Of things ethereal
Today I would like to offer you a personal story. It happened a long time ago, about 32 years to be exact. Jeanine was pregnant with our 2nd child and we were enjoying our first born Stephanie. We were in the parish of Timboon which had St. Jude as it’s patron. St. Jude is the Patron saint of hopeless cases, or more politely ‘things almost despaired of’.
Stephanie was diagnosed with a rare, very nasty form of childhood cancer and at that point and even for some time after her death, despair engulfed us.
And while there were many, many tears and engulfing anguish, here we are after all these years thinking of Stephanie fondly, asking her prayers and looking forward to that day when we see her and rejoice with her once again. In all that time Mother Mary was and is a powerful person praying for us; for she too knows what it is to outlive a child. Her only child. In all that time St. Jude patron of things despaired of, of hopeless cases, was also praying for us. For we are never completely without hope. It certainly feels like it and we can’t grasp hope, measure it out, take some for breakfast. Hope does not work like that. Hope and faith and prayer are those ethereal realities that we can only glimpse in the rearview mirror of time.
Surer than you read these words friend, St. Jude prays for us, Mother Mary prays for us and Stephanie prays for us. And we join with them when we come to the altar, joining our prayers with them in the Alleluia song of the resurrection.