Very recently, my dear grandmother passed away. She was mother of 6, who all got married, grandmother of 26, so far 5 married and one priest religious, and 8 great grandchildren. After more than 63 years of a strong and radiating marriage, she left for heaven at the age of 89 years old and left my grandfather, who had cared for her for many years.
My mother, her daughter, told me several times how incredible it was that she never complained about any of her suffering, and how she was never unfaithful. She lived very profoundly and concretely from and for prayer and the Sacraments. Her greatest joy in life was living in Christ, and passing on Christ to those around her.
And she was very human, a little vain, and in the many family games, often “creative” with the rules out of a competitive attitude. But also very human in the more positive sense, of listening, caring, reconciling, serving. And mostly, what makes us most human, is what elevates us in Christ. Praying without ceasing… Receiving God’s mercy in Confession… Being taken up in the divine life through the frequent Communion.
Our dear grandmother’s mother prayed much that one of her sons would become a priest. All got married, and her prayers passed on to the next generation… In the end, a great grandson (myself) and a grandson (my mother’s cousin, one year after me) became priests. And who knows who is still to come!
It is at the moment of death that one’s sacrifice of love becomes definitive. It is so recently that our whole family has realized even deeper how much she loved God, how much she loved all of us, and so many others.
And to many people I told without scruples: her prayers have a real part in my discovery of my priestly vocation and also in my perseverance in the vocation! She told me every time she saw me, that they prayed for me every day in their daily Rosary. My mother repeated to me that they prayed for me every day.
What a gift to the Church, to the world, is a praying mother, grandmother, great grandmother, a loving and believing woman!
Please, dear mothers, never cease your prayers, never!
Pray for the repose of my grandmother Annemieke. But maybe, after her testimony and so many more things that I could recount, we can start asking for her intercession as well! Several people have already instinctively started asking her intercession and some special graces have already been given.
Pray, pray, in and through the Holy Sacraments, and our dear Mother Church, and our dear Religious Family will be blessed with abundant vocations, holy vocations!
God bless you all!
In Christ and Mary,
Father Johannes van Voorst IVE