All the Way to Heaven is Heaven!

St. Catherine of Siena is the one who said, "All the way to Heaven is Heaven," and Blessed Fra Angelico painted the picture of her words. As to who took the picture of his photo, well, you know life is good and God is crazy generous when you realize the best way to put a clear image on your blog is to use the photo you took yourself when you were in France last Christmas. WOW! Thank You Jesus!!

But now we must ask the question of the day: Why is it Heaven all the way to Heaven? 

That's a bit like asking, "How do I love Thee? Let me count the ways . . ." (a question originally asked by Elizabeth Barrett as she was falling in love with Robert Browning, or perhaps it was asked by Elizabeth Barrett Browning as she thanked the good Lord that he scooped her up quite literally and married her because God is bigger than anything).

1. I love Thee (and Heaven is paved with Heaven along the way) because You came to us in the Incarnation, stayed with us in the Blessed Sacrament, and want to live in the closest intimacy with us until the day we see You without any veils! (for more details, check out this book: Something New with St. Therese, Her Eucharistic Miracle)

2. I love Thee because You gave us St. Therese to teach us her Little Way to Heaven which consists of sleeping in Your arms while You lift us there. (Phew. I couldn't do all those stairs, but surrendering myself like a child in Jesus' arms, while sometimes a challenge, takes my breath away in a much more pleasant fashion!)

3. I love Thee because You have given us so many cool saints who catch our hands and drag us to You on the days we've forgotten to climb into Your arms! 

Like St. Joseph of Cupertino, whose feast day was yesterday. He was such a cool guy! Not the sharpest knife in the drawer, not the brightest bulb in the pack, and yet, it was thanks to him that many of us got through school in one piece (and with some peace). 

Here's what our patroness St. Therese says about him. Her sister Celine (Sister Genevieve of the Holy Face) was complaining as Therese was dying, "God will not be able to take me immediately after your death because I won't be good enough." 

Therese replied:

"It makes no difference; you remember St. Joseph Cupertino, his intelligence was mediocre, and he was uninstructed, knowing perfectly only this verse of the Gospel: 'Beatus venter qui te.' [Blessed is the womb that bore Thee.' Luke 11:27] Questioned precisely on this subject, he answered so well that all were in admiration, and he was received with great honors for the priesthood, along with his three companions, without any further examination. For they judged after hearing his sublime answers that his companions knew as perfectly as he did. 

"Thus I will answer for you, and God will give you gratis all He will have already given me."
(Her Last Conversations, July 12, 1897)

I'm pretty excited to get there (to Heaven) and have Therese answer for me, though knowing me I'll probably interrupt her! But I'm guessing my fate might be much like Celine's. Therese promised her and the others to come back and get them quickly. (Well, maybe she didn't promise Pauline/Mother Agnes, knowing she'd have several decades of work ahead of her, all of it regarding Therese.) But God's timing - which I admit is perfect - is so different from ours. You know that old saw about a single day and a thousand years . . . and it turns out that Therese didn't answer for Celine (when Celine met their True Love and ours) for another 52 years, no kidding!

Let's see, 52 years from now I'll be 102. I am thinking lately of joining the YLI, a wonderful Catholic organization that stands for Young Ladies' Institute. Believe it or not (and I am totally serious, though also laughing!), once when my husband and I looked over their literature, we found that most of these young ladies lived well into their 100s. We were saying goodbye (through the pages of their national member magazine) to women who were 104, 109, and so on! We have a wonderful group of these women (nowhere near that old, as far as looks can show) in our parish, and they have invited me to accompany them on an annual visit to the seminary for lunch with the seminarians. I am so thrilled! And clearly this means my chances for many decades left in exile are increasing by the minute (both mine and God's).

If you've been praying for me in our triple novena with our longer prayers, or (please feel free in your prayers!) by simply blurting out occasionally, "Marcel, get a miracle for Suzie!" (or if you are praying as we like to do, as Therese and Marcel and Jesus have taught us, by a sigh of love or a glance toward Heaven or a glance at Jesus here on earth in the Blessed Sacrament), thank you!!!

Your prayers are really working. I am either getting more cancer, or staying the same, or it's disappearing!  All of these are great options because none of them rule out a miraculous cure, and as you may have guessed, we're all about helping Marcel here. You might be thinking he ought to help himself, but we are of a different mind.

In a word, we are little. Pathetic is another word for it, but that has such a derogatory ring that we prefer little. And for little ones, there is only Jesus to save us. So, we are counting on Jesus to give Marcel a miracle whenever He damn well pleases (okay, that seems funny to me, but feel free to read "dang" if that offended you) - and Jesus our sweet Savior is welcome to use me as the miracle if He would like to . . . but no rush! I'm meeting so many great people and still looking forward to some form of treatment that will require other people to bring dinner to me and my family. This is a great gig!

Meanwhile the first visit with an oncologist on Tuesday was excellent. It taught us some things we are not looking for and prepped us for our second opinion with City of Hope. Then the PET scan (sorry to shout PET but that's what they do) was cancelled, but that's good too because I got to have a banana nut muffin with a friend yesterday instead of fasting from carbs, and I am writing this blog post instead of getting ready to drive too far for a procedure that might not be necessary. 

Yes, there is a reason I have been called Pollysuzanna, and I'm sticking to it! Glad, glad, glad, and grateful, grateful, grateful. Not to mention smiling! How could I not be when I have so many people praying for me? I am experiencing what others have before me: as our wonderful Fr. Chung stage whispered to me (complete with Korean accent) in church the other day, and had to practically shout when I couldn't understand: "Prayer works!"

How could it not? God is so good, so mighty and so merciful. We obtain from Him as much as we hope for, and I'm hoping a whole lot. Those saints who take our hands and drag us, even when we're kicking and screaming, even when we're distracted by all the shiny things in the dust, even when we are trying to yank free to get a gelato, they are absolutely adamant about this - God loves us and wants us to ask for everything so we can help Him to give us everything. As Therese said to her friend and novice Marie of the Trinity, we insult God by not expecting great things, whereas we bring Him tremendous joy by asking for the moon! (Okay that's a loose translation, but it's exactly what she meant!)

For those who would like a reprise of our novena prayers in the longer form, here they are, and please remember I'm including all your intentions too!

Blessed Mother of those whose names you can read in my heart, watch over them with every care. Make their way easy and their labors fruitful. Dry their tears if they weep; sanctify their joys; raise their courage if they weaken; restore their hope if they lose heart, their health if they be ill, truth if they err, and repentance if they fall. And through the intercession of your littlest son, Servant of God Marcel Van, may Suzie be miraculously healed from her cancer, and may all our other needed and desired miracles be granted. Amen!

*  *  *

O Saint Padre Pio, holy bearer of the Wounds of Christ, accept us this day as your spiritual sons and daughters and keep us always on the Little Way by your intercession. And do thou, O our Spiritual Father, stay there at the Gates of Heaven until all of your spiritual children have entered through, even and including us. Through Christ our Lord, Amen.

​Dear Padre Pio, I recall your promise to the Lord, “Lord, I will stand at the gates of heaven until I see all my spiritual children have entered.” Encouraged by your gracious promise, I ask you to accept me as a spiritual child and to intercede for my prayer requests, including getting Marcel Van to intercede to heal Suzie's cancer completely and miraculously. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever, world without end, Amen.

Draw me, we will run!