When I was a little girl, my church used to have a display of prayer cards in the narthex.  To me that was the best part of going to mass.  I would run up to check if any new ones were added, for I collected them like trading cards.  Perhaps that is why to this day I cannot dispose of one.  I keep them safely tucked away in a box.  I’m not sure for why, for I never open it to take one out, only to add another one to the collection. 

So tonight, I thought I’d play a little Russian Roulette with my prayer cards, shuffle my hand through the box without looking and let the Holy Spirit guide my topic of prayer for the evening.  I’m not going to lie, it felt a little anti-climactic when I select St. Gerard. 

St. Gerard of Majella is who most women pray to when they are pregnant, and as I am not pregnant and don’t expect to be anytime soon, the selection feels a little irrelevant to me.  Then again, maybe there is a pregnant woman reading this post who needs some assistance from St. Gerard, so here we go. 

St. Gerard was born with a weak constitution and died of tuberculosis at age 29.  Shocker.  Determined to become a lay brother he was denied admission to a religious order three times.  Pretty standard saint stuff.   

Here it gets interesting.  He exhibited extraordinary supernatural gifts – bilocation, prophesy, ecstasies, visions, and infused knowledge.  Ok, that’s pretty impressive.    

Why is he the patron saint of pregnant women?  During his life on several occasions his prayer saved the life of a mother and her newborn child.  Ah, there it is.  That’s why I don’t get the warm and fuzzies from St. Gerard, I feel abandoned by him. 

This is when the self-doubt sets in.  If I had prayed to St. Gerard more during my pregnancies with London and Mary Ella, could he have protected them?  Did I do something wrong?  I remember praying to St. Gerard before London was conceived, but then I admit I forgot about him.  If I hadn’t would things have been any different?

I’ll never understand why some children are saved and not others, but since St. Gerard is known to be one of the holiest saints perhaps drawing his prayer card tonight was a nudge to reexamine relevance. 

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit…

“O good St. Gerard, powerful intercessor before God and Wonder-Worker of our day, I call upon you and seek you aid.  You who on earth did always fulfill God’s design help me to do the Holy Will of God.  Beseech the Master of Life, from Whom all paternity proceeds to render me fruitful in offspring, that I may raise up children to God in this life and heirs to the Kingdom of His glory in the world to come.” 

Amen.