St Aloysius Gonzaga, teach us purity of heart.

So many feelings and emotions come flowing over us at this time... looking back two years and the shock that came to us in the form of our healthy 20 year old son coming to the realization that a foreign and deadly cancer had taken root in the center of his brain!  

Today is the feast day of a 23 year old saint - St Aloysius Gonzaga, who gave up his princely state in life to become a religious and serve the poor.  He was serving the sick during a plague and died as a result of contracting the disease.  John is now 22 and he has regained his new normal with the cancer gone from his brain, yet changed by the many procedures he endured as well as the new faith-filled perspective he has gained through his Cross and healing through this humbling and life-changing Tree of Life.. the Cross called Cancer/Healing!

This crucifix in the chapel where I shed many tears and was in a constant state of prayer for my precious son... was the vision of St Peregrine where Christ reached down from the crucifix and cured him from cancer!  So out of this world amazing for me, and that rosary was always in my pocket reminding me of Our Lady standing with me at the foot of the Cross and giving me all the support I needed to put it in that outreached hand and give it to HIM  to control and HEAL!  Jesus, we trust in you!  

Today's Gospel is from Matt 7 and is about entering through "the narrow gate..."How narrow the way and constricted the road that leads to life."  Mt 7: 14  Those that we call "Saint" like Aloyisius certainly chose to live a life that most would run very fast in the other direction to avoid!  We look at another example of Blessed Teresa of Calcutta or Blessed John Paul II and the difficult work they did in our modern day world!  One working with the poorest of the poor and one grappling with our huge and confusing and difficult issues of the Roman Catholic Church.  The way that he is shown weighted down in prayer for the burden he was given as Pope... he took it all to heart and very seriously in helping each one of the billions of Catholics in the world to find the "narrow path." 

How we rejoiced in the way that John's cancer brought our family together - even Susan came home from France to be at her brother's side and to fill her arms with her precious little nephews and neices! 

So much love and prayer support... we found peace in leaving it all in the Lord's hands - "Remember mom, this is the storm and Jesus is there to calm the sea - He is in control!"  Yes!   We need to always remember that and to go forward down the "narrow path" that it laid out for us.  In a way that is a blessing that we do not have a lot of options misleading us as it would be on a wide road that leads to "destruction."  

 

Talk about the pure of heart... just look in the eyes of a little one!  

We are off to Nancy's American Indian Alternative school.... I am excited to see this place where Nancy has poured out her heart and soul for the last 3 years, and now that time is needed by her precious little Augustine!   Jesus, thank you for this island of family/faith/follow the narrow path... give us the patience and trust to put it all in your hands as we go forward in your love, peace and joy... Bless-bless, Barb the humble and fervent

"What St Bernard says of the apparition of the angel sent to the shepherds at the nativity of Christ... is to the point here:  'How many of the powerful and of the wise men of the world were resting in their soft beds at that hour, and none of them was esteemed worthy to see this new light, to know the great joy and to hear the angels singing!'  He thence draws this beautiful conclusion:  'If God designed to show such love to those shepherds, who were poor out of necessity on account of the pleasure this virtue of detachment gives him, how much greater love will that same God not show to those who are poor in spirit and are such by their own free will!  For this is the way, which can save your souls, and there is no other way besides it.  He who goes by another way, falls rather, because humility alone exalts, it is also it alone that leads to life.'"   St Aloysius Gonzaga (1591)