A young lady who was a star athlete, a dancer, a student, the president of her high school class, was actually only 18 years old when she died. When she was 16 years old, she was diagnosed with an incurable brain tumour, and given 9 more months to live. After 9 months, she didn t die.
00:00:00.000you know she was connected to the vine um and and there was just it was almost as if she became so
00:00:07.760one with the lord because she truly offered herself as as a sacrifice her her body her
00:00:16.480pain her suffering she she intentionally offered it to god and he and he was using her to transform
00:00:23.280lives i am really privileged to be able to tell you this story well not only me of course the father
00:00:34.720of the one who i'm going to talk about but i'm really privileged because i believe i'm going
00:00:38.320to tell you the story about a young lady who i think will soon be declared a saint she just died
00:00:46.240in 2021 and um she was a star athlete an irish dancer she was the number one student in her
00:00:53.840high school class the president of her junior year she was actually only 18 years old when she died
00:01:03.200when maria was 16 years old 16 years old and four months she was given nine more months to live
00:01:11.280and that was january 31st of 2019 and well you watched this girl who as i said was you know top of her
00:01:26.480class athlete dancer etc etc lose all of her abilities one by one over the next year and a bit um
00:01:37.760um the story touched me very deeply because as many of you know my own daughter mary very similar name
00:01:47.680went through um something very strange as well in the same time frame right around the beginning of
00:01:55.040covid and when all that was going on um my daughter mary was first paralyzed then started having seizures
00:02:02.960we had to withdraw her from her school from um what she was doing and basically we had to move
00:02:10.560close to a hospital so that we could be uh just closer in case things happened my mary um has for the
00:02:20.880last couple months been seizure free and uh she was back in school this year praise god
00:02:26.240maria middleton um suffered and but with a heroism that is really indescribable i want to relate
00:02:40.960something to this is her mom's description her mom susan said as much as i wanted to shut the world out
00:02:48.720because the pain was so great and close myself in i realized that that was not the right move we needed
00:02:56.080prayer so brian and i brian being her husband and the father of maria so brian and i sent some
00:03:01.040messages out before we knew it requests for prayers for maria spread like wildfire around the globe
00:03:09.520we opened our hearts to the rays of god's grace and his love flooded our lives she said
00:03:16.320so that was very similar in our case when we released you know my prayer request for my mary prayers
00:03:23.360just came in from all around the globe and what an amazing consolation it was
00:03:29.520um but you know in maria middleton's case
00:03:35.680it wasn't all bad even though they were praying like crazy for a miracle obviously
00:03:40.880but really what happened was miraculous this story is so stupendous you know remember at her 16 16
00:03:49.600four months she was given four nine months to live well after nine months she didn't die in fact it was
00:03:55.760exactly nine months after her diagnosis on october 31st 2019 that maria along with her dad and mom
00:04:02.880boarded a plane for uganda where they went to witness um and it was really beautiful but you know
00:04:11.120they had some scares along the way before her death and i'm gonna let brian her dad tell you a lot of the
00:04:16.800miraculous things that happened but i wanted to share this one thing that her mom related and that
00:04:22.240was that on june 3rd 2020 she had already been bedridden uh for more than a month at home she
00:04:28.480aspirated so she was taken to the emergency room and everybody thought that was it you know her heart
00:04:33.680rate was off the charts she couldn't clear her lungs anymore and so on and so forth and they had
00:04:39.600already performed you know uh bronchioscopy and all these procedures um and maria was sedated
00:04:47.680temporarily intubated and um they thought of course that was it that that night was going to be it
00:04:55.040and after a few hours she stabilized and susan the mom ran to her side and said maria and she looked at
00:05:01.680her and said mom were you scared and uh susan replied are you kidding i was petrified weren't you
00:05:10.000and little maria said calmly no mom god has this
00:05:17.440and uh that's the kind of thing that is so inspiring now maria surprised her doctors
00:05:26.160and she lived till a month after her 18th birthday long beyond the nine month cut off for her inoperable
00:05:34.720brain tumor and she entered eternal life on that day and her parents found a journal only after she
00:05:43.360died uh they found her journal that she kept privately the first entry in that journal was when maria
00:05:51.040was only 11 years old and it reads god is merciful the very last entry it was scribbled in the diary
00:06:00.320because she had lost most of her ability to write because of the disease the last entry was think hope
00:06:08.880and they now run the foundation thinkhope.org now the journal um is really rich in spiritual writings
00:06:18.880from maria and it really is a benefit to all mankind so when she is i'm sure one day declared a saint
00:06:27.040these writings will become hopefully a journal for people where they can reflect on so many things but
00:06:33.840also especially the value of suffering um i just i'm going to read out a few writings and then we're
00:06:40.400going to get to brian her dad so on december uh in december of 2016 at age 14 maria wrote remember to
00:06:48.240pray for the wisdom to understand the mysteries in our lives and the understanding to do god's will
00:06:54.880on january 8 2017 uh again age 14 two years before her diagnosis she wrote god just wants us to do the
00:07:05.040best that we as individuals can we don't have to compare ourselves to other great saints because
00:07:11.440we may get discouraged we can look up to those saints and follow their example but we shouldn't
00:07:16.560compare just do the best that you can do and god will be happy on january 31st 2019 maria was diagnosed
00:07:25.040with inoperable an inoperable brain tumor and her journey of hope as her parents call it began
00:07:32.960the power of prayer became evident to her from the very first day of her new journey and maria said
00:07:38.560these words shortly after her diagnosis whatever happens will be god's will in february of 2019 at
00:07:47.680age 16 after the diagnosis again maria wrote life is a prayer every action can be offered as a prayer to
00:07:55.120god i think the main reason why i don't know how i feel about everything that's going on and the fact
00:08:01.600that i'm surprisingly calm is because of all the grace and love that is overpowering everything
00:08:07.840around me and surrounding me i can physically feel the peace and power of everyone's prayers
00:08:15.040then approximately one month after her diagnosis maria wrote about this in her poem which she called
00:08:22.960prayer and this is the poem the overwhelming power of prayer revealed in dark and scary times
00:08:32.000when one is blinded by fear and confusion god's radiant light penetrating throughout revealed in
00:08:39.680dark and scary times providing hope in shining armor god's radiant light penetrating throughout
00:08:47.440swaddling his children in comfort and peace providing hope in shining armor as one enters their
00:08:54.880journey into the depths of the unknown swaddling his children in comfort and peace complete trust and
00:09:02.560faith given to persevere as one walks their journey into the depths of the unknown when one is blinded by
00:09:10.560fear and confusion complete trust and faith given to persevere the overwhelming power of prayer
00:09:18.240fear and in early 2019 maria said this shortly after her diagnosis no matter the circumstances of my life my
00:09:27.760purpose remains the same that is to know love and serve god faith is an not an emotion emotions rise and
00:09:35.920fall faith is a commitment i will not despair and on august 27th 2019 this is nearly seven months
00:09:45.600after her diagnosis maria wrote i've kind of accepted the fact that maybe i'm sick for a greater purpose
00:09:52.480and that's pretty cool maybe i'm being used as an instrument to help others find god
00:09:58.880in 2020 maria wrote spend more time in the present moment that's where god is whenever faced with
00:10:06.880worry turn to the sacred heart of jesus especially when you're worried about not getting better just look
00:10:13.680at 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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00:12:23.600brian middleton welcome to the program it's good to see you john henry nice to talk to you again
00:12:30.480let'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
00:12:37.040holy ghost amen all right brian thank you for joining us um i've wanted to have you on for a long time
00:12:46.400to talk about really a miracle which was i know much of a heartache for you but a real miracle
00:12:53.600tell us if you would um about your daughter maria about your family generally and how this all
00:13:01.200unfolded well um maria was a gift in our mid-40s uh susan and i had had come together after both
00:13:09.760experiencing some broken world experiences and had been through a divorce and an annulment and um and
00:13:15.600ourselves at that point really embraced our faith individually before coming together and turned our
00:13:20.320life over to god and of course you know when you've experienced the broken world um you're humbled
00:13:27.120quite a bit um and and when you search for god you're asking um sometimes for signs that you've
00:13:33.600been forgiven you know it's it's a two-step process it's repentance and amendment uh we felt that we both
00:13:40.480journeyed to the point we when we when we came together we were committed to helping each other go
00:13:45.920close grow grow closer to the lord um we thought we were beyond childbearing years um and um and we
00:13:54.320were wrong god blessed us uh with with maria uh and maria was very special from the beginning um in fact
00:14:02.240in in the beginning um uh when when she susan went to the doctors when uh we we thought that she was
00:14:10.800pregnant the doctor said don't tell anybody um because it doesn't look very good um and so we
00:14:17.440didn't uh and then a week later we went back um and the doctor did an ultrasound and i could tell by
00:14:23.840looking him right in the eyes that he wasn't going to deliver us good news um just as he was getting
00:14:30.480ready to turn he looked at this and i saw him mouth this out to himself that wasn't there last time
00:14:37.360time and it turned out that there was a child that that didn't make it but in place of that was this
00:14:45.760new child maria that he was never able to explain because there had been ultrasounds done before
00:14:50.880and there was no sign that there was a twin there so um we we just assumed that he missed it um not
00:14:57.040knowing who we were about to meet um and um and maria we always would say that we have susan brought
00:15:03.680two children into the marriage and i brought three we always say that we we blended them but maria made
00:15:08.720us family um she very quickly became the glue um when i look at my journal from the day that she was
00:15:15.280born the things i used to describe meeting her were just this grace-filled calm presence and that
00:15:21.840that's a thing and i guess a phrase that would define maria for the rest of her lives um she would
00:15:28.160she was very special um she was born that way uh it was as if god had basically infused
00:15:35.760some it was like she was born with a phd in philosophy you know theology and psychology um she
00:15:41.680became the go-to person for her older siblings that the next youngest was i think 15 years older than
00:15:47.600her um but she very quickly became the the source of of wisdom uh in our in our household it was
00:15:54.960difficult for me because i i realized that um that i wasn't the smartest person in the house at that
00:16:00.000point in time as she she began to grow very quickly in age and wisdom um so maria was you know she was
00:16:07.840nurtured very much by her mom she attended adoration on tuesdays with her mom she would pray at adoration
00:16:16.720but um but maria in every other way was was a normal child she just had this grace um later by her
00:16:23.680spiritual advisor kathleen mccarthy she be she began to refer to her as as god's little vessel of
00:16:28.720grace um so as maria grew um she was very normal one of my favorite maria quotes in her journal is
00:16:37.920you don't have to be weird to be holy um maria was a was a holy person but she she excelled in just about
00:16:44.000everything um you know and and um whether it be her studies or athleticism um but it it never really
00:16:53.600defined her um and and as you know as as time went on she just grew into this woman of grace
00:17:02.240the um other other things that i can tell you her favorite bible quote from the time she was probably in
00:17:08.800kindergarten on was was uh the bible quote about the vine and the branches um and and actually that
00:17:16.000really in some ways described the person that she was you know the divine is god and the branches is
00:17:23.280the manifestation of god in the human experience and and she was grafted to god very early on in her life
00:17:30.480um and and everything that surrounded her just seemed to be filled with a certain calm and peace and
00:17:38.800and certain mystical qualities so that's that's who she was as as a child um and how old was she when
00:17:47.600she started sort of advising her older siblings and even yourselves i can remember when she was two and
00:17:53.440three years old and and susan was was cleaning up the house and and she was dusting and maria asked her
00:17:59.440what she was doing and susan said i'm dusting and maria just looked at her pensively looked at what
00:18:04.720she was doing and it says it seems to me that you're undusting you know you're you're not putting
00:18:09.760dust on there you're taking dust off um and and she was always an observer there was a time when
00:18:15.760susan had the flu and and i i took maria out to breakfast and i said hey pal aren't you lucky you
00:18:20.720have the greatest mom in the world and she looked at me and she said dad do you know all the moms in the
00:18:26.400world and i i knew she had me no i didn't her first um the first card first mother's day card
00:18:35.280that she ever gave to susan it said happy mother's day i think she was five years old it was happy
00:18:40.880mother's day to the second best mom the the first mom being mary so she had a she had a deep devotion
00:18:48.720to mary and to jesus and it was almost as if growing up that she they were present in her life
00:18:55.680she had this this familiarity with them that to me was very unique you know they they weren't uh
00:19:02.320mystical creatures from far away um they were very much present in her life from the from the very
00:19:07.480beginning um and and again she she was great with her older siblings because they were now late
00:19:14.240teenagers early 20s and and one of the favorite maria expressions was she would always when they
00:19:20.400were wound up in drama which maria didn't have a high tolerance for drama um she would just tell
00:19:25.120them to get over they had to get over themselves that was her big line with her siblings um but from
00:19:29.840the time they they started you know coming to her when she was eight nine ten years old our our pastor
00:19:37.840at the time tells stories that he would find himself in conversations with maria that were
00:19:42.560deeply based in theological thought and then he would look at her and realize he was talking to
00:19:47.280an eight-year-old girl um and he he talked about the fact that he he felt that in some ways she was
00:19:54.240his theological peer at that age so she was and again i'm saying this and she was she liked all the
00:20:01.680things that every other kid liked too though you know she was she was a very she was exceptional in
00:20:06.880certain ways but normal in in ways too there was there was nothing precocious or pretentious about
00:20:12.880her i i think you know she was truly humble in the real sense of the word in that she knew that she
00:20:21.120was gifted but she knew that those gifts came from god and and from an early age she she tried to give
00:20:27.520those gifts back as her life unfolded was there any signs of what came later so other than you know
00:20:37.280were there any health signs that indicated something was coming there was when she was six months old
00:20:43.600you know she had um some seizures that that we never were able to figure out what they were and there was
00:20:50.880initially a very um difficult diagnosis that was made um that that she would never really grow it grow
00:21:00.720up that that she would be impaired um and those things went away you know there was a lot of prayer
00:21:07.360at the time um especially susan praying to saint joseph uh for his intercession um and and we ended up
00:21:14.800taking her one time to to do an eeg um and the doctor just said go home these things will go away
00:21:21.840other than that maria was incredibly healthy um i mean no no doctor visits um she was she was athletic
00:21:29.040and and very healthy so there wasn't but if when we we didn't know um of her writings you know we knew
00:21:37.040that she journal but it was private we we we never never knew it when we when we go back and look now
00:21:44.320um there's there there are certainly indications that maria know knew and and had united herself
00:21:52.400to to carry whatever crosses in her life that god would give her uh i think the um i mean to give
00:21:59.440you an idea i mean the the the maria's story really picks up on january 31st 2019 when when she was
00:22:07.120diagnosed she was a a great irish dancer and she had lost her balance in one of one of her practices and
00:22:13.120so we we took her to get her examined and and got an um uh got her tested uh and that's when the doctors
00:22:21.920rushed her to children's hospital in philadelphia and and we received a diagnosis that um that she had
00:22:28.240this brain tumor in her brain stem and would reasonably have about nine months to live um of
00:22:35.360course we we we gathered around in prayer and the prayers went went went crazy that the prayers went
00:22:41.200all over the place um and then the mystic some of the real mystical things really began to happen
00:22:46.880um the the the first thing that happened that that's noteworthy is that within a the super bowl
00:22:55.360was two days later there was a super bowl party that our neighbors have all of the time that nobody's
00:23:00.080really invited to but they uh you just show up and so we had our our family here for the first half
00:23:06.880of the super bowl and at halftime maria said can we go over to mr and mrs krug's house and
00:23:10.800of course i said she could have said you know can you will you take me to the moon and i would have
00:23:14.720figured out a way to do it but we went over um and when i was there my friend greg said you know
00:23:19.200we have a little surprise for maria again this was only two days after the diagnosis and um he said
00:23:24.880it's downstairs and as so we went downstairs and as i i turned the stairway i i saw about 30 good
00:23:30.960looking athletic young men between about 18 and 21 and it was uh the de sales university lacrosse team
00:23:38.880there was a teddy bear there and they had dozens of roses and and as they came around the corner
00:23:45.040um they they said we believe in miracles um they they had and maria was you know stunned she was a
00:23:52.48016 year old girl and suddenly she's got the attention of all these good athletic young men um
00:23:57.040you know but in a matter of two days they had gotten permission from their coach and from the
00:24:02.800school administration to dedicate the season to maria it was a beautiful story it'll make it a
00:24:09.120good movie someday um but needless to say this was a team that never had a winning record in the history
00:24:15.200of the school um they dedicated to maria they she was the honorary captain they had her initials on
00:24:20.800their helmets they went to mass before every game to say prayers for his health um so the season goes on
00:24:27.200they're 5-0 10-0 15-0 um if they win one more game against the team that wins the championship
00:24:32.560every year they win the championship well they they lose that game and it forces a one-game championship
00:24:38.480and so and maria when maria wasn't at the games they had a big head of maria made up when they
00:24:44.800would score a goal they would go over to maria they would point to maria and point to heaven and
00:24:48.400bless themselves the at the championship game and the team was very good that had forced this game
00:24:55.360again the perennial champions it was a neck and neck game and they they work came up into the
00:25:00.960stands they didn't know if maria was there and so maria went down and greeted them at halftime
00:25:06.240and they came out at halftime and within 90 seconds scored three goals and went on to win a championship
00:25:12.080um and and but in more ways than that she she influenced she still influences these these this team
00:25:18.960is still in touch with us they all have a great devotion to maria some of them have made career
00:25:23.360choices one of them decided to go into the seminary another decided to pursue neurology
00:25:28.080and the influence that she had on their life it was tremendous um but that was the beginning of
00:25:33.120that was the beginning of this 20-month journey where maria really wrote a masterpiece of a life
00:25:39.680um and another thing i can tell you about maria is a couple weeks after she was diagnosed with a
00:25:43.520terminal illness i asked maria how she was doing and she said dad regardless of the circumstances
00:25:48.560of my life my mission and purpose remain the same and it's to know love and serve god in this world
00:25:54.400and ultimately to be happy with him in heaven and she said my faith my emotions will rise and fall but
00:26:00.160my faith is not an emotion it's a commitment and i will not despair um and she began to lead an advent
00:26:07.360life at then she there was suffering and there was joy coexisting in her life you know a year later
00:26:12.880she wrote in her journal 2019 although it was terrible and great it was the best year of my life
00:26:18.800and and and in many many stories i uh of her um was the president of her senior class um and
00:26:30.080she she was asked to speak on ring day um and and it was a very powerful speech it was a speech that
00:26:38.560i don't think was going to make the school's website because she challenged the children of
00:26:44.000what was really important um and and that they should focus on becoming the person that god created
00:26:51.280them to be in a world where many teenagers struggle to find real meaning and purpose we know that our
00:26:58.720purpose in life is to know love and serve god so we can all be happy with him in heaven this
00:27:06.640understanding calls us to lead others to him through our everyday words and actions
00:27:12.720each day we all have the opportunity to evangelize our brothers and sisters through our daily encounters
00:27:19.920so there was all of these things it's hard to you know it's hard to capture john i there were so many
00:27:25.440so many things within that first couple of months we began to be contacted by people all over the world
00:27:32.400um by by christians who were who were working in the middle east they were living in caves but they
00:27:40.800were their job they were converting muslims to christianity and then escorting them across the border we
00:27:45.360have we have audios of them praying in their kurdish languages of of asking you know for god's help for
00:27:52.960maria 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
00:28:08.800and 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
00:28:16.960and that that she really hoped that one day she would meet maria but she knew that that would never happen
00:28:24.480well interestingly enough nine months later on the anniversary of the day that they told maria that she
00:28:29.840had an expiration date maria was landing in uganda for a mission trip um and and influencing people not
00:28:36.800only at the school but throughout the jungle um to see the way that people were were drawn to her
00:28:42.720um again you know she was connected to the vine um and and there was just it was almost as if she became
00:28:51.760so one with the lord because she truly offered herself as as a sacrifice her her body her pain her suffering
00:29:01.680she she intentionally offered it to god and and he was using her to transform lives um we we traveled all
00:29:10.960over obviously as her dad um i was going to look for every possible human way that might you know intercede
00:29:22.320medically on her behalf and everywhere she went she had the same she was transforming the hospitals that
00:29:29.440she was staying in um the as as time went on uh again we you know our big thing with all of the doctors
00:29:37.200was you can have a diagnosis but god will have the prognosis um we lived we lived with hope john henry
00:29:43.600every every day um we prayed for a miracle and we expected a miracle um and and some people would say
00:29:49.920well you know you didn't get the miracle that you expected but we got many many miracles we and we got
00:29:55.440the miracles that god wanted us to get through maria miracles of relationships healing people coming
00:30:02.000to the lord many people coming to the lord we we had uh two priests who came to us and said that they
00:30:08.400were contemplating leaving their vocation and when they met maria and experienced what they experienced
00:30:13.440in maria's presence that that they realized that they were going to recommit themselves to their vocation
00:30:19.680so there's there there's an there's an awful lot that i could talk about and continue to talk about
00:30:25.920um about maria her pain though was real what was that like you know what did she go through well i mean she
00:30:37.920uh december of 19 when she began to have more severe symptoms um but maria never complained about it
00:30:50.000um she she just offered it up in fact on on good friday of 2020 uh at noon we thought we were going to
00:31:01.200lose maria um she began having difficulty breathe and she began having secretions and we gathered the
00:31:06.320family and we got um her kathleen mccarthy her spiritual advisor and and um and we prayed at her bedside and
00:31:13.760and and shortly after three o'clock um she came out of what she was in um and she said to to us um
00:31:26.000god will be here soon either for the miracle or or to take me home and she said but in the meantime
00:31:32.160let'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
00:31:41.600of people had said asked us if they could do a drive-by for people to just give their support
00:31:46.960to maria and we were thinking a couple of people would come by and this is actually this made national
00:31:51.440news uh we live in the country and and um so this was an unusual occurrence but over 500 vehicles of all
00:31:58.560kinds showed up and drove through our our driveway here to to say give maria their best it was it was an
00:32:06.560amazing thing the in in um i guess it was in june um maria began to decline and and and how old is she
00:32:17.600at this point she's 17 um she she entered the hospital doylestown hospital and that was where
00:32:27.040we lived as a family for for five almost five months um but john henry that the transformation of
00:32:34.880that hospital the the administrators to this day talk about it um you know long after the agnostic
00:32:43.760physicians would say that maria's life was worth living the quality of maria's life was worth living
00:32:49.440she was transforming hearts and souls she was leading people to jesus into eternity the the hospital
00:32:56.800room became a chapel and her bed became an altar of sacrifice people would actually take their breaks
00:33:02.000and come to maria's room and they would pray we had people praying it was it was almost you know
00:33:07.920all all night people would come in that the the uh the maintenance staff would come in at some point
00:33:14.160the hospital administrator himself came in to see what was going on um there there was just this
00:33:19.840transformational experience the conversations that played we had i jokingly say this that it became
00:33:27.120almost like a monty python skit in all of the clerical people in the robed people who would come and visit
00:33:32.400maria um you know one of the really special experiences was with father jim blunt came to visit
00:33:38.560her um and and uh he when he came in he he he was praying um and you know he he began to see things
00:33:50.880which he has that gift and he began to name he gives the angels and the saints are ministering to
00:33:56.560maria they're here with maria um and he started to name saints you know maria gretti uh the kids from
00:34:03.200from fatima um uh saint joan of arc was there who maria had a great devotion to um carlo acutis was there
00:34:11.600and and um named they were the young saints he said the young saints are here and he said maria is a
00:34:18.400a suffering soul who has offered herself to save he goes thousands of souls of teenage children in
00:34:25.760the worst of places um and after he left maria was at the point where she could she couldn't hear but
00:34:32.880she could see and we communicated with a whiteboard and and she would move her her one eye up and down for
00:34:39.920yes and no and so susan listed the saints i guess there was a little bit of skepticism uh you know we
00:34:47.840were just looking to to confirm um and we susan put a few placebo saints on there um a couple extras
00:34:55.440that that father blunt didn't see and maria said yes to every saint he said and no to every saint that
00:35:01.760we put on there um and and again it was it there was so much going on we had you know the the she wrote
00:35:10.080a letter to the archbishop of philadelphia when the poor archbishop perez his first week on the job was
00:35:17.680covet um so so he when they closed the churches maria it was i remember it vividly it was 8 30 on a
00:35:25.200saturday night and and she sent an email to him and and communicated this thought that that doesn't take
00:35:32.880someone in her situation who's lost the security the false security of a long life to remind you that the
00:35:39.040only thing that we have to fear is the absence of the lord and that people in her situation need
00:35:43.760the eucharist and they need the sacraments and with within 15 minutes he responded and said have
00:35:49.920your parents call me i will bring you the eucharist personally um and he did uh and they created a
00:35:56.720friendship a beautiful friendship um that you know he entailed him communicating with her um they be they
00:36:04.480became friends and he came to visit her in the hospital to to ask for her prayers um and and
00:36:11.680from what i know you know continued he he told us you know that his whole career he's had five
00:36:17.440prayer partners that he prays to intercessors in heaven and and when maria passed away he said i now
00:36:21.600have six um so there there was there was a there was so much oh there'll be more about this because
00:36:29.040the director of communications at the hospital they was so intrigued by what went on that when he he
00:36:36.320retired soon after maria passed away and um and asked us if he could write a book about her final 20
00:36:44.080months um to to really try and understand what was taking place and and what everybody experienced there
00:36:52.400um and there's and it continues john henry you know i'm i'm not even capturing a an ounce of
00:37:00.480the whole story um there there's her her funeral which took place in covet you know when everything
00:37:08.480was shut down and nobody was coming was at the shrine of our lady of chest of hope in doyle's town
00:37:13.520we had five and a half hours of viewing one night and had to stop it and then the next day we had three
00:37:19.360and a half and had to stop it thousands and thousands of people came through thousands of
00:37:24.000people came to the funeral um there were 13 priests on the altar of maria's funeral um and and we hadn't
00:37:31.440invited them um you know we we invited i think three or three or four to participate um and and if you
00:37:39.760if you see that because it's online um and it's still being viewed there are thousands of people that have
00:37:45.760viewed it um they it it was as if it was really as if god was pulling back the veil for everyone to see
00:37:57.520of what it is like when you truly unite your life to him you know it it's difficult for me to still say
00:38:03.600that maria died because it it was almost as if she walked us to eternal life with her and and we got a
00:38:13.280glimpse of it you know the again long after people would say the quality of her life was worth living
00:38:18.800she was introducing us to this world of the unknowable and and she lived in that world her her whole life
00:38:25.040quietly like she she didn't she never limited her experience to that of her own understanding
00:38:30.720she was always willing to step into the world of the unknowable and you know when when she was
00:38:35.360diagnosed we had conversations you know about the fact that that people this is god's call and there
00:38:42.480was so much unknowable about an all-knowing god and and so much that's unknowable about medicine i
00:38:48.960mean in in the if you look at you know the slice of human knowledge and in the pie of eternal knowledge
00:38:55.360we know nothing and when what is known is offering us no hope we find our hope in the unknown um and and
00:39:03.120that's what maria taught us is that we limit ourselves to those things you know we to and there is so much
00:39:10.640there's so much mystery and so much awe in our faith that if if we embrace it
00:39:17.760we can live with hope we can live with joy regardless of the suffering of our circumstances
00:39:22.560the the interesting thing is i told you about the journal right uh the first journal we found maria was
00:39:28.720probably 10 or 11 when we found this first journal because actually people would people were saying maria's
00:39:34.480going to be a saint and i would say well saints have to have writings you know there's got to be some
00:39:38.400way to put together the story and and and we had we had no idea and then susan started finding like this
00:39:43.840depth of stuff from the time she was six and seven eight years old but the first journal that susan
00:39:49.760uncovered it began at eight or nine and her first journal entry was god is merciful and the last journal
00:39:56.080entry with this was her last journal and and her her writing had declined because she was losing her
00:40:01.600her physical abilities again think of this the class president you know the great athlete the number
00:40:07.200one student in her class uh a an all-star irish dancer she was lost god took away all of these temporal
00:40:15.360skills and the final message that she was able to communicate via the written word was think hope
00:40:22.320you know and maria meant hope eternal she it wasn't mere optimism and you know people would say
00:40:28.480well break that down how how can that happen and i can tell you from knowing maria and from reading
00:40:33.840maria's journals that that there is a duplicative formula for the way that maria led her life because
00:40:39.040maria when push came to shove there's four takeaways one is that when we're faced with something that's
00:40:46.880beyond our control or we're faced with suffering the ultimate in human dignity is that we get to control
00:40:52.080our attitude over those things over which we have no control and maria chose hope she chose faith and
00:40:58.720she chose love at a time that most people wouldn't be able to make that decision now again did she
00:41:05.280make that decision then no she made that decision years earlier when she decided to basically turn her
00:41:10.080life over to the lord when she decided that that to be with the lord was to embrace the suffering and
00:41:14.720the crosses that would come across your life but she chose that attitude when she told me i will not
00:41:19.840despair i will choose hope marina you think about the despair that plagues the world and it's because
00:41:26.720people don't know who they are they don't know what their identity is well we won't go down that
00:41:30.880rabbit trail but that's a big issue and that's why people are despairing maria knew at her core her whole
00:41:36.560identity was that maria was a child of god that that's what she was and she knew why she existed and
00:41:45.200she existed to know love and serve god in this world and ultimately to be happy with him in heaven
00:41:48.960regardless of the circumstances and maria knew what she valued she valued faith she valued family
00:41:54.560she valued freedom she valued truth beauty and goodness and she lived out that life so when
00:42:00.800the negative things came in her life she had a rudder that was able to propel her and that's a message
00:42:08.400that needs to just continue that's that's the legacy of maria know who you are know why you exist and
00:42:13.920know what you value um we live in a we live in a lost world john henry and and i see so many children
00:42:19.760that are lost and yet here's a young woman diagnosed with a terminal illness who writes a masterpiece in
00:42:26.800the last 20 months of her life um and again the story continues um we we don't go a week without hearing from
00:42:38.000somebody that we don't know who's in relationship with maria uh who's praying for maria's intercession
00:42:44.160we you know we we hear stories of people who are claiming miracles they're not you know they're not
00:42:50.960verifiable miracles but but they talk about relationships healing they talk about physical healings
00:42:56.560um we we're constantly being asked um for our you know for for us you know to pray to our daughter
00:43:05.680um again we know maria is a saint because saints are in heaven but if maria is ever an official saint
00:43:10.400the big takeaway i want everybody to take away is that sainthood is not genetic john henry um it didn't
00:43:15.200it doesn't come we're we're not the martin family um you know we're just normal folks so these things
00:43:23.200continue to happen i mean to the extent that where maria's final resting place is the shrine of our
00:43:28.480lady of chesto hova um and they've told us that it's the most visited grave site they've ever had
00:43:33.920to the extent they've asked if they could put a display of information about maria because they
00:43:39.680have people coming to the monastery all the time asking where maria is buried um and it and it just
00:43:47.120it just continues what is for you um some of the most memorable writings that you've read of maria's
00:43:55.520writing i think um some of them she wrote one about transubstantiation when she was in seventh
00:44:03.760grade that it's actually the best thing i've ever read about transubstantiation um and she wrestled
00:44:10.880with it she she wrestled with uh is it cannibalism um is it symbolic um and and it came to the you know
00:44:20.400to her own conclusion based on her worldly experience and she studied the miracles you
00:44:25.120know the eucharistic miracles that that it really was the body blood soul and divinity of god but not
00:44:30.400only that it was his heart um and and she came to the conclusion that it is both real
00:44:36.000substantive and symbolic because of what a heart stands for and and that's why he chose it um
00:44:43.360that's certainly one one of the ones that that stands out for me um it's funny because we're just
00:44:49.280we're going through so many and just when i when i come up with one that i think is the one that nails
00:44:53.200it i i love any she has she's written um a lot of stuff about offering you know herself as a sacrifice
00:45:04.640um i mean things that are she understood suffering at an early age um and she she writes about some of
00:45:13.040the suffering you know that she's experienced well that is something that is sort of universal but a lot
00:45:18.880of people right now are feeling their suffering in huge ways it's some for a lot of people right now
00:45:26.880overwhelming what is some of the best advice that she has with regard to suffering one of the things
00:45:34.240that she did was that she united herself and her suffering with god um she saw it as her journey
00:45:42.800you know she wrote she loved saint joan of arc saint joan of arc she dressed as saint joan of arc when
00:45:47.120she was little at the you know when they would have to do things at school uh and and she wrote one
00:45:51.360time that she knew that god would have her in battle and and but that the battle would be spiritual
00:45:59.600um and and so there there was a when you tie that to her her vine and branches um maria always
00:46:09.840was able to control her attitude and unite herself to christ even when she was struggling
00:46:15.280with normal kid things like um uh computer usage or or or cell phone usage or she would she would always
00:46:24.160articulate the problem in a very common secular teenage way and then she would work her way to
00:46:33.600uniting herself to the lord um she she was she would always end up there and and i think that's such a
00:46:41.920great message she understood that she wasn't born for this world more than anybody that i ever met and
00:46:48.160so she didn't necessarily see suffering as any kind of a punishment she she saw it as the reason that she
00:46:56.560was born uh and and i think it's the only explanation for her ability to unite it so closely to the lord
00:47:03.840some of you may remember or perhaps even newly appreciate the late archbishop fulton j sheen
00:47:12.240he is considered one of the greatest communicators in the modern era and stands as a great example for
00:47:18.480all of us in what it means to work in catholic broadcasting for over 50 years sheen captivated
00:47:25.200audience on both radio and television and millions tuned in each week to hear his messages of hope
00:47:30.720and encouragement one of life site's supporters is radio maria and they are now proud to be showcasing
00:47:37.920some of bishop sheen's timeless recordings on their weekly radio show entitled bishop sheen presents
00:47:45.200please consider tuning in to radio maria on friday afternoons at 2 p.m central or saturdays at 5 p.m
00:47:52.880to enjoy the venerable archbishop's wit and wisdom for more information on radio maria and their catholic
00:47:59.520work please visit their website radiomaria.us that's radiomaria.us and now back to the program
00:48:08.160another one of those areas that's very difficult for people nowadays is the whole concept of hope
00:48:16.720um hope not only even even hope in the proper way so she recognized she was a child of god
00:48:25.920her hope was heaven but even that's hard a lot of people are living in lives that are full of sin
00:48:31.280and wonder about their own salvation um and then there's the whole concept of of being despairing of
00:48:39.760of just the way things are in your life what was her message of hope her message of hope was that if
00:48:48.880you live a life of serving god by serving others if you live a self-transcendent life
00:48:53.760that you will have not only eternal joy but joy in your life there's there's some things that that
00:49:02.160she wrote um about hope and about truth um that she understood that happiness is not a momentary pleasure
00:49:14.720you know she she was very counter-cultural and and had an awareness of the secular view
00:49:19.920of a lot of things um she could see that people pursuing momentary pleasures were not happy people
00:49:27.600but she also had a firm understanding she has a good classical education from the academy that she
00:49:32.800she attended in grade school and had a foundation of understanding the role of virtue and that that true joy
00:49:41.120comes from pursuing virtue um and true joy comes from being self-transcended and and not narcissistic
00:49:48.400um and and those were really the the way that's the way that she led her life by pursuing by pursuing
00:49:56.160virtue you know there if when and she understood this i i don't know if you know some of it is stuff
00:50:03.120that she she learned from us some of it she learned in school but when you eliminate the concept of
00:50:10.000objective truth you eliminate objective good and and when you eliminate objective good you eliminate the
00:50:16.480potential for true happiness because true joy and happiness comes from pursuing virtue which is
00:50:23.040defined as the firm disposition towards that which is good and and maria just understood that and she
00:50:28.320understood it at a very pragmatic level it was like she didn't understand why people you know would
00:50:34.560would do things other than that uh because it it the the joy that she experienced along with her suffering
00:50:43.600was all very palpable you know you people again when people are coming the hospital people would tell us
00:50:50.480we usually everybody avoids you got a 17 18 year old girl who's in bad shape and is dying everybody
00:50:56.960avoids that room but yet everybody came to that room they would they would argue over who was going to be
00:51:02.080maria's night nurse because they wanted to be the presence there was a glow a transfiguring kind of glow
00:51:09.040um that that was in that room um we had we had um a priest come to visit us um who was asked by a
00:51:18.640friend to come and visit us and this was the saturday before maria was was called home um and and he he
00:51:25.040told us later he came and he was looking at his watch and you know he was there to give maria a blessing
00:51:30.000and again three hours later we're still sitting there and he couldn't leave um and he canceled his dinner
00:51:36.080plans and he later spoke about it he gave a beautiful homily about what he experienced in
00:51:40.560that room and it was he said it was like the ultimate retreat there was there was a a mystical
00:51:48.880priest um father monsignor essa explained to us that at one point maria had you come so one with the
00:51:55.600lord that there was no real separation and that what people were feeling was the lord's presence within
00:52:01.920her and again i again i had never experienced it before either but there was just this overwhelming
00:52:09.280sense of grace and peace and still is by the way um with everything that's associated with maria um
00:52:17.600you know we there when you lose a child you know there is this emotional and psychological loss that's just
00:52:24.480overwhelming but it's it's counterbalanced by this incredible spiritual joy that we feel um you know
00:52:33.600in the present tense you know there we you know we didn't love maria we love maria we didn't have
00:52:40.080a relationship with maria we have a relationship with maria you know maria has now gone on to her
00:52:45.280eternal reward because she's earned it we still don't there was going into 2021 was new year's day and
00:52:53.920i'm sitting at my table and i'm crying and i said i i don't want to move on without her
00:53:00.960and and i heard her voice and maria had a you know she could be a little bit sarcastic in a good way
00:53:05.760and and she says you're not moving on i moved on you got to catch up you know and it's the kind of
00:53:12.000thing that she would have said to me and and i i heard it i heard it clearly um and it's almost as
00:53:18.720if you know what we feel now with with you know this foundation with that we didn't start friends of
00:53:23.360ours said we're going to start a foundation do you want to be a part of it it was pretty difficult
00:53:26.720to say no to uh because it was centered around maria and we feel that we're being directed now
00:53:32.240it's all you know we kid about it it's like maria got a big a big promotion and now we're working for
00:53:36.480her uh it's sort of what it feels like john um but there's again there's there's so much there's just
00:53:43.120so much here and so much continuing to unfold about maria's story indeed well let's have a look at
00:53:50.160maria if you can set this clip up for us as i mentioned before uh we we connected a relationship
00:53:57.680with this school in uganda um and we didn't really know what to expect but we decided to go there and
00:54:05.200maria was all for it um and there was there was these multiple experiences with people in the jungle
00:54:11.760and some of the kids at the school where you can just see the absolute joy um there between the
00:54:19.760school children and then just some of the people that she was meeting in the jungle and you can see
00:54:23.600here how they were just drawn to her and how she just waited right in um prayed with them um and and
00:54:31.840there was just this love you know that that you could feel and this radiance when when maria was
00:54:39.200was diagnosed the prayers just came and john henry literally i i know you've experienced this too
00:54:48.320there the power of prayer can be overwhelming because there were there was no explanation
00:54:54.960for some of the strength that that we all felt during those initial phases um and there were
00:55:01.760times when we literally could feel grace flowing into us i i can't explain what it feels like but i
00:55:05.680never felt it before and i knew it was something different and the only explanation i could come up
00:55:09.520with was that it was grace and maria really felt this too um and and this is she she spoke about this
00:55:16.080in addition to that um she wrote a she wrote a prayer about the power of prayer which is now being
00:55:23.040circulated all all over oh would you read that to us or she read it herself i will read it to you
00:55:30.160right now so this was this was about a month and a half after maria was diagnosed and we began to
00:55:38.160experience all of all of the prayer that we were going uh that we were that was being sent to us um
00:55:45.360and this is a prayer that maria wrote the overwhelming power of prayer revealed in dark and scary times
00:55:53.280when one is blinded by fear and confusion god's radiant light penetrating throughout
00:56:00.160revealed in dark and scary times providing hope and shining armor god's radiant light penetrating
00:56:05.680throughout swaddling his children in comfort and peace providing hope and shining armor as one enters
00:56:12.880their journey into the depths of the unknown swaddling his children in comfort and peace complete trust and
00:56:19.360faith given to persevere as one walks their journey into the depths of the unknown when one is blinded
00:56:26.560by fear and confusion complete trust and faith given to person persevere the overwhelming power of prayer
00:56:34.080fear beautiful it is you know there's there's another quote that i just thought of and it came
00:56:46.800probably six months into her in her journey where she talks about how scary it can be but that her
00:56:57.040overwhelming sense and feeling is that of gratitude for the life that she's been given and for the people
00:57:06.080in her life um and and and she talked about how important it is that we live in the present
00:57:16.000that grace is only available to us in the present and that if we stay in the present all will be well
00:57:24.800um it is hard she was 16 when she wrote that and it's just it's difficult to imagine facing what she was
00:57:34.880facing and genuinely truly in her journal this wasn't a public statement you know this wasn't a false self
00:57:43.040this was what she was really feeling just this overwhelming gratitude for the life that she'd been
00:57:47.920given brian um thank you for sharing with us give us some final thoughts but we really want to know too
00:57:54.320where people can find out more about your foundation and about maria well again we we were approached by
00:58:01.840friends of ours to to create a foundation and it's called thinkhope.org and it can be found
00:58:08.240at thinkhope.org and the purpose of our foundation is really to to reach people who are on the continuum
00:58:15.200of despair there's a continuum from early childhood education to the end of life suffering um and and
00:58:22.000what think hope is all about is supporting those organizations that bring hope to despairing situations so
00:58:29.680good catholic education nothing like it maria had that maria knew who she was why she was born
00:58:34.720and what she valued that is so critical in this world where people are just so confused uh they have
00:58:41.760no meaning and purpose they have no sense of community so from the early stage it's it's supporting catholic
00:58:48.400education and a lot of classical kind of education the other thing that that we're doing is is looking at
00:58:54.000at at the teenage years where people get lost in all the these identities that that don't sustain
00:59:01.600them in fact they bring despair and a lot of it is generated through social media then there's a part
00:59:05.920in the despair world where nothing works and people fall into despair and so organizations that are helping
00:59:11.600them and then of course the end of life um we also have a focus on actually bringing
00:59:18.480hope into businesses um through our our consulting practice which is our for-profit of turning businesses into
00:59:25.200communities of hope so the the focus is raising money and finding organizations that are ministering to
00:59:31.280people in despair and using our network of people to help support those industries as
00:59:35.600you know john you know henry you know there are a lot of great people out there that are doing god's
00:59:40.320work that you know don't have networks or don't have the ability to raise money for them and we're hoping to do
00:59:45.520that um and that again you can you can find that at thinkhope.org um i maria's story is is still beginning
00:59:56.240um you know um you know she lives a life on this planet worthy of
01:00:04.560adulation and adoration um but but just such a great example in in this world of despair you know
01:00:12.880we need harbingers of hope we we need people that we can look up to who know how to bring hope into the world
01:00:20.080um i i think again i i think the the four components of maria's life are messages that we have to get out
01:00:26.080there choosing your attitude over those things over which you have no no control um who are you
01:00:33.120why do i exist and and and um what do i value we we lack meaning and purpose children lack people our
01:00:41.440age i see it all the time they they lack meaning and purpose and therefore they're victims of despair
01:00:46.640you know the the the big messages that we want to get out there is is that we are we are in a battle
01:00:53.920with the devil maria understood that and and she understood that it was a battle of world views
01:01:01.040um she understood that that her christian worldview you know was the antidote to the human secular
01:01:07.360worldview a world of relativism and and place basically setting people up to disappear into a
01:01:13.520black hole of nothing at some point in time when maria was diagnosed she knew what her destiny was
01:01:23.920and her hope was in her faith her hope was she understood that regardless of the circumstances
01:01:29.280and we prayed for a miracle every day john henry don't don't we we prayed and we expected it
01:01:34.880but god gave us the grace to endure it all one day at a time led by our little vessel of grace maria
01:01:42.400um and i know that you know that it was very intentional that those were her last words i know that she could see
01:01:48.640her friends and even her family members sinking into despair and and the one thing that she wanted us
01:01:55.920to have was her faith and her understanding that she was okay absolutely beautiful brian thank you so
01:02:04.560very much for sharing with us your beautiful daughter thanks john and uh thank you god bless you
01:02:10.400yeah god bless you too john henry look forward to seeing again sometime and god bless all of you