s soul was filled with a great love of
the Cross and a profound understanding of the value and necessity of
suffering. As she put it “Love and sacrifice are closely linked, like
the sun and the light. We cannot love without suffering and we cannot
suffer without loving.”
Unlike the spirit of the world that
rejects the Cross and sees it as an evil, St. Gianna defined her
entire life through the prism of the Cross of Our Lord Jesus Christ:
“Let us love the Cross and let us remember that we are not alone in
carrying it. God is helping us. And in God who is comforting us, as
St. Paul says, we can do anything.”
Please take a moment to learn more about the beautiful
life of a modern day saint of Divine Love
May St. Gianna intercede for you and for your loved ones before the
throne of God. And may she obtain for you and yours the graces of a
greater love of God, a lively union with His will, a profound love of
the Cross of Our Lord Jesus Christ and an ardent devotion to the
Blessed Virgin Mary.
Sincerely yours in Christ,
Thomas J. McKenna
Founder and President
http://www.catholicaction.org/
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