Brittany Maynard with her husband Dan on their wedding day in September, 2012.
A nationwide novena for Brittany Maynard, the woman who is dying of brain cancer and intends to kill herself on November 1, begins today with a beautiful prayer to St. John Paul II to intercede for the life of this young woman.
Anna Mitchell, news director and anchor for the Son Rise Morning Show on the EWTN Global Catholic Radio Network has put out a call on her blog asking the faithful to join with her in a nationwide novena for Brittany Maynard, the 29 year-old woman who has decided to end her life on November 1 rather than face the pain and suffering of her incurable brain cancer.
“I would argue that, of all the great teachings we have from our former Holy Father – pages upon pages of his writings – his lived experience of redemptive suffering is perhaps the greatest of them all,” Mitchell writes.
“Karol Wojtyla began his papacy as a spry and athletic 58-year-old, but he ended it as an 84-year-old man who had slowly deteriorated from Parkinson’s Disease – all as the world watched. It had to have been incredibly frustrating and humbling for a former athlete and ‘rock star pope’ to have trouble walking and even speaking, and I imagine that he was often tempted to retreat into seclusion where he could deal with his frailties hidden from the public eye. But he didn’t. He kept his public engagements in Rome, he kept writing, he kept traveling.”
In doing so, he showed the world “a kind of holiness that is not often put on display – constantly clinging to the cross, he united his suffering to that of our Lord, and his life became a beacon of hope for the millions who witnessed it,” Mitchell writes.
This is why she is seeking his intercession on behalf of Brittany who is understandably terrified of the grim end to which she has been sentenced.
“Brittany has been fed a lie. She believes that suffering is ugly and meaningless, and so she is doing the only thing that seems dignified. On one level, I get it. Who wants to suffer? I doubt that John Paul II wanted to suffer. I know that Jesus didn’t want to suffer. But suffering can be beautiful and full of meaning, which is why they accepted it.”
On the other hand, “suicide is never dignified,” Mitchell writes, “and it expresses a complete lack of trust in God’s will and providence. Who knows how long God intends for her to live? Who knows in that time how many lives she could touch for the good?”
The novena, which starts today, is pleading to God – through the intercession of St. John Paul II – that Brittany will have a change of heart, realize that she is “single, unique and unrepeatable, someone thought of and chosen from eternity, someone called and identified by name,” and that she can never be replaced.
All are being asked to pray the following prayer beginning today and ending on October 22 for Brittany’s spiritual and bodily healing.
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PRAYER FOR INTERCESSION OF ST JOHN PAUL II
O Blessed Trinity, we thank you
For having graced the Church with
Saint John Paul II and for allowing
The tenderness of your fatherly care,
The glory of the Cross of Christ
And the splendor of the Spirit of love
To shine through him.
Trusting fully in your infinite mercy
And in the maternal intercession of Mary,
He has given us a living image of
Jesus the Good Shepherd.
He has shown us that holiness
Is the necessary measure of ordinary
Christian life and is the way of
Achieving eternal communion with you.
Grant us, by his intercession,
And according to your will,
The graces we implore,
Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
