Journey of Our Love

The love letters of St. Gianna Beretta Molla and her husband, Pietro, are very engaging in their offering of mini geographic profiles of their environment--Ponte Nuovo and Courmayeur--as well the workings of a genuinely healthy and sincere Catholic-Christian oriented marriage. Just a brief insight on the type of woman and wife that Gianna hungered to be is cited by her own example in the Book of Porverbs 31:10-31--"I often meditate on the text [assoicated with] St. Anne: 'A strong woman, who will find her? The heart of a husband can trust in her. She will do only good things for him and never bring evil upon him throughout all of his life.' Pietro, I want to be that strong woman for you..." page 30. It is a simple yet stark example of what should be striven towards, a pinnacle for husbands and wives and those soon to be married; at the top of that pyramid for the Mollas was not materialism, self-aggrandizement or an arrogant brandishing of success--family, career or otherwise. Rather, at the peak was God, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. By their own deep-rooted faith of living out joys, sorrows, fears and hopes, they worked very hard towards creating and realizing a family trinity, not always an easy thing to achieve and maintain but certainly something to labor towards. What Saint Gianna offered her husband was always quickly reciprocated, especially illustrated in a letter sent while he was in the United States on a business trip: "Before I go to sleep I will tell Jesus, our Heavenly Mother, and our guardian angels: 'Bless Gianna, and help me to always know how to make her happy. Bless the little one we are expecting with so much love and eagerness. Bless and protect Pierluigi and Mariolina (the children), protect them from every misfortune and sickness..." page 94. The Mollas had their crosses to carry, too: loneliness, self-doubt, etcetera, but Christ Jesus was the staple for all their actions, up to the pro-life martyrdom of Saint Gianna herself. What makes these intimate and beautiful letters such a pleasure to read is not any degree of Catholic-Christian mysticism, as say in the cases of the other saints. But it is in the truthfulness of their humanity, especially similar to war love letters. These short letters, lucidly written, boldly bring out to what is so common in the day-to-day human experience: paying bills, caring for the sick, family reunions, child delevopment, through the Grace of God trying to be the best man or woman that one can be. The most profound truth that these letters convey, irrelevant of one's economic position in life, is that the Holy Trinity lovingly stoops down to us and that surely, in the ordinary, the phenomenal lies.