Grace in the Cross.

When we're baptized we become a part of the body of Jesus Christ-- we share in his life, in the mystery of his suffering and death, and because of his resurrection we share in the eternal life of the Blessed Trinity-- the dynamic love of God which will last forever.

Christianity means that we can love with God's own love.  It means that we can become a part of God's own life.  And it means that our suffering has meaning-- that when we suffer, because Christ suffered, our suffering can be transformative in the lives of other people.

How cool is that?

---

We were pretty young when we got married.  And we both had a lot of growing up to do.  So as the years passed and we found ourselves unable to conceive and bear children, we really suffered.  We felt  alone and unhappy and very often we turned our unhappiness in the wrong direction.  We had some very hard years.

But eventually, we realized that our infertility was a gift.  It was a cross, and a heavy one.  And because we carried that cross, we could offer it with Jesus Christ's cross for the salvation of the world.  Our cross made us missionaries, we decided-- suffering, sadly, and offering that suffering to Jesus.  We hoped that our suffering could become a kind of a prayer, and make us one with our Lord.  We hoped that some good might come out of it.

When you see a mother with a bunch of kids, and she's working hard for them, and money is tight and everyone's tired, the cross is apparent.  But our cross of infertility wasn't like that.  Most of the time, it was hidden.  Unless someone thought to ask, we looked like a lot of other people-- young, unencumbered, enjoying some modicum of success, and enjoying a little bit of disposable income.  Our sadness-- our cross-- was hidden.  We decided that maybe God had called us to hidden suffering-- that we could offer our cross quietly, unnoticed, like cloistered Carmelites, whose life of penance is hidden from the world.

We took a lot of solace in the kind of Carmelite vocation God had given us.  In fact, the knowledge that our cross had meaning gave us joy.  We weren't any happier, maybe, but we could laugh in the joy that God had given us something very special we could offer to the world.

--

Over the past few days, especially through the wisdom of our friend Faith, we've realized that Pia Therese is called to a kind of Carmelite vocation too.  Tucked up in the sixth floor of Children's Hospital, our little girl is carrying a big cross.  Leukemia is awful.  Chemo is awful.  Pia is suffering.

But Pia is a Christian.  She is baptized in the water of faith.  She is a member of the Body of Christ.  She can love like God loves.  And her suffering has meaning.

We want to help her be sanctified in her suffering.  We want to help her love as God loves.  And so we want your intentions.  We want Pia to be able to offer her suffering for you-- to pray for your needs, your desires.  To offer her cross in union with the cross of Jesus Christ.

We got a little notebook.  We want to record your intentions, and keep them in Pia's room, above her crib.  When chemo is terrible, or she gets a high fever, or she can't sleep more than an hour at a time, we want her to be able, inasmuch as she can understand, to offer those things for you.  Because Christ did so much more than that.  Christ offered so much more than that.  And it is a grace--for us, and for Pia-- to be able share in the cross of our God.

Please email us your intentions.  You can send them to kateflynn17@gmail.com or jamesdanielflynn@gmail.com.  And please feel free to pass this on.  There's a lot of grace in sharing in Christ's cross-- and we want to share that grace with you.

God bless you.