Stewardship of prayer
Toni Medaglia
Thank you Father. My name is Toni Medaglia, and
I have been here at St Pius as a parishioner for nearly 10 years. I will be
witnessing to you today about the stewardship of prayer in my own life.
We moved here in 2012 with my husband Tim Fuerst
and our 4 wonderful children: Megan, Nathan, Katelyn, and Ben. We
moved here for my husband’s dream job at the University of Notre Dame, so he
could be a tenured faculty member in the Economics department.
I did not adjust well to the move and spent many
months crying out to God in distress, often praying in anguish about living in
Indiana. I took comfort in the words:
“ The will of God will never lead you
where the grace of God cannot sustain you.”
It was God’s grace that sustained me during that
time of transition and uncertainty .
I have also been a pediatrician for over 30
years and eventually was able to find a job that I love as a doctor at the
Notre Dame Wellness Center.
Like so many of you, I constantly struggle with
balancing my family life, work and my faith.
My prayers were often very short at that
time in my life, usually desperate Hail Mary’s between patients or a few
decades of the rosary on the ride home from work.
As I learned more at St. Pius about the stewardship
of prayer and giving God the first fruits of our time, I became
more active in the different opportunities available here at parish
life. Prayer became a priority in my life.
When I think about the stewardship of
prayer that we are called to, I turn to the true definition of prayer
captured so beautifully by St. Therese of Lisieux:
“
Prayer is a surge of the heart; it is a simple look toward heaven,
it
is a cry of recognition and of love , embracing both trial and joy.”
Like so many of you, life has a way of
blindsiding us with unexpected pain and grief. Early in 2016, my perfectly
healthy wonderful faithful husband, Tim, was diagnosed with a rare form of
stomach cancer, and he died just 10 months later.
Being a widow has been the hardest ,most painful
thing I have ever been called to do. It is my prayer life and
relationship with God that has sustained me. So many people prayed and helped
us at that horrible time, and we were so blessed by their Christian
kindness and outreach. And honestly, so many of them were St Pius
parishioners. I truly felt carried by the hand of God. Since this time, I have
prayed more deeply and often, and even felt called by God to start a Catholic
grief support group here at St Pius, called Seasons of Hope which meets monthly
to help those who are grieving the loss of a loved one.
“ Rejoice always,
Pray without ceasing,
In all circumstances,
give thanks for this is
the will of God for you
in Christ Jesus,’
1 Thess 5 16-18
God is with us every second of every day, and he
wants us to remember that the Lord is near, and we are all only one last breath
away from meeting the face of God.
St Pius offers so many opportunities for us to
grow as a person of faith who places prayer as a priority in our lives.
The stewardship of prayer should become a way of life where our relationship
with God is an investment in our future of eternity with him.
We simply spend more time with the people we
love.
As my husband lay dying in my arms, some of the
very last words I said to him were
I adore you,
Please forgive me
I am so grateful for you,
I need you to pray for me.
We can use these exact same words to start a
conversation with our Lord, who suffered and died to save us for all eternity.
Prayer is simply saying to God every day in our own way;
I adore you,
Please forgive me,
I am so grateful to you,
I need you ……
Now, my Italian grandmother used to say “people
don't remember what you say they remember how you make them feel,”
So today at the end of my witness,
may you feel loved by God,
May you feel inspired by the Holy Spirit
And may you feel motivated to pray.
May Christ lead us all to a life in prayer as we
place our trust in Him. Amen
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