Excuses that hold us back from pursuing the things of God

[Rich]

Excuses that hold us back from pursuing the things of God

Jesus probes the reasons why people make excuses to God's great
invitation to "eat bread" with him at his banquet table. The first
excuse allows the claims of one's personal business or work to take
precedence over God's claim. Do you allow any task or endeavor to
absorb you so much that it keeps you from the thought of God? The
second excuse allows our possessions to come before God. Do you allow
the media and other diversions to crowd out time for God in daily
prayer and worship? The third excuse puts home and family ahead of
God. God never meant for our home and relationships to be used
selfishly. We serve God best when we invite him into our work, our
homes, and our personal lives and when we share our possessions with
others. (Luke 14:15-24)

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April 28th – St. Gianna Beretta Molla

(1922-1962)
On April 24,1994, Pope John Paul II declared “blessed” a present-day
Italian woman physician who accepted death rather than undergo an
operation that would imperil the life of her unborn child. In
beatifying this contemporary pro-life heroine, the Holy Father gave to
the world a saintly intercessor against the international cruelty of
abortion. Gianna Beretta Molla was canonized on May 16, 2004.

Gianna Beretta was born in Magenta, Italy, on October 4, 1922. She was
tenth of the 13 offspring of admirable parents, who gave to their
children a strong sense of prayer and trust in God’s providence.

Gianna, a highly talented young woman, called, as she felt, to the
medical profession, won doctoral degrees in medicine and surgery in
1949 at the University of Pavia. The following year she opened a
clinic at Mesero, near Magenta. Two years later she took advanced
studies in pediatrics at the University of Milan. Thereafter Dr.
Beretta specialized in the care of mothers and babies, and also the
elderly and the poor.

Gianna undertook the medical profession not simply as a means of
support, or even as simply a philanthropy. For her the practice of
medicine was a spiritual “mission”. All during her student years she
had done volunteer service to the needy and aged as a member of the
St. Vincent de Paul Society. As a physician she increased her generous
service as a form of “Catholic Action”: lay volunteerism according to
the mind and needs of the Church. But there was nothing of the
“fanatic” about Dr. Beretta. She was a young woman of vigor and good
cheer, a daring skier and mountain climber.

Marriage in 1955 merely gave Dr. Gianna a chance to expand her
“missionary” efforts. Gianna and Pietro Molla were a joyful couple.
She bore him three children in the next four years. A woman of balance
and common sense, she successfully harmonized her careers of mother,
wife, and medic.However, when she became pregnant again in 1961, the
doctor suddenly learned that a fibroma was developing in her womb. The
baby was now in its second month.

Scientist and pediatrician as she was, Dr. Molla appreciated the
threat that the growing tumor presented to her life if she did not
undergo an operation. But the uterine operation would have meant death
for the unborn baby. It was a classic case that the Church has always
pondered. Moral theology, although forbidding direct abortion, has
taught that while surgeons should try to save both mother and child,
it is permissible to remove a diseased womb to save the mother, even
though the child is thus indirectly deprived of life.

Gianna at once pleaded with the surgeon to save the life of the child.
During the next seven months she forced herself to keep busy with her
various duties, meanwhile praying as never before that God would
preserve the little one. She added a special prayer that the child
itself would suffer no pain from the malignancy.

A few days before the birth was due, Gianna told her doctors, “If you
must decide between me and the child, do not hesitate; choose the
child. I insist on it. Save the baby.” The baby, Gianna Emanuela
Molla, was born in good health on April 21, 1962. But despite every
effort to save Dr. Molla, who bore her unspeakable pain in constant
prayer, she died on April 28. A sad end, but a glorious one: Is not
mother love essentially a vocation of self-giving?

At the beatification ceremony, the Holy Father greeted and blessed at
his throne those whom the heroic pediatrician had left behind in God’s
good hands: her husband Pietro, one of their older children, and
Gianna Emanuela Molla, just turned 22. The pope blessed the young
woman, but Gianna Molla knew she had already been blessed from
conception by the hand of God.
–Father Robert F. McNamara


Saint Quote:
What a weakness it is to love Jesus Christ only when He caresses us,
and to be cold immediately once He afflicts us. This is not true love.
Those who love thus, love themselves too much to love God with all
their heart.
--Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque

Bible Quote:
Many are the afflictions of the just; but out of them all will the
Lord deliver them.
[21] The Lord keepeth all their bones, not one of them shall be broken.
[Psalms 33:20-21]DRV


THE LORD FORGIVES
(Psalm 32)

Happy those whose offence is forgiven,
whose sin is remitted.
O happy those to whom the Lord
imputes no guilt,
in whose spirit is no guile.

I kept it secret and my frame was wasted.
I groaned all day long,
for night and day your hand was heavy upon me.
Indeed my strength was dried up
as by the summer's heat.

But now I have acknowledged my sins;
my guilt I did not hide, I said:
"I will confess my offence to the Lord."
And you, Lord, have forgiven
the guilt of my sin.

So let faithful men and women pray to you
in the time of need.
The floods of water may reach high
but they shall stand secure.
You are my hiding place, O Lord;
you save me from distress.

Rejoice, rejoice in the lord,
exult, you just!
O come, ring out your joy.
all you upright of heart.