ADORATION OF THE HOLY SACRAMENT Prayer through the

ADORATION OF THE HOLY SACRAMENT
Prayer through the intercession of St. Gianna Beretta Molla
The Holy Spirit Hermitage
Czatachowa, January 2012
Invocation of the Holy Spirit
Jesus, our Lord, we thank You for gathering us together at Your Throne
we thank You for Your desire to pour out Your Love and Mercy upon us.
Jesus, our Lord, send out Your Holy Spirit to revive our faith, hope and love.
Help us find Your Light in our families and, after the example of St. Gianna Beretta Molla, let us
live in communion with You.
Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of Your faithful, and kindle in them the fire of Your love.
Through the diversity of many languages You have brought the nations together in the unity of the
faith. We call out COME
- Come, true light.
- Come, life eternal.
- Come, hidden mystery.
- Come, rejoicing without end.
- Come, light that knows no evening.
- Come, unfailing expectation of the saved.
- Come, All-Powerful, for unceasingly you create, refashion and change all things by your will
alone.
- Come, for my wretched soul has ever longed and ever longs for You.
- Come, Alone to the alone, for as You see I am alone.
- Come, for you are yourself the desire that is within me, and You have caused me to long after
You.
- Come, my breath and my life.
- Come, my joy, my glory, my endless delight.
We stand before You, the Only God in The Trinity, the Living God hidden in The Host, we stand
before You aware of our sinfulness but conscious that we have gathered together with special
1
purpose in Your name. Come to us, remain with us and enlighten our hearts. Teach us what we
must do. Show us the way we need to follow. Do what we must accomplish.
We have gathered in Your Name today and we call for St. Gianna Beretta Molla's intercession as
we desire to adore Jesus with her. May Jesus Christ be glorified, the Son of the Living God, who
truly rose from the dead and whose joy shall not be taken away from us. Jesus, our Lord, we want to
adore You by worshipping and glorifying. May St. Gianna Beretta Molla be present with us in this
church, may she intercede with You, our Lord, for all the present here and those we have in our
hearts.
St. Mary, the Mother of our Lord, the patroness of families, pray for us,
Blessed John Paul II, pray for us
Biographical note:
Saint Gianna Beretta Molla was born on 4th October, 1922 near Milan. She was one of many
children. When she was 16 she was thinking about missionary work in tropical countries. She wrote
down in her diary then: “Jesus, I promise You to submit myself to all that You permit to befall me,
make me only know Your will.” In her notes she also made a pledge not to go to the cinema if
a film was immoral, she promised to avoid anything which may hurt her soul, she assured that she
would pray “Hail Mary” for her good death, that she would pray on her knees and that she would
ask Jesus to save her soul from damnation.
Gianna started her medical studies during War World II and she graduated in 1949, receiving
a degree in medicine and surgery. Three years later she also got a degree as a paediatric specialist.
Gianna regarded her profession as a service for God and people, helping the poorest ones without
being paid. At the age of 33 she married to Peter Molla, ten years her senior, an engineer, mechanic
and a factory director. Gianna brought joy and peace into their marriage. She also had
a spontaneous desire to give birth to many children. As for her spiritual life, Gianna always
followed her confessor's instructions.
After a year of marriage their first son, Pierluigi was born. Then, the following year the next baby –
Maria Zita – was born into the world. Two years later Gianna gave birth to Laura. In September
1961 when she was two months pregnant, Gianna learnt that she was seriously ill and that she
needed to undergo an operation to save her life. However, the operation would threaten her unborn
child's life. The mother made an explicit decision – save the baby at all costs. A few days before
the delivery she repeated to her husband and doctors who took care of her: “I want you to choose
the baby.” In the morning, on 21st April, 1962, Gianna gave birth to Giana Emanuella, who was
later hugged with great tenderness by her mother. Unfortunately, due to postoperative complications
2
Gianna died with a prayer on her lips. Gianna's husband, Peter, said later: “I found her a wife and a
mother, who can be compared to nobody.”
On 24th April, 1994, Gianna Beretta Molla was beatified in St. Peter's Square in Rome. Her
canonization took place on 16th May, 2004, when a portrait of her was unveiled. Gianna Beretta
Molla proved to be a Christian mother who put her child's life over her own.
“Every vocation is a vocation to motherhood or fatherhood – earthy, spiritual or moral. God has
placed in us and instinct for life. A priest is a father, nuns are mothers, mothers of souls. Woe to
those young people who do not accept the vocation of motherhood. Each of us must prepare
ourselves for our own vocation and prepare ourselves to be givers of life. This is to be done by
generous devotion required by intellectual formation; we must know what a marriage is, we must
know other ways of life, we must mould and explore our own character.”
These are St. Gianna's words and she herself is present here. She wants to support us in our prayers.
We have come here as spouses who are faithful to Christ and who are the future of the Church and
the whole world. We are aware of our life vocation and we fully understand its greatness. We do not
intend to ignore the demands Jesus submits to us. He is our Life, He is our Strength, and He is our
Salvation.
St. Gianna – the patroness of women, marriages, families, the patroness of those who make mature
decisions concerning their life vocation – pray for us.
Our present decisions will influence our mature years. We are aware of that fact and for that reason
we remain in prayer alongside our saint patroness.
When she was 15, St. Gianna made a promise: “I make a solemn resolution to do everything for
Jesus. I offer everything to Jesus – all my actions, all my distress. To serve the Lord, I decide not to
go to the cinema without checking first if a film is worth seeing, if it is decent, not morally
corrupting. I would rather die than commit a mortal sin. I want to avoid a mortal sin as much as
a venomous snake, I repeat once more: I would prefer a thousand times more to die rather than
offend God. I beg our Lord to help me not to be condemned to hell that is to help me avoid
everything which may be harmful to my soul.”
“Jesus, I promise You to submit myself to all that You permit to befall me, make me only know
Your will.”
Choosing our own way of life is a fundamental issue for us, young at heart. Broadening our
knowledge, growing up, maturing are all vital parts of our lives. No one wants to make a mistake,
which may be regretted in the future. It is not easy, though, to make a choice and be certain of
3
the rightness of our decisions. But there are signs that Christ gives us to understand God's will
better. St. Gianna wrote in this way about her life choice: "Everything has a specific end; everything
obeys a law. Everything develops toward a predestined end. God has shown each one of us the
way, the vocation, and the life of grace that lies beyond physical life. There comes a day when we
notice other creatures around us, and when we notice this beyond ourselves, a new life develops
within us. There is a solemn and a tragic moment of transition from childhood into youth. Then we
face the problem of our future. However, we are not to solve it at the age of 15, but it is good to
direct our life towards the way God shows us. Our earthly and eternal happiness depends on
following our vocation very carefully.”
“What is a vocation? It is a gift from God, so it comes from God. If it is a gift from God, our
concern must be to know God's will. We must enter that path if God wants, when God wants, how
God wants. Never force the door.”
“To be called to family life, does not mean getting engaged at the age of 14. It is only the alarm
signal. Now is the time to begin to prepare yourself for family life. You cannot follow this path if
you do not know how to love. To love means to want to perfect yourself and your beloved one by
overcoming your selfishness and giving yourself completely. Love needs to be entire, full,
complete, regulated by God's Law and it needs to last forever in heaven.”
“Chastity needs to control the appropriate and allowed use of sensual pleasure. Our body is sacred.
Our body incorporates a soul and as a whole it serves as an instrument of good. Chastity stems from
other virtues which make you stay chaste. What shall you do to stay chaste? You need to hedge
your body with sacrifice. Chastity becomes beauty. Chastity becomes freedom.”
“All the Lord's ways are beautiful because their end is one and the same: to save our own soul and
to succeed in leading many other souls to heaven, to give glory to God.”
St. Gianna – the patroness of today's adoration of Lord Jesus. We adore You, the Eucharistic Jesus,
hidden in the Sacred Host, we pray for both marital maturity and holiness for us. And what was
your holiness like, St. Gianna? Venerable Pope John Paul II, the Great, told us about your holiness
during the Beatification Mass: “A woman who is determined to be consistent with her principles
often feels deeply alone, alone in her love which she cannot betray, and to which she must remain
faithful. Her guiding principle is Christ, who has revealed the love which the Father bestows on us.
A woman who believes in Christ finds a powerful support precisely in this love that bears
everything. It is the love that enables her to believe that all she does for a child conceived, born,
adolescent or adult, she does at the same time for a child of God. As Saint John states: ‘We are
4
called children of God, and that is what we are’ (1 Jn 3:1).We are children of God. When this reality
is fully revealed, we shall be like God, for we shall see him as he is (1 Jn 3:2).”
Bearing testimony to God's Love is an everlasting call. It was also crucial in St. Gianna's time. It is
vital nowadays, as well. Venerable Pope John Paul II, the Great presented St. Gianna as a witness
of God's Love. He talked about her at Canonization Mass in such a way: “Gianna Beretta Molla was
a simple, but more than ever, significant messenger of divine love. In a letter to her future husband
a few days before their marriage, she wrote: 'Love is the most beautiful sentiment the Lord has put
into the soul of men and women'. Following the example of Christ, who 'having loved his own...
loved them to the end' (Jn 13: 1), this holy mother of a family remained heroically faithful to the
commitment she made on the day of her marriage. The extreme sacrifice she sealed with her life
testifies that only those who have the courage to give themselves totally to God and to others are
able to fulfill themselves.
Through the example of Gianna Beretta Molla, may our age rediscover the pure, chaste and fruitful
beauty of conjugal love, lived as a response to the divine call!” And may it happen thanks to the
example of St. Gianna's life.
“Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.' The earthly experiences of this saint spur
us to persevere on our own journey, confiding in the help of God and the maternal protection
of Mary.”
St. Gianna is as an exemplar of holiness for us. Holiness is not limited to few. It is a call everybody
needs to answer. And how does it apply to us? What shall we do to become saints?
Venerable Pope John Paul II, the Great, suggested in his homily which was delivered during his
pilgrimage to the homeland: “Brothers and Sisters, do not be afraid to aspire to holiness! Do not be
afraid to be saints! Make of this century now drawing to a close and of the new millennium an era
of saintly men and women! Holiness means to preserve harmony between the faith we profess and
the life we lead. Today’s world needs the holiness of Christians who in the ordinary conditions of
family and professional life take on their proper daily duties, and who, in their desire to do the will
of the Creator and to serve others each day, respond to his eternal love. This is true of the various
areas of life such as political, economic, social and legislative activity. Saints do not fade away.
Saints thirst for holiness.”
Along with St. Gianna we adore You, our Lord. In this prayer of adoration we commend ourselves
to You – God, listen to our prayers, bestow Your gifts in abundance upon us and let us enjoy them
5
and the intercession of St. Gianna.
God, our Father, You have granted to Your church the gift of Gianna Beretta Molla. In her youth
she lovingly sought You and drew other young people to You, involving them, through apostolic
testimony and Catholic Action, in the care of the sick and aged, to help and comfort them.
Glory be ...
Jesus, Redeemer of mankind, You called Saint Gianna to exercise the medical profession as a
mission for the comfort of bodies and souls. She saw you in the suffering fellow men and in the
little ones, deprived of all support.
We thank You for having revealed Yourself to this servant as “one who serves” and who soothes
the sufferings of men. Treasuring her example may we become generous Christians at the service of
our brothers and sisters, especially those with whom You deign to share Your Cross.
Glory be...
God, Sanctifying Spirit, who love the Church as Your Bride, You poured into the heart of Saint
Gianna a share of Your Love so that she could radiate it in her family, and thus cooperate with You
in the wonderful plan of creation, and give life to new children who could know and love You.
We thank You for this model wife and, through her encouraging witness, we beg You to grant to
our families the serene and Christian presence of mothers committed to transform their homes into
cenacles of faith and love, rich with generous activity and sanctifying service.
Glory be...
O God, Creator and lover of mankind, You were close to Saint Gianna when, affected by illness,
she was in the painful dilemma of choosing between her own life and the life of the child whom she
was carrying in herself, a gift long-awaited. Trusting You alone, and aware of Your Commandment
to respect human life, Gianna found the courage to do her duty as a mother and to say “yes” to the
new life of her baby, generously sacrificing her own. Through the intercession of Mary, Mother of
Jesus, and after the example of Gianna, inspire all mothers to welcome with love the sparkle of new
life. Help us all to have great respect for human life. Grant us the grace we seek and the joy to find
an inspiration in Saint Gianna who, as a model spouse and mother, after the example of Christ, gave
up her life for the life of others.
Hail Mary...
6
Glory be...
Our God, thank you for this time of prayer, the time of vigil during which we were worshipping
Your Sacred Name through the contemplation of St. Gianna's life and holiness.
It is truly right and just, it is our duty and our salvation, always and everywhere to give You thanks,
Lord, the Father of mankind. To increase the number of Your children, who bear the image of
Christ, in Your wisdom You involved the servants of Yours in Your act of creation, as those who
are called to honorable mission of parenthood and from the very beginning You look with fatherly
and caring love at the life passed on by them. You command to surround it by tender affection and
order to make due efforts to respect its sacred dignity. Through this noble care St. Gianna, whom
we recollect today, radiated in Your Church. With true joy at her soul, she accepted the gifs granted
by the divine grace and she allowed them to bear fruit through her eager enthusiasm. She toiled
exemplarily practicing her profession as she took care of the needy with great diligence. In a
beautiful way she lived out the mystery of marital love; supported by the Holy Spirit she remained
heroically faithful to Your Law and gave a proof of extraordinary maternal love when she sacrificed
her life without hesitation to save the fruit of her womb, which she did with absolute and
indomitable faith.
Our Father, make us remain faithful to the grace, which sanctifies marital love and family affections
and enable us to welcome children thankfully, as they bear the image of Christ, and surround them
with loving care from the very first days of their lives. Through Christ, our Lord. Amen.
THE FINAL PRAYER
We thank You, Jesus, for this model wife and mother presented by St. Gianna Beretta Molla.
Through her encouraging testimony, we beg You to grant to our families the serene and Christian
presence of mothers committed to transform their homes into cenacles of faith and love, rich with
generous activity and sanctifying service. O God, Creator and lover of mankind, You were close to
Saint Gianna when, affected by illness, she was in the painful dilemma of choosing between her
own life and the life of the child whom she was carrying in herself, a gift long-awaited. Trusting
You alone, and aware of Your Commandment to respect human life, Gianna found the courage to
do her duty as a mother and to say “YES” to the new life of her baby, generously sacrificing her
own. Through the intercession of Mary, Mother of Jesus, and after the example of Gianna, inspire
all mothers to welcome with love the sparkle of new life. Help us all to have great respect for
human life.Grant us the grace we seek and the joy to find an inspiration in Saint Gianna who, as a
7
model spouse and mother, after the example of Christ, gave up her life for the life of others.
Hail Mary...
In a miraculous way St. Gianna's death illustrates Christ's words: “Greater love has no one than this:
to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” (John 15:13) St. Gianna lived her life in accordance with
the Gospel therefore her entire existence is a song of praise which honours true values of life.
8