It is necessary for us to undergo many hardships to enter the kingdom of God

Story of St Gianna Mola

In less than 40 years, Gianna Beretta Molla became a pediatric physician, a wife, a mother and a saint

She was born in Magenta near Milano, the tenth of Alberto and Maria Beretta’s 13 children. An active member of the St. Vincent de Paul Society and a leader in the Catholic Action movement, Gianna also enjoyed skiing and mountain climbing. Shortly before their 1955 marriage, Gianna wrote to Pietro: “Love is the most beautiful sentiment that the Lord has put into the soul of men and women.” In the next four years the Mollas had three children: Pierluigi, Mariolina, and Laura. Two pregnancies following ended in miscarriage.

Early in her final pregnancy, doctors discovered that Gianna had both a child and a tumor in her uterus. She allowed the surgeons to remove the tumor but not to perform the complete hysterectomy that they recommended, which would have killed the child. Seven months later in April 1962, Gianna Emanuela Molla was born at the hospital in Monza, but post-operative complications resulted in an infection for her mother. The following week Gianna Molla died at home, and was buried in the cemetery of Mesero.

Gianna Emanuela went on to become a physician herself. Gianna Beretta Molla was beatified in 1994 and canonized 10 years later. Her liturgical feast is celebrated on April 28.

“It is necessary for us to undergo many hardships to enter the kingdom of God” (acts 14:23)

The difference between Christianity & Buddhism

Mother Teresa - I want to love you, Jesus like never before

And truly you are a unique manifestation of the glory of God!

And why go through it all?

For an eternal weight of glory!2 Cor 4:17

Suffering and glory go together

“When Judas had left them, Jesus said, ''Now is the son of man glorified, and God is glorified in him. If God is glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself, and God will glorify him at once”

My children…(John 21:5 (RSVCE): Children, have you any fish)

as I have loved you, so you should also love one another.

This is the proof of the Christian

And it’s not merely being “in love,” but even willing the person’s good when you don’t like them!

And why? Because the CS Lewis said “there are far better things which lie ahead then anything that we leave behind”

I saw the holy city, a new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God… The new heaven and new earth… The former heaven and the former earth passed away….Behold, God‘s dwelling is with the human race. He will do all with them and they will be his people and God himself will always be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes and there she’ll be no more death or mourning, wailing or pain, for the old order has passed away.

1051 Every man receives his eternal recompense in his immortal soul from the moment of his death in a particular judgment by Christ, the judge of the living and the dead.

1052 “We believe that the souls of all who die in Christ’s grace … are the People of God beyond death. On the day of resurrection, death will be definitively conquered, when these souls will be reunited with their bodies” (Paul VI, CPG § 28).

And we need to be reminded of heaven from time to time, especially during this Easter season for some reason it’s much easier and delightful for us to think about the tortures of hell and less common or fun to imagine the things of heaven.

For example, have any of you tried to read Dantes Divine comedy? I read Inferno and started reading Purgatorio and then kinda got bored. That’s no slight on the book, that’s on me.

Same with CS Lewis again, he wrote Screwtape Letters where he imagines the conversation taking place between two demons and how they can win over, damn us. He tried to write one from the perspective of our guardian angels but he couldn’t.

“The more you give, the more I will increase your capacity for giving”

The more you love the more you will grow in love, the more you practice patience the more patience you will have, the more you share your faith and use it, the greater faith you will have. This is the way of God.