St. Gerard - in my Intercessory Army

Last fall, I wrote a chapter in the book Cloud of Witnesses about one of my Heavenly friends, St. Gerard Majella. Today is his feast day.

I met him on my infertility journey as the “mother’s saint”. I share in the book how he wove his way into my family’s story. He may be a special patron for mothers and those praying to be mothers, but he is truly a saint for us all.

His story is one of deep faith and piety, marked by supernatural gifts (such as bilocation), and intense suffering as he submitted his entire life to God’s will. I share in the book that as he lay on his deathbed at the young age of 29, hemorrhaging from tuberculosis and in excruciating pain, he had a sign placed on his door. “Here we do the will of God, as God wills it and as long as God wills it.”

Can we say the same in our homes or in the bed of our suffering?

He shares his feast day, October 16th, with St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, who lived a hundred years earlier. She spread devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus - a devotion that was special for St. Gerard, too. “Let us remain always in the Sacred Heart of Jesus,” he wrote to a Mother Superior. “In this Heart is found all sweetness, and there is rest”.

How true that is.

May we always find sweet rest in the loving Sacred Heart of Jesus. ♥️

St. Gerard, pray for us!

Below is an excerpt from my chapter in Cloud of Witnesses that shares my gratitude to this special heavenly intercessor. If you’d like to read my whole chapter on St. Gerard, along with 24 other stories of saintly inspiration and intercession in Cloud of Witnesses, let me know. I have a few more copies available, or you can find it here.

St. Gerard, thank you for showing us how to live in close union with God. May we always, "Love God greatly; be always united to God; do everything for God; love everything for God," as you taught.

Thank you for the wonders you are still working today as you accompany us in this vale of tears.

I ask for your intercession for all the women silently suffering with infertility-that God would grant them the desire of their hearts. I pray for all the birth moms whose sacrifices make the gift of motherhood possible for women like me. I pray for my mom, my mother-in-law and my grandmother-in-law and the tapestry of faith and family that St. Gerard wove through us. And I pray for all the moms of young adults who are being invited to new heights in their surrendered trust.