God’s Blessings bestowed upon us!
On July 11 & 12 at Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton Church, we held a two-day conference in honor of Saint Peregrine as our intercessor for cancer patients. The two-day event allowed me to share with others, who were participating in Cancer, thoughts on how to embrace it as the cross of Christ and as a gift of purification and Holiness. I compared the five steps of the cross to the five stages of grief, contrasting the difference between an earthly experience and a spiritual one. That first night we also shared in the litany of Saint Peregrine followed by the blessing, of all those suffering from cancer and their support persons, with the relic of Saint Peregrine.
I felt so blessed to have been able to share in the lives of so many others who are carrying this cross of suffering. I only hope that I inspired them to persevere and become “holy” through their suffering as Saint Peregrine taught us.
The second evening we celebrated Sacred Mass and Father Roniel and I anointed all those who were present both the sick and those who aid the sick. It is important to me that we realize the importance of intercessory prayer and the overwhelming power of the Sacrament of the Sick and the Holy Eucharist. We can never forget the ordinary way that God reaches us through the Sacraments and how He empowers us to be witness to His Son, our Crucified Lord, in times of suffering as witness to our Faith on the way, our love to share in His suffering and our Hope to share in the glory of the cross!