Do This in Memory of Me: Have Faith to Believe

​By: Laura Catherine Worhacz

Dearest Eucharistic family,

I am currently standing in the vestibule of Saint Catherine of Siena Roman Catholic Church in Manhattan, New York while my husband is having a fourth surgery for sepsis infection. I have spent the last week in the hospital in the critical care intensive care unit with my spouse. I have met and chatted with so many nurses, doctors, and hospital staff throughout the hospital stay.

One young woman walked in, looked at me, and said Laura Altrui? I smiled and said Laura Worhacz for the past 36 years, the other was my maiden name. Caught up with this lovely nurse I had not seen in many years. She had the chance to share with me many hardships that her family endured. Her younger brother was best friends with my younger brother. She lost a brother in 9/11 whose funeral Mass I had attended back in 2001. He was a firefighter, a hero. We shared some tears in his remembrance. This lovely nurse continued to share that her husband died, her brother-in-law died, her father died and her mother has severe dementia. She looked at me with a smile and a tear and said, “It is our family curse.”

Immediately I said to her, “You are blessed.” We had a beautiful long talk about the sacraments faith and hope and the reality of the Cross. I said to this beautiful young nurse that we cannot give evil any power over our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We are not cursed. We are blessed.

We need to believe in our faith and have faith to believe. We live in the Resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, and His promises of hope. This hope that we hang onto comes through the Paschal Mystery of Christ’s passion, death, and rising. This is the reality of the mystery of our faith.

Through this very extensive week of suffering with my husband, it has been beyond imaginable to see what he has gone through. I received notice of a dear sister who lost her son to brain cancer a beautiful little 11-year-old angelic soul. I just entered Mass when receiving news of the passing of this little one and felt wounded.

We are the church militant, and sometimes we are wounded in Christ. Our brethren raise us up in hope and prayer and trust and in love. In our prayers, we unite ever so deeply through the beating heart of the Eucharist, and we are strong and carried together through this journey of life. It’s all Grace.

May the covenant of our love for our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, reign in hope and bring us more, evermore to be at the foot of the Cross for those in need. May love inspire us to pour out ourselves in divine action by the grace of the Holy Spirit, all through the heart of our mother, our Lady of the Most Blessed Sacrament.

Laura Catherine Worhacz

Laura Catherine Worhacz is a Lay Associate of the Blessed Sacrament and author of Consecration to Jesus Through Our Lady of The Blessed Sacrament. She is also the Director of Mothers of The Blessed Sacrament. She lives in Trinity, FL with her husband and their two daughters.