Marcel's brother St. Gerard joins us in our Triple Novena of Miracles!

"O my God, would that I could convert​ as many sinners as the sands of the sea and of the earth, as the leaves of the trees and of the fields, as the atoms of air, stars of the sky, rays of the sun and the moon, and all the creatures of the earth."  --St. Gerard Majella

Marcel Van is not only the little brother of St. Therese and our brother too, but he is Brother Marcel Van of the Redemptorists, and he had a big brother who was his examplar in the Order, namely St. Gerard Majella whose feast we celebrate today!

There are mentions of St. Gerard in Marcel's Conversations with Jesus, Mary, and St. Therese, and I might have quoted some of those passages here for you, but Marcel has hidden them from me, and I think I know why. He wants me to quote for you instead the beginning of Fr. Hamish Swanston's chapter "Gerard Majella: The Joyful Saint" from the book "Saint Gerard Majella: His Writings and Spirituality." Please don't let all these references send you running or clicking to obtain this good book that I bought in the middle of the night - Marcel and Gerard both want me to tell you that if you MUST buy anything, do buy a copy of Conversations (for yourself if you don't have one, for a friend if you do!) and Marcel promises he won't hide the passages on St. Gerard from you!  Meanwhile, I can quote you the best parts of this other St. Gerard book, the very best of which conveniently came right at the beginning so I'm not hard pressed to find it!

*    *    *  From Fr. Hamish:

Gerard, a schoolmaster reported, had been "always cheerful in class, as an apprentice he had chosen a wrong moment to laugh at the foreman of the tailor's shop, later as the domestic servant of an irascible bishop, he had managed to "keep a good smile on him." He maintained this reputation for merriment through his years in the Congregation: questioned about a rumor that he had been taking a dip in the sea, "Gerard replied with a laugh . . . "; hearing the music of a village flute-player, "he began to leap and dance"; sitting with the archbishop's secretary, "he laughed a lot at his jokes . . . "; on someone's beginning to play an air from a modern opera on the recreation room harpsichord, Gerard seized an astonished Father "and danced round the room with him." He was even caught grinning towards the Lord in the Tabernacle as he passed through the chapel. Recording Gerard's salute to St. Alphonsus as they passed in the corrideor, "My Father, you have the face of an angel," Gaspare Caione, Gerard's first biographer, had to add quickly, "And he wasn't being funny."

Gerard wanted others to be jollier. "Stay cheerful," he commands Maria de Gesu (a Carmelite nun) when she is re-elected prioress. Letting Maria Celeste dello Spirito Santo know that he has at last located a copy of the songbook she had been asking for all year, he tells her to "Sing in your cell," that way, he declares, she'll become a great saint. His immediate response to Caione's anxious inquiry about his health is to say, "You really must cheer up, my dear Father!"

He set about jollying laymen too. Bartolomeo Melchione had been a bright spark about town when a bachelor, but after a year of marriage, "he had become dull and heavy." Gerard cooked him a meal and then spent the evening singing songs with him. Melchione kept up a chorus all the way home to his wife. His friends thought it must be a miracle.

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I'm charmed and delighted by Brother Gerard's playfulness, his love of God expressing itself in laughter that needed sharing, and his determination to bring smiles to those around him. Thank You, Jesus, for St. Gerard! Now I know that Marcel, inimitable though he is, at least had a model to himself imitate!

One of my (many) favorite passages in Conversations comes from December 28, 1945, (197) when Marcel tells Jesus what he will do when he gets to Heaven:

"If I am in the ranks of the Holy Innocents I will have all the time to play with You, to be always at Your side and also to tease You freely. Then on Thursdays and Sundays we will have time to go together to see the heavenly countryside, pay a visit to the Blessed Virgin, etc. I will then have everything I could wish for like You little Jesus. It will be very pleasant."

So you see, I was right that Marcel's Saturdays are free for the little Jesus' secretaries' meetings! But what's even more wonderful is Jesus' reply to Marcel:

"Marcel, what is it that you just said that gives me an insane desire to laugh?"

Aha! This is just like Jesus' relationship with St. Gerard, for I also unearthed this gem from my middle-of-the night had-to-have ebook (this is from a chapter by Domenico Capone, God bless him!):

The Lord, who is alive and present in the tabernacle, established a special dialogue with Gerard. Many people testified at the beatification trial that the Lord had called him "little madman, little madman." The canon of the cathedral of Muro stated in the trial: "I know by tradition that brother Gerard, when he came into our cathedral and passed beneath the pulpit in front of the sanctuary, heard a voice saying to him: 'You are a madman!' And he answered: 'You're even more insane, because you deliberately imprisoned Yourself for me!'"

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Aha! So Brother Gerard, who lived from 1726 to 1755, suspected Jesus' sanity (or insanity) a full two centuries before his little brother, and ours, dear Brother Marcel, heard it from Jesus' own very sweet lips!

I'm so reassured to know that there was a Saint (other than Philip Neri, okay and Don Bosco, yes, and Padre Pio too) who loved to laugh and tease, even to the point of teasing Jesus! This makes so much sense to me, because as Jesus never tires of teaching Marcel, He is the spouse of our soul, and you know how it is - spouses can't forever be mooning over each other, that would get far too exhausting! So they must watch silly shows, and laugh together, and lighten each other's loads!

I know there is much more to say about St. Gerard, and in fact much more was said in the book from which I'm quoting, but somehow I don't think Marcel and Therese and Jesus are too concerned about my quoting any more to you today . . . Marcel says he is vindicated - that he had a fine and well-canonized precedent for teasing Jesus as often as the Spirit moved him! Yes, Marcel, on this feast of your holy brother Gerard, we salute you along with him, grateful you have kept his sallies and jests alive into 20th century!

Ah, but if my memory is correct (it's often faulty, but I think I've got this right), we're well into the 21st century now! It's up to us, then, to keep the laughter alive! How will we do it? Here's a beginning, our prayer and our mottoes:

Be not afraid!
Jesus I trust in You!

As to the miracles flowing from our Triple Novena - we thank God and the Saints for those which have already occurred, and continue to pester Heaven for those we have yet to obtain!

Just to inspire us to shoot for the stars in our miracle-requests, here's one from the life of St. Gerard. I think it goes a long way in showing us the kind of big miracles God wants us to expect from Him! He wants us to be great saints too, and friends with the great Saints. Let's take their cue! But let me show you what I mean:

When he was a little boy, Gerard very much wanted to receive Holy Communion, but his mama told him first he had to grow and get big. One feast day, convinced that by now he was big, Gerard followed the adults up to the communion rail, in hopes he could receive Jesus at long last. Sadly, the priest, thinking he was still too young, told Gerard to go away. And our dear brother, in tears, had to leave without receiving his beloved Jesus.

He cried all day, but Jesus had a wonderful way of drying his tears. That night when Gerard went to sleep, Saint Michael the Archangel woke him, took a white host from a ciborium, placed it on his tongue, and disappeared.

The next morning Gerard told his mother and sisters, "Yesterday Father didn't want to give Jesus to me, but then at night Saint Michael the Archangel gave Him to me!" Years later Gerard confirmed this fact not only to his spiritual director but to a jeweler named Alessandro del Piccolo. Yes, so good to tell a jeweler, one used to the most brilliant jewels and the most besotted lovers coming in to buy them! Here is a jewel little Gerard knew how to esteem and earn - if only by his sweet and persistent desire!

St. Gerard, help us to love Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament! And come to make us laugh, especially those among us who are burdened and weary. Teach us, as Marcel does, to approach Jesus without fear, and even with a huge grin! Who else knows us so well and loves us anyhow?! Loves us more than we can imagine, more than our hearts' desire in their most fervent imaginings?!

Little Jesus, we love You too! Please fill us with more and more of Your Love, and make us Saints along with our brothers Gerard and Marcel! And since You tell us to ask and we will receive, here's one more request: Please give us much laughter along the Little Way to sanctity - and we pray we will make You laugh insanely too!

Draw me, we will run!!!