I got the news a few days ago that the pastor of my childhood parish, a man who has served at that parish and is much beloved by everyone there, has a disease that is slowly killing him, Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Unless God heals him, the whole parish of over 2,000 families will have to watch him gradually fade away over the next three to five years. This is the man who married me, and married my sister, who gave my littlest two sisters almost all their sacraments, who throws around footballs in his homilies, gives you a huge hug even if he barely remembers you. When you ask him "How are you?" he will always answer "I am blessed."
Please pray that God lets us have this blessed man a little longer, so he can marry one more of my sisters and hopefully baptize my first child when they come along. He is the only grandfather I have ever known, the best priest I ever had, and the first person to die who I will actually cry over. Please help me pray for him.
For those of you who pray to saints, he has asked that we pray to Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati.