The John-Henry Westen Show - New 18-Year-Old Saint？ High School Senior with Brain Tumor Inspires THOUSANDS

00:00:00.000 you know she was connected to the vine um and and there was just it was almost as if she became so

00:00:07.760 one with the lord because she truly offered herself as as a sacrifice her her body her

00:00:16.480 pain her suffering she she intentionally offered it to god and he and he was using her to transform

00:00:23.280 lives i am really privileged to be able to tell you this story well not only me of course the father

00:00:34.720 of the one who i'm going to talk about but i'm really privileged because i believe i'm going

00:00:38.320 to tell you the story about a young lady who i think will soon be declared a saint she just died

00:00:46.240 in 2021 and um she was a star athlete an irish dancer she was the number one student in her

00:00:53.840 high school class the president of her junior year she was actually only 18 years old when she died

00:01:03.200 when maria was 16 years old 16 years old and four months she was given nine more months to live

00:01:11.280 and that was january 31st of 2019 and well you watched this girl who as i said was you know top of her 1.00

00:01:26.480 class athlete dancer etc etc lose all of her abilities one by one over the next year and a bit um

00:01:37.760 um the story touched me very deeply because as many of you know my own daughter mary very similar name

00:01:47.680 went through um something very strange as well in the same time frame right around the beginning of

00:01:55.040 covid and when all that was going on um my daughter mary was first paralyzed then started having seizures

00:02:02.960 we had to withdraw her from her school from um what she was doing and basically we had to move

00:02:10.560 close to a hospital so that we could be uh just closer in case things happened my mary um has for the

00:02:20.880 last couple months been seizure free and uh she was back in school this year praise god

00:02:26.240 maria middleton um suffered and but with a heroism that is really indescribable i want to relate

00:02:40.960 something to this is her mom's description her mom susan said as much as i wanted to shut the world out

00:02:48.720 because the pain was so great and close myself in i realized that that was not the right move we needed

00:02:56.080 prayer so brian and i brian being her husband and the father of maria so brian and i sent some

00:03:01.040 messages out before we knew it requests for prayers for maria spread like wildfire around the globe

00:03:09.520 we opened our hearts to the rays of god's grace and his love flooded our lives she said

00:03:16.320 so that was very similar in our case when we released you know my prayer request for my mary prayers

00:03:23.360 just came in from all around the globe and what an amazing consolation it was

00:03:29.520 um but you know in maria middleton's case 0.98

00:03:35.680 it wasn't all bad even though they were praying like crazy for a miracle obviously

00:03:40.880 but really what happened was miraculous this story is so stupendous you know remember at her 16 16

00:03:49.600 four months she was given four nine months to live well after nine months she didn't die in fact it was

00:03:55.760 exactly nine months after her diagnosis on october 31st 2019 that maria along with her dad and mom

00:04:02.880 boarded a plane for uganda where they went to witness um and it was really beautiful but you know

00:04:11.120 they had some scares along the way before her death and i'm gonna let brian her dad tell you a lot of the

00:04:16.800 miraculous things that happened but i wanted to share this one thing that her mom related and that

00:04:22.240 was that on june 3rd 2020 she had already been bedridden uh for more than a month at home she

00:04:28.480 aspirated so she was taken to the emergency room and everybody thought that was it you know her heart

00:04:33.680 rate was off the charts she couldn't clear her lungs anymore and so on and so forth and they had

00:04:39.600 already performed you know uh bronchioscopy and all these procedures um and maria was sedated

00:04:47.680 temporarily intubated and um they thought of course that was it that that night was going to be it

00:04:55.040 and after a few hours she stabilized and susan the mom ran to her side and said maria and she looked at

00:05:01.680 her and said mom were you scared and uh susan replied are you kidding i was petrified weren't you

00:05:10.000 and little maria said calmly no mom god has this

00:05:17.440 and uh that's the kind of thing that is so inspiring now maria surprised her doctors

00:05:26.160 and she lived till a month after her 18th birthday long beyond the nine month cut off for her inoperable

00:05:34.720 brain tumor and she entered eternal life on that day and her parents found a journal only after she

00:05:43.360 died uh they found her journal that she kept privately the first entry in that journal was when maria

00:05:51.040 was only 11 years old and it reads god is merciful the very last entry it was scribbled in the diary

00:06:00.320 because she had lost most of her ability to write because of the disease the last entry was think hope

00:06:08.880 and they now run the foundation thinkhope.org now the journal um is really rich in spiritual writings

00:06:18.880 from maria and it really is a benefit to all mankind so when she is i'm sure one day declared a saint

00:06:27.040 these writings will become hopefully a journal for people where they can reflect on so many things but

00:06:33.840 also especially the value of suffering um i just i'm going to read out a few writings and then we're

00:06:40.400 going to get to brian her dad so on december uh in december of 2016 at age 14 maria wrote remember to

00:06:48.240 pray for the wisdom to understand the mysteries in our lives and the understanding to do god's will

00:06:54.880 on january 8 2017 uh again age 14 two years before her diagnosis she wrote god just wants us to do the

00:07:05.040 best that we as individuals can we don't have to compare ourselves to other great saints because

00:07:11.440 we may get discouraged we can look up to those saints and follow their example but we shouldn't

00:07:16.560 compare just do the best that you can do and god will be happy on january 31st 2019 maria was diagnosed

00:07:25.040 with inoperable an inoperable brain tumor and her journey of hope as her parents call it began

00:07:32.960 the power of prayer became evident to her from the very first day of her new journey and maria said

00:07:38.560 these words shortly after her diagnosis whatever happens will be god's will in february of 2019 at

00:07:47.680 age 16 after the diagnosis again maria wrote life is a prayer every action can be offered as a prayer to

00:07:55.120 god i think the main reason why i don't know how i feel about everything that's going on and the fact

00:08:01.600 that i'm surprisingly calm is because of all the grace and love that is overpowering everything

00:08:07.840 around me and surrounding me i can physically feel the peace and power of everyone's prayers

00:08:15.040 then approximately one month after her diagnosis maria wrote about this in her poem which she called

00:08:22.960 prayer and this is the poem the overwhelming power of prayer revealed in dark and scary times

00:08:32.000 when one is blinded by fear and confusion god's radiant light penetrating throughout revealed in

00:08:39.680 dark and scary times providing hope in shining armor god's radiant light penetrating throughout

00:08:47.440 swaddling his children in comfort and peace providing hope in shining armor as one enters their

00:08:54.880 journey into the depths of the unknown swaddling his children in comfort and peace complete trust and

00:09:02.560 faith given to persevere as one walks their journey into the depths of the unknown when one is blinded by

00:09:10.560 fear and confusion complete trust and faith given to persevere the overwhelming power of prayer

00:09:18.240 fear and in early 2019 maria said this shortly after her diagnosis no matter the circumstances of my life my

00:09:27.760 purpose remains the same that is to know love and serve god faith is an not an emotion emotions rise and

00:09:35.920 fall faith is a commitment i will not despair and on august 27th 2019 this is nearly seven months

00:09:45.600 after her diagnosis maria wrote i've kind of accepted the fact that maybe i'm sick for a greater purpose

00:09:52.480 and that's pretty cool maybe i'm being used as an instrument to help others find god

00:09:58.880 in 2020 maria wrote spend more time in the present moment that's where god is whenever faced with

00:10:06.880 worry turn to the sacred heart of jesus especially when you're worried about not getting better just look

00:10:13.680 at jesus's face and now we're going to go and meet brian middleton maria's dad this is the john henry weston

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00:12:23.600 brian middleton welcome to the program it's good to see you john henry nice to talk to you again

00:12:30.480 let's begin as we always do at the side of the cross in the name of the father and of the son and of the

00:12:37.040 holy ghost amen all right brian thank you for joining us um i've wanted to have you on for a long time

00:12:46.400 to talk about really a miracle which was i know much of a heartache for you but a real miracle

00:12:53.600 tell us if you would um about your daughter maria about your family generally and how this all

00:13:01.200 unfolded well um maria was a gift in our mid-40s uh susan and i had had come together after both

00:13:09.760 experiencing some broken world experiences and had been through a divorce and an annulment and um and

00:13:15.600 ourselves at that point really embraced our faith individually before coming together and turned our

00:13:20.320 life over to god and of course you know when you've experienced the broken world um you're humbled

00:13:27.120 quite a bit um and and when you search for god you're asking um sometimes for signs that you've

00:13:33.600 been forgiven you know it's it's a two-step process it's repentance and amendment uh we felt that we both

00:13:40.480 journeyed to the point we when we when we came together we were committed to helping each other go

00:13:45.920 close grow grow closer to the lord um we thought we were beyond childbearing years um and um and we

00:13:54.320 were wrong god blessed us uh with with maria uh and maria was very special from the beginning um in fact

00:14:02.240 in in the beginning um uh when when she susan went to the doctors when uh we we thought that she was

00:14:10.800 pregnant the doctor said don't tell anybody um because it doesn't look very good um and so we

00:14:17.440 didn't uh and then a week later we went back um and the doctor did an ultrasound and i could tell by

00:14:23.840 looking him right in the eyes that he wasn't going to deliver us good news um just as he was getting

00:14:30.480 ready to turn he looked at this and i saw him mouth this out to himself that wasn't there last time

00:14:37.360 time and it turned out that there was a child that that didn't make it but in place of that was this

00:14:45.760 new child maria that he was never able to explain because there had been ultrasounds done before

00:14:50.880 and there was no sign that there was a twin there so um we we just assumed that he missed it um not

00:14:57.040 knowing who we were about to meet um and um and maria we always would say that we have susan brought

00:15:03.680 two children into the marriage and i brought three we always say that we we blended them but maria made

00:15:08.720 us family um she very quickly became the glue um when i look at my journal from the day that she was

00:15:15.280 born the things i used to describe meeting her were just this grace-filled calm presence and that

00:15:21.840 that's a thing and i guess a phrase that would define maria for the rest of her lives um she would 1.00

00:15:28.160 she was very special um she was born that way uh it was as if god had basically infused

00:15:35.760 some it was like she was born with a phd in philosophy you know theology and psychology um she

00:15:41.680 became the go-to person for her older siblings that the next youngest was i think 15 years older than

00:15:47.600 her um but she very quickly became the the source of of wisdom uh in our in our household it was 1.00

00:15:54.960 difficult for me because i i realized that um that i wasn't the smartest person in the house at that

00:16:00.000 point in time as she she began to grow very quickly in age and wisdom um so maria was you know she was

00:16:07.840 nurtured very much by her mom she attended adoration on tuesdays with her mom she would pray at adoration

00:16:16.720 but um but maria in every other way was was a normal child she just had this grace um later by her 1.00

00:16:23.680 spiritual advisor kathleen mccarthy she be she began to refer to her as as god's little vessel of

00:16:28.720 grace um so as maria grew um she was very normal one of my favorite maria quotes in her journal is

00:16:37.920 you don't have to be weird to be holy um maria was a was a holy person but she she excelled in just about

00:16:44.000 everything um you know and and um whether it be her studies or athleticism um but it it never really

00:16:53.600 defined her um and and as you know as as time went on she just grew into this woman of grace

00:17:02.240 the um other other things that i can tell you her favorite bible quote from the time she was probably in

00:17:08.800 kindergarten on was was uh the bible quote about the vine and the branches um and and actually that

00:17:16.000 really in some ways described the person that she was you know the divine is god and the branches is

00:17:23.280 the manifestation of god in the human experience and and she was grafted to god very early on in her life

00:17:30.480 um and and everything that surrounded her just seemed to be filled with a certain calm and peace and

00:17:38.800 and certain mystical qualities so that's that's who she was as as a child um and how old was she when

00:17:47.600 she started sort of advising her older siblings and even yourselves i can remember when she was two and

00:17:53.440 three years old and and susan was was cleaning up the house and and she was dusting and maria asked her

00:17:59.440 what she was doing and susan said i'm dusting and maria just looked at her pensively looked at what

00:18:04.720 she was doing and it says it seems to me that you're undusting you know you're you're not putting

00:18:09.760 dust on there you're taking dust off um and and she was always an observer there was a time when

00:18:15.760 susan had the flu and and i i took maria out to breakfast and i said hey pal aren't you lucky you

00:18:20.720 have the greatest mom in the world and she looked at me and she said dad do you know all the moms in the 0.98

00:18:26.400 world and i i knew she had me no i didn't her first um the first card first mother's day card

00:18:35.280 that she ever gave to susan it said happy mother's day i think she was five years old it was happy

00:18:40.880 mother's day to the second best mom the the first mom being mary so she had a she had a deep devotion

00:18:48.720 to mary and to jesus and it was almost as if growing up that she they were present in her life

00:18:55.680 she had this this familiarity with them that to me was very unique you know they they weren't uh

00:19:02.320 mystical creatures from far away um they were very much present in her life from the from the very

00:19:07.480 beginning um and and again she she was great with her older siblings because they were now late

00:19:14.240 teenagers early 20s and and one of the favorite maria expressions was she would always when they 1.00

00:19:20.400 were wound up in drama which maria didn't have a high tolerance for drama um she would just tell 0.99

00:19:25.120 them to get over they had to get over themselves that was her big line with her siblings um but from

00:19:29.840 the time they they started you know coming to her when she was eight nine ten years old our our pastor

00:19:37.840 at the time tells stories that he would find himself in conversations with maria that were

00:19:42.560 deeply based in theological thought and then he would look at her and realize he was talking to

00:19:47.280 an eight-year-old girl um and he he talked about the fact that he he felt that in some ways she was

00:19:54.240 his theological peer at that age so she was and again i'm saying this and she was she liked all the

00:20:01.680 things that every other kid liked too though you know she was she was a very she was exceptional in

00:20:06.880 certain ways but normal in in ways too there was there was nothing precocious or pretentious about

00:20:12.880 her i i think you know she was truly humble in the real sense of the word in that she knew that she

00:20:21.120 was gifted but she knew that those gifts came from god and and from an early age she she tried to give 0.95

00:20:27.520 those gifts back as her life unfolded was there any signs of what came later so other than you know

00:20:37.280 were there any health signs that indicated something was coming there was when she was six months old

00:20:43.600 you know she had um some seizures that that we never were able to figure out what they were and there was

00:20:50.880 initially a very um difficult diagnosis that was made um that that she would never really grow it grow

00:21:00.720 up that that she would be impaired um and those things went away you know there was a lot of prayer

00:21:07.360 at the time um especially susan praying to saint joseph uh for his intercession um and and we ended up

00:21:14.800 taking her one time to to do an eeg um and the doctor just said go home these things will go away 0.53

00:21:21.840 other than that maria was incredibly healthy um i mean no no doctor visits um she was she was athletic 1.00

00:21:29.040 and and very healthy so there wasn't but if when we we didn't know um of her writings you know we knew

00:21:37.040 that she journal but it was private we we we never never knew it when we when we go back and look now

00:21:44.320 um there's there there are certainly indications that maria know knew and and had united herself

00:21:52.400 to to carry whatever crosses in her life that god would give her uh i think the um i mean to give

00:21:59.440 you an idea i mean the the the maria's story really picks up on january 31st 2019 when when she was

00:22:07.120 diagnosed she was a a great irish dancer and she had lost her balance in one of one of her practices and

00:22:13.120 so we we took her to get her examined and and got an um uh got her tested uh and that's when the doctors

00:22:21.920 rushed her to children's hospital in philadelphia and and we received a diagnosis that um that she had

00:22:28.240 this brain tumor in her brain stem and would reasonably have about nine months to live um of 1.00

00:22:35.360 course we we we gathered around in prayer and the prayers went went went crazy that the prayers went

00:22:41.200 all over the place um and then the mystic some of the real mystical things really began to happen

00:22:46.880 um the the the first thing that happened that that's noteworthy is that within a the super bowl

00:22:55.360 was two days later there was a super bowl party that our neighbors have all of the time that nobody's

00:23:00.080 really invited to but they uh you just show up and so we had our our family here for the first half

00:23:06.880 of the super bowl and at halftime maria said can we go over to mr and mrs krug's house and

00:23:10.800 of course i said she could have said you know can you will you take me to the moon and i would have

00:23:14.720 figured out a way to do it but we went over um and when i was there my friend greg said you know

00:23:19.200 we have a little surprise for maria again this was only two days after the diagnosis and um he said

00:23:24.880 it's downstairs and as so we went downstairs and as i i turned the stairway i i saw about 30 good

00:23:30.960 looking athletic young men between about 18 and 21 and it was uh the de sales university lacrosse team

00:23:38.880 there was a teddy bear there and they had dozens of roses and and as they came around the corner

00:23:45.040 um they they said we believe in miracles um they they had and maria was you know stunned she was a

00:23:52.480 16 year old girl and suddenly she's got the attention of all these good athletic young men um

00:23:57.040 you know but in a matter of two days they had gotten permission from their coach and from the

00:24:02.800 school administration to dedicate the season to maria it was a beautiful story it'll make it a

00:24:09.120 good movie someday um but needless to say this was a team that never had a winning record in the history

00:24:15.200 of the school um they dedicated to maria they she was the honorary captain they had her initials on

00:24:20.800 their helmets they went to mass before every game to say prayers for his health um so the season goes on

00:24:27.200 they're 5-0 10-0 15-0 um if they win one more game against the team that wins the championship

00:24:32.560 every year they win the championship well they they lose that game and it forces a one-game championship

00:24:38.480 and so and maria when maria wasn't at the games they had a big head of maria made up when they

00:24:44.800 would score a goal they would go over to maria they would point to maria and point to heaven and

00:24:48.400 bless themselves the at the championship game and the team was very good that had forced this game

00:24:55.360 again the perennial champions it was a neck and neck game and they they work came up into the

00:25:00.960 stands they didn't know if maria was there and so maria went down and greeted them at halftime

00:25:06.240 and they came out at halftime and within 90 seconds scored three goals and went on to win a championship

00:25:12.080 um and and but in more ways than that she she influenced she still influences these these this team

00:25:18.960 is still in touch with us they all have a great devotion to maria some of them have made career

00:25:23.360 choices one of them decided to go into the seminary another decided to pursue neurology

00:25:28.080 and the influence that she had on their life it was tremendous um but that was the beginning of

00:25:33.120 that was the beginning of this 20-month journey where maria really wrote a masterpiece of a life

00:25:39.680 um and another thing i can tell you about maria is a couple weeks after she was diagnosed with a 0.99

00:25:43.520 terminal illness i asked maria how she was doing and she said dad regardless of the circumstances

00:25:48.560 of my life my mission and purpose remain the same and it's to know love and serve god in this world

00:25:54.400 and ultimately to be happy with him in heaven and she said my faith my emotions will rise and fall but

00:26:00.160 my faith is not an emotion it's a commitment and i will not despair um and she began to lead an advent

00:26:07.360 life at then she there was suffering and there was joy coexisting in her life you know a year later

00:26:12.880 she wrote in her journal 2019 although it was terrible and great it was the best year of my life

00:26:18.800 and and and in many many stories i uh of her um was the president of her senior class um and

00:26:30.080 she she was asked to speak on ring day um and and it was a very powerful speech it was a speech that

00:26:38.560 i don't think was going to make the school's website because she challenged the children of 0.99

00:26:44.000 what was really important um and and that they should focus on becoming the person that god created

00:26:51.280 them to be in a world where many teenagers struggle to find real meaning and purpose we know that our

00:26:58.720 purpose in life is to know love and serve god so we can all be happy with him in heaven this

00:27:06.640 understanding calls us to lead others to him through our everyday words and actions

00:27:12.720 each day we all have the opportunity to evangelize our brothers and sisters through our daily encounters

00:27:19.920 so there was all of these things it's hard to you know it's hard to capture john i there were so many

00:27:25.440 so many things within that first couple of months we began to be contacted by people all over the world

00:27:32.400 um by by christians who were who were working in the middle east they were living in caves but they

00:27:40.800 were their job they were converting muslims to christianity and then escorting them across the border we 0.99

00:27:45.360 have we have audios of them praying in their kurdish languages of of asking you know for god's help for

00:27:52.960 maria um we were contacted by a um a school saint john saint john paul academy in um uganda uh and we received a big picture of praying for maria

00:28:08.800 and then we began to receive letters um and and one of those letters was from a young woman named patience who talked about how maria was inspiring her

00:28:16.960 and that that she really hoped that one day she would meet maria but she knew that that would never happen

00:28:24.480 well interestingly enough nine months later on the anniversary of the day that they told maria that she

00:28:29.840 had an expiration date maria was landing in uganda for a mission trip um and and influencing people not

00:28:36.800 only at the school but throughout the jungle um to see the way that people were were drawn to her

00:28:42.720 um again you know she was connected to the vine um and and there was just it was almost as if she became

00:28:51.760 so one with the lord because she truly offered herself as as a sacrifice her her body her pain her suffering

00:29:01.680 she she intentionally offered it to god and and he was using her to transform lives um we we traveled all

00:29:10.960 over obviously as her dad um i was going to look for every possible human way that might you know intercede

00:29:22.320 medically on her behalf and everywhere she went she had the same she was transforming the hospitals that 0.96

00:29:29.440 she was staying in um the as as time went on uh again we you know our big thing with all of the doctors

00:29:37.200 was you can have a diagnosis but god will have the prognosis um we lived we lived with hope john henry

00:29:43.600 every every day um we prayed for a miracle and we expected a miracle um and and some people would say

00:29:49.920 well you know you didn't get the miracle that you expected but we got many many miracles we and we got

00:29:55.440 the miracles that god wanted us to get through maria miracles of relationships healing people coming

00:30:02.000 to the lord many people coming to the lord we we had uh two priests who came to us and said that they

00:30:08.400 were contemplating leaving their vocation and when they met maria and experienced what they experienced

00:30:13.440 in maria's presence that that they realized that they were going to recommit themselves to their vocation

00:30:19.680 so there's there there's an there's an awful lot that i could talk about and continue to talk about

00:30:25.920 um about maria her pain though was real what was that like you know what did she go through well i mean she

00:30:37.920 uh december of 19 when she began to have more severe symptoms um but maria never complained about it

00:30:50.000 um she she just offered it up in fact on on good friday of 2020 uh at noon we thought we were going to

00:31:01.200 lose maria um she began having difficulty breathe and she began having secretions and we gathered the

00:31:06.320 family and we got um her kathleen mccarthy her spiritual advisor and and um and we prayed at her bedside and

00:31:13.760 and and shortly after three o'clock um she came out of what she was in um and she said to to us um

00:31:26.000 god will be here soon either for the miracle or or to take me home and she said but in the meantime

00:31:32.160 let's continue to save souls um the it was it was by the way there's there's an um the next day a couple

00:31:41.600 of people had said asked us if they could do a drive-by for people to just give their support

00:31:46.960 to maria and we were thinking a couple of people would come by and this is actually this made national

00:31:51.440 news uh we live in the country and and um so this was an unusual occurrence but over 500 vehicles of all

00:31:58.560 kinds showed up and drove through our our driveway here to to say give maria their best it was it was an

00:32:06.560 amazing thing the in in um i guess it was in june um maria began to decline and and and how old is she 0.76

00:32:17.600 at this point she's 17 um she she entered the hospital doylestown hospital and that was where

00:32:27.040 we lived as a family for for five almost five months um but john henry that the transformation of

00:32:34.880 that hospital the the administrators to this day talk about it um you know long after the agnostic

00:32:43.760 physicians would say that maria's life was worth living the quality of maria's life was worth living

00:32:49.440 she was transforming hearts and souls she was leading people to jesus into eternity the the hospital

00:32:56.800 room became a chapel and her bed became an altar of sacrifice people would actually take their breaks 0.79

00:33:02.000 and come to maria's room and they would pray we had people praying it was it was almost you know

00:33:07.920 all all night people would come in that the the uh the maintenance staff would come in at some point

00:33:14.160 the hospital administrator himself came in to see what was going on um there there was just this

00:33:19.840 transformational experience the conversations that played we had i jokingly say this that it became

00:33:27.120 almost like a monty python skit in all of the clerical people in the robed people who would come and visit 1.00

00:33:32.400 maria um you know one of the really special experiences was with father jim blunt came to visit

00:33:38.560 her um and and uh he when he came in he he he was praying um and you know he he began to see things

00:33:50.880 which he has that gift and he began to name he gives the angels and the saints are ministering to

00:33:56.560 maria they're here with maria um and he started to name saints you know maria gretti uh the kids from

00:34:03.200 from fatima um uh saint joan of arc was there who maria had a great devotion to um carlo acutis was there

00:34:11.600 and and um named they were the young saints he said the young saints are here and he said maria is a

00:34:18.400 a suffering soul who has offered herself to save he goes thousands of souls of teenage children in

00:34:25.760 the worst of places um and after he left maria was at the point where she could she couldn't hear but

00:34:32.880 she could see and we communicated with a whiteboard and and she would move her her one eye up and down for 0.69

00:34:39.920 yes and no and so susan listed the saints i guess there was a little bit of skepticism uh you know we

00:34:47.840 were just looking to to confirm um and we susan put a few placebo saints on there um a couple extras

00:34:55.440 that that father blunt didn't see and maria said yes to every saint he said and no to every saint that

00:35:01.760 we put on there um and and again it was it there was so much going on we had you know the the she wrote

00:35:10.080 a letter to the archbishop of philadelphia when the poor archbishop perez his first week on the job was

00:35:17.680 covet um so so he when they closed the churches maria it was i remember it vividly it was 8 30 on a

00:35:25.200 saturday night and and she sent an email to him and and communicated this thought that that doesn't take

00:35:32.880 someone in her situation who's lost the security the false security of a long life to remind you that the

00:35:39.040 only thing that we have to fear is the absence of the lord and that people in her situation need

00:35:43.760 the eucharist and they need the sacraments and with within 15 minutes he responded and said have

00:35:49.920 your parents call me i will bring you the eucharist personally um and he did uh and they created a

00:35:56.720 friendship a beautiful friendship um that you know he entailed him communicating with her um they be they

00:36:04.480 became friends and he came to visit her in the hospital to to ask for her prayers um and and

00:36:11.680 from what i know you know continued he he told us you know that his whole career he's had five

00:36:17.440 prayer partners that he prays to intercessors in heaven and and when maria passed away he said i now

00:36:21.600 have six um so there there was there was a there was so much oh there'll be more about this because

00:36:29.040 the director of communications at the hospital they was so intrigued by what went on that when he he

00:36:36.320 retired soon after maria passed away and um and asked us if he could write a book about her final 20

00:36:44.080 months um to to really try and understand what was taking place and and what everybody experienced there

00:36:52.400 um and there's and it continues john henry you know i'm i'm not even capturing a an ounce of

00:37:00.480 the whole story um there there's her her funeral which took place in covet you know when everything

00:37:08.480 was shut down and nobody was coming was at the shrine of our lady of chest of hope in doyle's town

00:37:13.520 we had five and a half hours of viewing one night and had to stop it and then the next day we had three

00:37:19.360 and a half and had to stop it thousands and thousands of people came through thousands of

00:37:24.000 people came to the funeral um there were 13 priests on the altar of maria's funeral um and and we hadn't

00:37:31.440 invited them um you know we we invited i think three or three or four to participate um and and if you

00:37:39.760 if you see that because it's online um and it's still being viewed there are thousands of people that have

00:37:45.760 viewed it um they it it was as if it was really as if god was pulling back the veil for everyone to see

00:37:57.520 of what it is like when you truly unite your life to him you know it it's difficult for me to still say

00:38:03.600 that maria died because it it was almost as if she walked us to eternal life with her and and we got a

00:38:13.280 glimpse of it you know the again long after people would say the quality of her life was worth living

00:38:18.800 she was introducing us to this world of the unknowable and and she lived in that world her her whole life

00:38:25.040 quietly like she she didn't she never limited her experience to that of her own understanding

00:38:30.720 she was always willing to step into the world of the unknowable and you know when when she was

00:38:35.360 diagnosed we had conversations you know about the fact that that people this is god's call and there

00:38:42.480 was so much unknowable about an all-knowing god and and so much that's unknowable about medicine i

00:38:48.960 mean in in the if you look at you know the slice of human knowledge and in the pie of eternal knowledge

00:38:55.360 we know nothing and when what is known is offering us no hope we find our hope in the unknown um and and

00:39:03.120 that's what maria taught us is that we limit ourselves to those things you know we to and there is so much

00:39:10.640 there's so much mystery and so much awe in our faith that if if we embrace it

00:39:17.760 we can live with hope we can live with joy regardless of the suffering of our circumstances

00:39:22.560 the the interesting thing is i told you about the journal right uh the first journal we found maria was 0.89

00:39:28.720 probably 10 or 11 when we found this first journal because actually people would people were saying maria's

00:39:34.480 going to be a saint and i would say well saints have to have writings you know there's got to be some

00:39:38.400 way to put together the story and and and we had we had no idea and then susan started finding like this

00:39:43.840 depth of stuff from the time she was six and seven eight years old but the first journal that susan

00:39:49.760 uncovered it began at eight or nine and her first journal entry was god is merciful and the last journal

00:39:56.080 entry with this was her last journal and and her her writing had declined because she was losing her

00:40:01.600 her physical abilities again think of this the class president you know the great athlete the number

00:40:07.200 one student in her class uh a an all-star irish dancer she was lost god took away all of these temporal

00:40:15.360 skills and the final message that she was able to communicate via the written word was think hope

00:40:22.320 you know and maria meant hope eternal she it wasn't mere optimism and you know people would say

00:40:28.480 well break that down how how can that happen and i can tell you from knowing maria and from reading

00:40:33.840 maria's journals that that there is a duplicative formula for the way that maria led her life because 0.81

00:40:39.040 maria when push came to shove there's four takeaways one is that when we're faced with something that's

00:40:46.880 beyond our control or we're faced with suffering the ultimate in human dignity is that we get to control

00:40:52.080 our attitude over those things over which we have no control and maria chose hope she chose faith and

00:40:58.720 she chose love at a time that most people wouldn't be able to make that decision now again did she

00:41:05.280 make that decision then no she made that decision years earlier when she decided to basically turn her 0.87

00:41:10.080 life over to the lord when she decided that that to be with the lord was to embrace the suffering and

00:41:14.720 the crosses that would come across your life but she chose that attitude when she told me i will not

00:41:19.840 despair i will choose hope marina you think about the despair that plagues the world and it's because

00:41:26.720 people don't know who they are they don't know what their identity is well we won't go down that

00:41:30.880 rabbit trail but that's a big issue and that's why people are despairing maria knew at her core her whole

00:41:36.560 identity was that maria was a child of god that that's what she was and she knew why she existed and

00:41:45.200 she existed to know love and serve god in this world and ultimately to be happy with him in heaven

00:41:48.960 regardless of the circumstances and maria knew what she valued she valued faith she valued family

00:41:54.560 she valued freedom she valued truth beauty and goodness and she lived out that life so when

00:42:00.800 the negative things came in her life she had a rudder that was able to propel her and that's a message

00:42:08.400 that needs to just continue that's that's the legacy of maria know who you are know why you exist and 0.82

00:42:13.920 know what you value um we live in a we live in a lost world john henry and and i see so many children

00:42:19.760 that are lost and yet here's a young woman diagnosed with a terminal illness who writes a masterpiece in

00:42:26.800 the last 20 months of her life um and again the story continues um we we don't go a week without hearing from

00:42:38.000 somebody that we don't know who's in relationship with maria uh who's praying for maria's intercession

00:42:44.160 we you know we we hear stories of people who are claiming miracles they're not you know they're not

00:42:50.960 verifiable miracles but but they talk about relationships healing they talk about physical healings

00:42:56.560 um we we're constantly being asked um for our you know for for us you know to pray to our daughter

00:43:05.680 um again we know maria is a saint because saints are in heaven but if maria is ever an official saint

00:43:10.400 the big takeaway i want everybody to take away is that sainthood is not genetic john henry um it didn't

00:43:15.200 it doesn't come we're we're not the martin family um you know we're just normal folks so these things

00:43:23.200 continue to happen i mean to the extent that where maria's final resting place is the shrine of our

00:43:28.480 lady of chesto hova um and they've told us that it's the most visited grave site they've ever had

00:43:33.920 to the extent they've asked if they could put a display of information about maria because they

00:43:39.680 have people coming to the monastery all the time asking where maria is buried um and it and it just

00:43:47.120 it just continues what is for you um some of the most memorable writings that you've read of maria's

00:43:55.520 writing i think um some of them she wrote one about transubstantiation when she was in seventh

00:44:03.760 grade that it's actually the best thing i've ever read about transubstantiation um and she wrestled 0.99

00:44:10.880 with it she she wrestled with uh is it cannibalism um is it symbolic um and and it came to the you know

00:44:20.400 to her own conclusion based on her worldly experience and she studied the miracles you

00:44:25.120 know the eucharistic miracles that that it really was the body blood soul and divinity of god but not

00:44:30.400 only that it was his heart um and and she came to the conclusion that it is both real

00:44:36.000 substantive and symbolic because of what a heart stands for and and that's why he chose it um

00:44:43.360 that's certainly one one of the ones that that stands out for me um it's funny because we're just

00:44:49.280 we're going through so many and just when i when i come up with one that i think is the one that nails

00:44:53.200 it i i love any she has she's written um a lot of stuff about offering you know herself as a sacrifice

00:45:04.640 um i mean things that are she understood suffering at an early age um and she she writes about some of

00:45:13.040 the suffering you know that she's experienced well that is something that is sort of universal but a lot

00:45:18.880 of people right now are feeling their suffering in huge ways it's some for a lot of people right now

00:45:26.880 overwhelming what is some of the best advice that she has with regard to suffering one of the things

00:45:34.240 that she did was that she united herself and her suffering with god um she saw it as her journey

00:45:42.800 you know she wrote she loved saint joan of arc saint joan of arc she dressed as saint joan of arc when

00:45:47.120 she was little at the you know when they would have to do things at school uh and and she wrote one

00:45:51.360 time that she knew that god would have her in battle and and but that the battle would be spiritual

00:45:59.600 um and and so there there was a when you tie that to her her vine and branches um maria always

00:46:09.840 was able to control her attitude and unite herself to christ even when she was struggling

00:46:15.280 with normal kid things like um uh computer usage or or or cell phone usage or she would she would always

00:46:24.160 articulate the problem in a very common secular teenage way and then she would work her way to

00:46:33.600 uniting herself to the lord um she she was she would always end up there and and i think that's such a

00:46:41.920 great message she understood that she wasn't born for this world more than anybody that i ever met and

00:46:48.160 so she didn't necessarily see suffering as any kind of a punishment she she saw it as the reason that she

00:46:56.560 was born uh and and i think it's the only explanation for her ability to unite it so closely to the lord

00:47:03.840 some of you may remember or perhaps even newly appreciate the late archbishop fulton j sheen

00:47:12.240 he is considered one of the greatest communicators in the modern era and stands as a great example for

00:47:18.480 all of us in what it means to work in catholic broadcasting for over 50 years sheen captivated

00:47:25.200 audience on both radio and television and millions tuned in each week to hear his messages of hope

00:47:30.720 and encouragement one of life site's supporters is radio maria and they are now proud to be showcasing

00:47:37.920 some of bishop sheen's timeless recordings on their weekly radio show entitled bishop sheen presents

00:47:45.200 please consider tuning in to radio maria on friday afternoons at 2 p.m central or saturdays at 5 p.m

00:47:52.880 to enjoy the venerable archbishop's wit and wisdom for more information on radio maria and their catholic

00:47:59.520 work please visit their website radiomaria.us that's radiomaria.us and now back to the program

00:48:08.160 another one of those areas that's very difficult for people nowadays is the whole concept of hope

00:48:16.720 um hope not only even even hope in the proper way so she recognized she was a child of god

00:48:25.920 her hope was heaven but even that's hard a lot of people are living in lives that are full of sin

00:48:31.280 and wonder about their own salvation um and then there's the whole concept of of being despairing of

00:48:39.760 of just the way things are in your life what was her message of hope her message of hope was that if

00:48:48.880 you live a life of serving god by serving others if you live a self-transcendent life

00:48:53.760 that you will have not only eternal joy but joy in your life there's there's some things that that

00:49:02.160 she wrote um about hope and about truth um that she understood that happiness is not a momentary pleasure

00:49:14.720 you know she she was very counter-cultural and and had an awareness of the secular view

00:49:19.920 of a lot of things um she could see that people pursuing momentary pleasures were not happy people

00:49:27.600 but she also had a firm understanding she has a good classical education from the academy that she

00:49:32.800 she attended in grade school and had a foundation of understanding the role of virtue and that that true joy

00:49:41.120 comes from pursuing virtue um and true joy comes from being self-transcended and and not narcissistic

00:49:48.400 um and and those were really the the way that's the way that she led her life by pursuing by pursuing 1.00

00:49:56.160 virtue you know there if when and she understood this i i don't know if you know some of it is stuff

00:50:03.120 that she she learned from us some of it she learned in school but when you eliminate the concept of

00:50:10.000 objective truth you eliminate objective good and and when you eliminate objective good you eliminate the

00:50:16.480 potential for true happiness because true joy and happiness comes from pursuing virtue which is

00:50:23.040 defined as the firm disposition towards that which is good and and maria just understood that and she

00:50:28.320 understood it at a very pragmatic level it was like she didn't understand why people you know would

00:50:34.560 would do things other than that uh because it it the the joy that she experienced along with her suffering

00:50:43.600 was all very palpable you know you people again when people are coming the hospital people would tell us

00:50:50.480 we usually everybody avoids you got a 17 18 year old girl who's in bad shape and is dying everybody 1.00

00:50:56.960 avoids that room but yet everybody came to that room they would they would argue over who was going to be

00:51:02.080 maria's night nurse because they wanted to be the presence there was a glow a transfiguring kind of glow

00:51:09.040 um that that was in that room um we had we had um a priest come to visit us um who was asked by a

00:51:18.640 friend to come and visit us and this was the saturday before maria was was called home um and and he he

00:51:25.040 told us later he came and he was looking at his watch and you know he was there to give maria a blessing

00:51:30.000 and again three hours later we're still sitting there and he couldn't leave um and he canceled his dinner

00:51:36.080 plans and he later spoke about it he gave a beautiful homily about what he experienced in

00:51:40.560 that room and it was he said it was like the ultimate retreat there was there was a a mystical

00:51:48.880 priest um father monsignor essa explained to us that at one point maria had you come so one with the

00:51:55.600 lord that there was no real separation and that what people were feeling was the lord's presence within

00:52:01.920 her and again i again i had never experienced it before either but there was just this overwhelming

00:52:09.280 sense of grace and peace and still is by the way um with everything that's associated with maria um

00:52:17.600 you know we there when you lose a child you know there is this emotional and psychological loss that's just

00:52:24.480 overwhelming but it's it's counterbalanced by this incredible spiritual joy that we feel um you know

00:52:33.600 in the present tense you know there we you know we didn't love maria we love maria we didn't have

00:52:40.080 a relationship with maria we have a relationship with maria you know maria has now gone on to her

00:52:45.280 eternal reward because she's earned it we still don't there was going into 2021 was new year's day and

00:52:53.920 i'm sitting at my table and i'm crying and i said i i don't want to move on without her

00:53:00.960 and and i heard her voice and maria had a you know she could be a little bit sarcastic in a good way 1.00

00:53:05.760 and and she says you're not moving on i moved on you got to catch up you know and it's the kind of

00:53:12.000 thing that she would have said to me and and i i heard it i heard it clearly um and it's almost as

00:53:18.720 if you know what we feel now with with you know this foundation with that we didn't start friends of

00:53:23.360 ours said we're going to start a foundation do you want to be a part of it it was pretty difficult

00:53:26.720 to say no to uh because it was centered around maria and we feel that we're being directed now

00:53:32.240 it's all you know we kid about it it's like maria got a big a big promotion and now we're working for

00:53:36.480 her uh it's sort of what it feels like john um but there's again there's there's so much there's just

00:53:43.120 so much here and so much continuing to unfold about maria's story indeed well let's have a look at

00:53:50.160 maria if you can set this clip up for us as i mentioned before uh we we connected a relationship

00:53:57.680 with this school in uganda um and we didn't really know what to expect but we decided to go there and

00:54:05.200 maria was all for it um and there was there was these multiple experiences with people in the jungle

00:54:11.760 and some of the kids at the school where you can just see the absolute joy um there between the

00:54:19.760 school children and then just some of the people that she was meeting in the jungle and you can see

00:54:23.600 here how they were just drawn to her and how she just waited right in um prayed with them um and and

00:54:31.840 there was just this love you know that that you could feel and this radiance when when maria was

00:54:39.200 was diagnosed the prayers just came and john henry literally i i know you've experienced this too

00:54:48.320 there the power of prayer can be overwhelming because there were there was no explanation

00:54:54.960 for some of the strength that that we all felt during those initial phases um and there were

00:55:01.760 times when we literally could feel grace flowing into us i i can't explain what it feels like but i

00:55:05.680 never felt it before and i knew it was something different and the only explanation i could come up

00:55:09.520 with was that it was grace and maria really felt this too um and and this is she she spoke about this

00:55:16.080 in addition to that um she wrote a she wrote a prayer about the power of prayer which is now being

00:55:23.040 circulated all all over oh would you read that to us or she read it herself i will read it to you

00:55:30.160 right now so this was this was about a month and a half after maria was diagnosed and we began to

00:55:38.160 experience all of all of the prayer that we were going uh that we were that was being sent to us um

00:55:45.360 and this is a prayer that maria wrote the overwhelming power of prayer revealed in dark and scary times

00:55:53.280 when one is blinded by fear and confusion god's radiant light penetrating throughout

00:56:00.160 revealed in dark and scary times providing hope and shining armor god's radiant light penetrating

00:56:05.680 throughout swaddling his children in comfort and peace providing hope and shining armor as one enters

00:56:12.880 their journey into the depths of the unknown swaddling his children in comfort and peace complete trust and

00:56:19.360 faith given to persevere as one walks their journey into the depths of the unknown when one is blinded

00:56:26.560 by fear and confusion complete trust and faith given to person persevere the overwhelming power of prayer

00:56:34.080 fear beautiful it is you know there's there's another quote that i just thought of and it came

00:56:46.800 probably six months into her in her journey where she talks about how scary it can be but that her

00:56:57.040 overwhelming sense and feeling is that of gratitude for the life that she's been given and for the people

00:57:06.080 in her life um and and and she talked about how important it is that we live in the present

00:57:16.000 that grace is only available to us in the present and that if we stay in the present all will be well

00:57:24.800 um it is hard she was 16 when she wrote that and it's just it's difficult to imagine facing what she was

00:57:34.880 facing and genuinely truly in her journal this wasn't a public statement you know this wasn't a false self

00:57:43.040 this was what she was really feeling just this overwhelming gratitude for the life that she'd been

00:57:47.920 given brian um thank you for sharing with us give us some final thoughts but we really want to know too

00:57:54.320 where people can find out more about your foundation and about maria well again we we were approached by

00:58:01.840 friends of ours to to create a foundation and it's called thinkhope.org and it can be found

00:58:08.240 at thinkhope.org and the purpose of our foundation is really to to reach people who are on the continuum

00:58:15.200 of despair there's a continuum from early childhood education to the end of life suffering um and and

00:58:22.000 what think hope is all about is supporting those organizations that bring hope to despairing situations so

00:58:29.680 good catholic education nothing like it maria had that maria knew who she was why she was born

00:58:34.720 and what she valued that is so critical in this world where people are just so confused uh they have

00:58:41.760 no meaning and purpose they have no sense of community so from the early stage it's it's supporting catholic

00:58:48.400 education and a lot of classical kind of education the other thing that that we're doing is is looking at

00:58:54.000 at at the teenage years where people get lost in all the these identities that that don't sustain

00:59:01.600 them in fact they bring despair and a lot of it is generated through social media then there's a part

00:59:05.920 in the despair world where nothing works and people fall into despair and so organizations that are helping

00:59:11.600 them and then of course the end of life um we also have a focus on actually bringing

00:59:18.480 hope into businesses um through our our consulting practice which is our for-profit of turning businesses into

00:59:25.200 communities of hope so the the focus is raising money and finding organizations that are ministering to

00:59:31.280 people in despair and using our network of people to help support those industries as

00:59:35.600 you know john you know henry you know there are a lot of great people out there that are doing god's

00:59:40.320 work that you know don't have networks or don't have the ability to raise money for them and we're hoping to do

00:59:45.520 that um and that again you can you can find that at thinkhope.org um i maria's story is is still beginning

00:59:56.240 um you know um you know she lives a life on this planet worthy of 0.57

01:00:04.560 adulation and adoration um but but just such a great example in in this world of despair you know

01:00:12.880 we need harbingers of hope we we need people that we can look up to who know how to bring hope into the world

01:00:20.080 um i i think again i i think the the four components of maria's life are messages that we have to get out

01:00:26.080 there choosing your attitude over those things over which you have no no control um who are you

01:00:33.120 why do i exist and and and um what do i value we we lack meaning and purpose children lack people our

01:00:41.440 age i see it all the time they they lack meaning and purpose and therefore they're victims of despair

01:00:46.640 you know the the the big messages that we want to get out there is is that we are we are in a battle

01:00:53.920 with the devil maria understood that and and she understood that it was a battle of world views

01:01:01.040 um she understood that that her christian worldview you know was the antidote to the human secular

01:01:07.360 worldview a world of relativism and and place basically setting people up to disappear into a

01:01:13.520 black hole of nothing at some point in time when maria was diagnosed she knew what her destiny was

01:01:23.920 and her hope was in her faith her hope was she understood that regardless of the circumstances

01:01:29.280 and we prayed for a miracle every day john henry don't don't we we prayed and we expected it

01:01:34.880 but god gave us the grace to endure it all one day at a time led by our little vessel of grace maria

01:01:42.400 um and i know that you know that it was very intentional that those were her last words i know that she could see

01:01:48.640 her friends and even her family members sinking into despair and and the one thing that she wanted us

01:01:55.920 to have was her faith and her understanding that she was okay absolutely beautiful brian thank you so

01:02:04.560 very much for sharing with us your beautiful daughter thanks john and uh thank you god bless you

01:02:10.400 yeah god bless you too john henry look forward to seeing again sometime and god bless all of you

01:02:14.800 and we'll see you next time

01:02:27.120 hi everyone this is john henry weston we hope you enjoyed this program to see more like it be sure

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The John-Henry Westen Show - April 03, 2023

New 18-Year-Old Saint？ High School Senior with Brain Tumor Inspires THOUSANDS

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