Happy Easter!

I’m a little late in sharing this prayer request, but I wanted to take a moment and ask you all to please join us in praying, once again, for some friends of ours and their newest blessing who was recently diagnosed with Trisomy 13.

You may remember praying and/or donating funds for the Snodgrass family last summer when they lost their precious little Julianna in a tragic accident.

I’ve attached the prayer request and novena below. Thank you and may God bless you all!

Dearest Friends and Family,

As some of you may have heard, Renee and Gabe Snodgrass have been blessed with another pregnancy. Recently they have been informed that this child, Patrick Gabriel, has trisomy 13, a rare chromosomal disorder where the child has an extra chromosome #13. Individuals with this condition have physical and mental disabilities and usually only live for a few days or weeks, if at all. About 5-10% of these children live past the age of one.

We are reaching out to you to ask if you would please join us in a novena to pray for Patrick and the Snodgrass family. We feel called to ask for Blessed Margaret of Castello’s intercession. Blessed Margaret of Castello was born in 1287 to wealthy parents in a small town in Italy. Her parents were so excited to welcome this new life into the world, but when they found out she was hunch-backed, lame, and blind they imprisoned and abandoned her. She totally embraced her disabilities and suffering and trusted the Lord gave them to her for a reason. For her, she saw suffering as her pathway to heaven. Hence, she is often prayed to for healing for the discouraged, sick, unwanted, and abandoned as well as for discerning the will of God.

Her immense faith led to her beatification in 1609. More information about her can be found on the following website: Blessed Margaret of Costello.

We are going to start the attached 9-day novena on EASTER SUNDAY, APRIL 5, 2015
(what a great day to ask for a miracle!) which will conclude on Blessed Margaret’s feast day, April 13th.

Hundreds of healings have been attributed to the intercession of Blessed Margaret of Castello. In order for Blessed Margaret to become canonized as a saint, she needs one more approved miracle. “An approved miracle has to be truly wondrous, incapable of a natural explanation, solely and verifiably entrusted to the saint’s intercession, and accurately documented with all the appropriate medical records and multiple attestations.” Supporting evidence for her canonization thus far are:

• Girl is cured at Blessed Margaret’s funeral
• Her body is incorrupt
• She is declared blessed in 1609
• She needs one more miracle to be declared a saint

If the Lord wills it, we know, without a doubt, that He can heal Patrick. Let us come together and humbly submit our wills to the Lord to allow Him to be glorified.

1st Day
O Blessed Margaret of Castello, in embracing your life just as it was, you gave us an example of resignation to the will of God. In so accepting God’s will, you knew that you would grow in virtue, glorify God, save your own soul and help the souls of your neighbors. Obtain for me the grace to recognize the will of God in all that may happen to me in my life and so resign myself to it. Obtain for me also the special favor which I now ask through your intercession with God.

Let us pray (prayers in bold at the end of this post)

2nd Day
O Blessed Margaret of Castello, in reflecting so deeply upon the sufferings and death of our Crucified Lord, you learned courage and gained the grace to bear your own afflictions. Obtain for me the grace and courage that I so urgently need so as to be able to bear my infirmities and endure my afflictions in union with our suffering Savior. Obtain for me also the special favor which I now ask through your intercession with God.

Let us pray (prayers in bold at the end of this post)

3rd Day
O Blessed Margaret of Castello, your love for Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament was intense and enduring. It was here in intimacy with the Divine Presence that you found the spiritual strength to accept sufferings, to be cheerful, patient, and kindly towards others. Obtain for me the grace that I may draw from this same source, as from an inexhaustible font, the strength whereby I may be kind and understanding of everyone despite whatever pain or discomfort may come my way. Obtain for me also the special favor which I now ask through your intercession with God.

Let us pray (prayers in bold at the end of this post)

4th Day
O Blessed Margaret of Castello, you unceasingly turned to God in prayer with confidence and trust in His fatherly love. It was only through continual prayer that you were enabled to accept your misfortunes, to be serene, patient and at peace. Obtain for me the grace to persevere in my prayer, confident that God will give me the help to carry whatever cross comes into my life. Obtain for me also the special favor which I now ask through your intercession with God.

Let us pray (prayers in bold at the end of this post)

5th Day
O Blessed Margaret of Castello, in imitation of the Child Jesus, who was subject to Mary and Joseph, you obeyed your father and mother, overlooking their unnatural harshness. Obtain for me that same attitude of obedience toward all those who have legitimate authority over me, most especially toward the Holy Roman Catholic Church. Obtain for me also the special favor which I now ask through your intercession with God.

Let us pray (prayers in bold at the end of this post)

6th Day
Oh Blessed Margaret of Castello, your miseries taught you better than any teacher the weakness and frailty of human nature. Obtain for me the grace to recognize my human limitations and to acknowledge my utter dependence upon God. Acquire for me that abandonment which leaves me completely at the mercy of God to do with me whatsoever He wills. Obtain for me also the special favor which I now ask through your intercession with God.

Let us pray (prayers in bold at the end of this post)

7th Day
O Blessed Margaret of Castello, you could have so easily became discouraged and bitter; but, instead, you fixed your eyes on the suffering Christ and there you learned from Him the redemptive value of suffering: how to offer your pains and aches, in reparation for sin and for the salvation of souls. Obtain for me the grace to learn how to endure my sufferings with patience. Obtain for me also the special favor which I now ask through your intercession with God.

Let us pray (prayers in bold at the end of this post)

8th Day
O Blessed Margaret of Castello, how it must have hurt when your parents abandoned you! Yet you learned from this that all earthly love and affection, even for those who are closest, must be sanctified. And so, despite everything, you continued to love your parents, but now you loved them in God. Obtain for me the grace that I might see all my human loves and affections in their proper perspective…in God and for God. Obtain for me also the special favor which I now ask through your intercession with God.

Let us pray (prayers in bold at the end of this post)

9th Day
O Blessed Margaret of Castello, through your suffering and misfortune, you became sensitive to the sufferings of others. Your heart reached out to everyone in trouble: the sick, the hungry, the dying, prisoners. Obtain for me the grace to recognize Jesus in everyone with whom I come into contact, especially in the poor, the wretched, the unwanted! Obtain for me also the special favor which I now ask through your intercession with God.

Let us pray (prayers in bold at the end of this post)

Prayers for Everyday

O God, by whose will the blessed virgin, Margaret, was blind from birth, that the eyes of her mind, being inwardly enlightened, she might think without ceasing on You alone; be the light of our eyes, that we may be able to flee the shadows of this world, and reach the home of never ending light. We ask this through Christ, Our Lord. Amen.

Jesus, Mary, Joseph, glorify your servant blessed Margaret, by granting the favor we so ardently desire. This we ask in humble submission to God’s will, for His honor and glory and the salvation of souls.

Say one Our Father, Hail Mary and Glory be to the Father.

O my God, I thank you for having given Blessed Margaret of Castello to the world as an example of the degree of holiness that can be attained by anyone who truly loves you, regardless of physical abnormalities. In today’s perverted culture, Margaret would have, most likely, never been born; death through abortion being preferable to life, especially life in an ugly, distorted, twisted body. But your ways are not the world’s ways…and so it was your will that Margaret would be born into the world with just such a malformed body. It is your way that uses our weakness to give testimony to your power. Margaret was born blind, so as to see you more clearly; a cripple, so as to lean on you completely; dwarfed in physical posture, so as to become a giant in the spiritual order; hunched-backed, so as to more perfectly resemble the twisted, crucified body of your Son. Margaret’s whole life was an enactment of the words expressed by Paul: So I shall be happy to make my weaknesses my special boast so that the power of Christ may stay over me and that is why I am content with my weaknesses, and with insults, hardships, persecutions and the agonies I go through for Christ’s sake. For it is when I am weak that I am strong. (2 Cor. 12:10).

I beseech you, O God, to grant, through the intercession of Blessed Margaret of Castello, that all the handicapped…and who among us is not?…all the rejected, all the unwanted of this world may make their weaknesses their own special boast so that your power may stay over them now and forever. Amen. Blessed Margaret of Castello, pray for us!

3 Our Fathers and 3 Hail Marys

Update August 8, 2015: “All praise and glory be to God for the delivery of Patrick Gabriel Snodgrass today at 5:51 AM. He is 7lb. 5oz. 18.5 in. Please keep him and the whole family in your prayers.”