I was pondering last evening and was reminded of a very wonderful saint that I have gotten to know as the Prolife saint - Gianna Molla... In the short version she lived in our time... born in 1922 and died in 1962 just short of her 40th birthday. She was a working medical doctor, who married late in life and started having a family... being open to life. While pregnant with her 4th child, she discovered that she had a uterine turmor and was told to have an abortion to save herself. She refused to do that and as a result died shortly after the birth of her daughter on April 28th which is now her feast day! There are miracles that have happened as a result of her intercession, and within the lifetime of her husband and children... she was cannonized a saint. I cut this from the http://www.saintgianna.org/main.htm website..." Dr. Molla threw light on the importance of the Christian family, by her life and conscious sacrifice. She threw light on the importance of Christian schools and Catholic Action, in the formation of the human being in Christian values and it gives us guiding principles, to which the Christian subordinates his own life, as Dr. Beretta Molla knowingly did. The heroism of her Christian life will bear fruit."
This example of lay sanctity, lived in the Sacrament of Matrimony, as the Vatican Council II teaches, will encourage many Christians to seek God in holy Matrimony. The exemplary fame of Christian conduct, lived by Gianna Beretta Molla is valid proof.
The roses on the cross is a prolife symbol as it springs forth from the tree of life... the cross the supreme sign of sacrificial love! What could be more prolife than the cross for from those crosses in our lives we are given new life and by His death we have overcome death and come to eternal life with Him!
I read an article in the ST Anthony Messenger last night before I went to bed about a woman, whose son was in the area of the towers going down on 911 and how she wept and worried until she got the call from him... not only that but being raised a strong Baptist... yet hiding and running away from God in her life... she was drawn into the Catholic Church when..."I entered a Catholic church for the first time to observe the National day of Prayer for the victims of 9/11.... Months of mourning passed, and I resisted God's lure. I wanted the pain of the experience to end, but I struggled to make the committment God asked of me. Finally, I succumbed and enrolled in an RCIA program.This step opened the door that led me away from the evil and violence of Sept 11 and closer to the mercy of God." Suzanne Rose
She then had to make the decision of a patron saint - and eventually was drawn to ST Monica... Her main job of sacrificial love was to pray for her children. 
I recently had an interesting discussion with my wise daughter, Maria. I had shared with her some of the things that have come up between John and his parents over the last year, and how I get upset and angry with the "lies of the world." Things that on the surface look like good things but really are taking things into our own hands and are not according to the teachings of the Church! Maria listened to me and then said in a beautiful way; "Mom, maybe you should pray to ST Monica to help you. When you get upset and strongly state things... sometimes that can drive the person you are trying to reason with in that direction all the more! Maybe you should ask ST Monica to help you do it in a more gentle and loving way... maybe simply with tears and prayers!" Wise and true! Prayer is truly the workhorse in our lives! It is so powerful and real and amazing and a day would not be a day without the basis on prayer!
No longer are my children around me as in my nest years... yet I almost feel closer to them as I lift them up in prayer as I say my rosary remembering each with the Our Father, 10 Hail Marys and Glory Be and the Fatima prayer! I ponder what each is facing and visualize them happy and healthy and following our Lord! 
Such a model of sacrificial LOVE! This holy card was given out by Fr Paul Timmerman as he became a priest! It is joining heaven to earth at the sacrifice of the mass! Last evening at mass I was reminded of a year ago, when I returned from France... I found myself sitting in mass shortly after my return and was amazed as each word of the mass and readings and prayers rang like a clear bell in my head and heart and soul! Last night I tried to recapture that joy and truth and clearness of ear... It was a true indication that I had been through a very deeply powerful experience with the entire trip but especially my close encounter with Our Lady at the healing waters of Lourdes! I wanted to raise my hands and did at the Holy , holy and other times like when Father ends the sacrifice with "Through Him, With Him and In Him.. in the unity of the Holy Spirit, all Glory and honor is yours, Almighty Father, for ever and ever.Amen" Wow! I wanted to raise my arms in praise and fall to my knees to worship my God and my King!
The beautiful rose bush outside the side door of Church is a reminder to me of St Therese and her small way of sacrificial love... doing small things with great love, but now also of St Gianna and her giving her life for her small child rather than sacrifice it for hers!
This wonderful picture is in the Winsted Catholic Church where I made my first TEC retreat 10 years ago... It has the supreme symbol of sacrifice - The Lamb - which is the true meaning of what our Lord did for us... He was the spotless lamb that offered himself out of love to take away the sins of the world... the sins of you and I! We only need to lay our burdens at his feet and walk the path he has laid before us free to follow and serve! Pat and I just served as spiritual directors together at the last retreat and it was in my special Holy Trinity in Winsted! It was a sacrifice to get little sleep and sweat on the second floor of the high school, but the deep prayer shared and the change of heart that we all shared was so worth it!
Our Lady of Guadalupe is a symbol of life also... the black sash that she is wearing indicates that she is pregnant... and pregnant with Christ! What a gift to have an actual picture of our Lady pregnant with our Lord stamped on the robe of Juan Diego! I love it and will always remember that Susan shared walking into the church in France to get her cross... indicating that she was joining the community with the 10 other girls from all over the world... she being the first American... "I looked up and saw that they had put up the icon of Our Lady of Guadalupe - the Patron Saint of the Americas- and I knew she was there just for me!" wrote Susan to us in a letter describing her experience! She had also told us that she was called to join the Community of the Lamb in front of the altar to Our Lady of Guadalupe in Kansas City! Powerful or what! 
Once again not to have the day to day closeness with our Susan/Hallel is a loss, but last night at mass I have many times when I am joined to her as she reminded me when she left..."We are together in the Eucharist, Mom!" There are definite times that I am "with" her... they always cross themselves after the Penetential rite... when Father says..."May almighty God have mercy on us and forgive us our sins, and bring us to life everlasting. Amen" ... My girls cross themselves at this point... like in the confessional after absolution... and I always feel that I am with them then! 
Then there is another time when we are saying the Our Father during mass...the community holds their hands up with the palms forward like in praise... I do that in communion with Hallel! 
There is no writing about sacrificial love without mentioning our two sets of parents! They gave and gave and did not count the cost! As our younger siblings can say; "Thanks mom for having 10 or 11 kids or saying yes to adopting 4 when you already had a house full!"
By sacrificing for the family...we not only have life, but now know that value of family and being open to the family that we are to blessed with by saying..."yes" as modeled by our Blessed Mother in all humility and sevant of her Lord!
Lord and Savior along with your wonderful Mother, Mary most Holy, and St Rose of Lima today on her feast day, and ST Monica... a model to mother's praying for the truth for their children... we are forever on this journey and need to do a better job with "sacrificial love." Help us to embrace the cross and to give up our pride and wrong ideas about how this life should go. You are the Way, the Truth, and the Life! Allow us to let all else go and give it all to you. Lay all our burdons at your feet and rise to go forth filled with your Love and wisdom! Jesus we trust in you! Amen and Halleluia!
Bless-bless, Barb
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