Monday, April 28, 2008


Happy feast of St. Gianna Molla! This address by her son at the 1999 dedication of a Newman Center to St. Gianna, describes many things that Catholic women should strive for (emphasis mine):

First, the witness of my mother was a hymn to life, to a love for life, and the beautiful things of life; it was a hymn to a faith lived with joy and nourished by the Eucharist and by prayer. Even in her medical profession, she knew how to see Jesus in her neighbour whom she loved and served with such great generosity.

Second, my mother knew how to live her earthly, daily existence with simplicity, balance, and constant service, all in a beautiful harmony, first as a young student and professional person, as a woman, then as wife and mother. Her generous commitment to and involvement in the Catholic Action and to the St. Vincent de Paul Society, along with her joie de vivre, was crowned with her love of piano, painting, tennis, mountain climbing, skiing, the symphony, theatre, and traveling.

Third, even in her earliest youth, my mother fully accepted the gift of faith and an explicitly Christian education received from her excellent parents who, in their vigilant wisdom, knew how to accompany her in her human and Christian growth. Whether it was in her youth, in primary school, in her secondary education, or in her university courses in medical school, Gianna received from exemplary priests, religious, and from wise professors, a pedagogical formation that was clearly in harmony with Cardinal John Henry Newman's idea of a university in which theology, the arts, and sciences would be taught in dialogue with one another.

[Source]

1 comment:

Margaret Mary said...

I love this part "...the gift of faith and an explicitly Christian education received from her excellent parents who, in their vigilant wisdom, knew how to accompany her in her human and Christian growth."