Description The motto of St. Gianna Beretta Molla rings through my prayer in a never-ending petition to follow the Will of God. St. Gianna is an inspiration to all lay Catholics; us who are not in religious life or the priesthood. She lived out sanctity in her home and work, always submitting herself to whatever God wanted in her life. She was both a pediatric physician trained in surgery and medicine and a wife and mother of three children. She suffered through two miscarriages after the birth of her first three children, and during the next joyful pregnancy, a tumor was found in her uterus right next to the baby. The doctors had to operate, but St. Gianna would only let them do the minimal procedure to remove the tumor and nothing more, putting her own life at a high risk. Had the full procedure been done, her life would have been saved, but baby Giana Emanuela would have died as a result. She carried little Gianna to full term, but during delivery she was exposed to an infection. Little Giana was perfectly healthy and safe. But her mother quickly succumbed to the infection and died only a week later. In laying down her own life for the life of her child, St. Gianna shows us a glimpse of the love Our Father in Heaven has for each of us. True love can shine the greatest in the darkest of situations. By choosing whatever God wanted first, St. Gianna shows us how to abandon our own wants and desires and to put others first.
