As you may recall, Joanie's mother passed on from complications of pneumonia about a year before she went to the doctor with 'growing pains.' Her six sisters and brother, as well as her father, were just beginning to get over the early loss of their mother and beloved wife.
Suffering and loss, especially among the innocent, is one of the great stumbling blocks of faith, and a folly to those who have no faith. So we must rally to the support of those when they are taking up their Cross, as will we all. We may ask, 'why doesn't God do something?' He did. He calls you, heart to heart. He did this when He walked among us, but we do not see it, we do not think about it in our own time. And yet He is still here.
There are some remarkable advances being make in cancer research, and St. Jude's Children Research Hospital is a beacon. However, overall the work goes slowly and the marketplace too often seeks to maximize its returns, rather than to act boldly and take the big risks.
We send many of our brightest and invest enormous amounts into finance and system to find better ways of cheating one another, and to spy and oppress and deceive one another. And the effects of this tragic misallocation of energy and resources, this sickness of the spirit, are more widespread and insidious than we might imagine.
There are many fine people in our medical system, but this nation lacks the will to really rise to the aid of the afflicted, in all to many cases. There is even a growing satisfaction with the unnecessary suffering of the weak. We become what we fear and hate, because it wrings the love out of our hearts, leaving only emptiness and despair. Indifference and greed kill bodies as well as souls.
And Jesus wept.
Please remember Joanie and her family in your prayers, as she remembers all of you here at Le Café.
"Five days ago the St Jude staff sat us down to say they've exhausted all therapies. With teary eyes and faltering words, Joan's oncologist Dr. Navide told us it was time to go home...
The harrowing truth is that her prognosis is presently not even two months. Joan has a blessed grace period (Deo Gratias) of perhaps three weeks where she will continue with normal functioning. We're told there is a reasonable chance that she will rapidly succumb to a sudden event, likely a seizure, due to the neurological spread of her bone cancer. Hospice is on hand.
I'm talking to Joan about this brief time being an extremely special opportunity where her little prayers have a most particular power. She is praying Hail Mary's for the many folks, both near and far, who have been a part of our family.
We ask Heaven for a cure and for a holy resignation to the Divine Will. Providence has carried the Schneider pilgrims all through this journey and, despite my repeated offenses and unworthiness, I know in my bones His Mercy won't let us down."
St.Jude's Children's Research Hospital
332 N. Lauderdale
Memphis,TN 38105
Related:
Update on Joanie, February 2014
