Happy Easter, readers!  He is risen; He is risen indeed.  Alleluia!  

It’s also the first Sunday of April, and you know what that means.  Time for another challenge! 

This month, we will be doing another novena.  This one is to a recent and very popular married Saint, St. Gianna Beretta Molla.  St. Gianna is not featured in my book, because she has a similar story to another holy role-model we have already met here on the blog, Bl. Maria Quattrocchi (revisit the post about her and her husband, Luigi, here!).  Gianna, an Italian pediatrician born in 1922, also chose life for her fourth baby though doctors advised her to abort to save her own life.  She is also a wonderful example of fruitful and life-giving love. 

St. Gianna did die a week after her baby’s birth.  She made a heroic choice on behalf of her child, and she is now a patron saint of mothers, physicians and unborn children.  If you and your spouse are parents, or hoping to be parents one day, you could pray this novena for your children or future children.  Otherwise, you could entrust any other intention to St. Gianna’s intercession, especially related to fruitful love, health, and heroic virtue.  I do plan to write a longer biographical post on St. Gianna later this year, so stay tuned for that if you want to learn more about this incredible woman.

St. Gianna’s feast day is the day of her earthly death and birth into eternal life, April 28.  This nine-day novena would ideally start on the 19th to lead up to her feast day, but you and your spouse could start whenever works best for you!  Let me know in the comments if you are praying with us!

St. Gianna Beretta Molla novena: https://www.praymorenovenas.com/st-gianna-beretta-molla-novena

Last month, our Lenten challenge was to pray the Stations of the Cross (check out the post here).  Here is how that went for my family.  I printed the adorable paper stations from Catholic Icing.  My two toddlers and I painted them together, which was quite an ordeal!  My new four year old was very interested in them, so when her little brothers were napping, we would line them up and talk about the story of Jesus carrying His cross.  Even the second time I checked in, she remembered tons of details, like St. Veronica’s cloth bearing Jesus’ image, or that Jesus fell three times!  Finally, we spread them throughout the house and followed the story, saying a very short prayer at each one: “Jesus, we remember how You (what happened at that station). Thank You for dying for us.  We love you.”  It was simple and powerful!  Chris and I also prayed along to the video stations for adults after all our kids were in bed one evening.  We definitely found that the Stations of the Cross helped deepen our prayer life during Lent and Holy Week, and we would love to hear if they helped you, too, in the comments!

Reference:

“St. Gianna Beretta Molla.” Catholic Online. Last modified , 2021. https://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=6985.