Lately there has been much discussion about the ending of life, I would like us to turn our attention amidst our interesting, though at times distressing discourse, to the gift of life.
Blessed Gianna Beretta Molla died at the age of 39 on April 28 1962, one week after giving birth to her daughter, Gianna Emanuela, due to the complications that ensued as a result of placing her baby’s life before her own.
A faithful Catholic, a wife and a mother, she herself worked as a doctor and was well aware of the possible implications when she demanded that her unborn child’s life be spared at all cost, even if it meant losing her own.
One might think that having a husband whom she loved and 3 other young children to think of, that upon discovering that her uterus held within it a cancerous tunour, she would have considered terminating the unborn that had been growing in her womb for two months. But this was not even a possibility to her.
Blessed Gianna instead told the doctor who would operate on her that under no circumstances, was anything that he would do in an attempt to save her life, endanger the life of her unborn child.
In her own words;
“If you have to choose, there should be no doubt; choose–I demand it–choose the life of the baby. Save him”
At a ceremony to commemorate her life, Cardinal Giovanni Colombo, Archbishop of Milan spoke these words;
“We are witnessing an unforgettable example which compels us to silence, meditation, admiration, prayer and a desire to be worthy of these souls the Lord sends us, without doubt, in order to give us a message.
“Here is an example of someone who had the courage to follow Jesus’ words: that there is no greater love than to give one’s life for a loved one. She lived that greater love and imitated more closely the redemptive sacrifice of Our Lord Jesus”
God bless.
Another homeschool mom named her last child after Gianna. She also had a chance to go to Rome after her Gianna was born and they got a direct blessing on Gianna by Pope John Paul II! Wow! How sweet.
What an incredible story. How blessed, to be blessed by Pope John Paul the Great!
Sweet indeed.
God Bless.