From the Heart of the Shepherd
From the bulletin for The Twenty-Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time (2026 September 20)
Sunday, September 20, 2026 - 25th Sunday OT
“All those years of prayer. That mountain of prayer!”
These were the words of a member of our community who recently lost an adult child. Taken out of context, they might be understood as a complaint; even an accusation: “All those prayers… and this is how God responds!” But that wasn’t how they were meant. In reality, these words were a testament to her hope: “All those prayers… surely they were not for nothing. Surely God would not have allowed them to be without effect.” Those prayers were, in effect, an anchor of hope, a “mountain” of consolation for this grieving mother, another reason for hoping that, in ways only known to God, grace was at work to deliver and to save.
In the past two years, our parish family, alongside many others, amassed a veritable mountain of prayer for one darling little member of St. Mark’s, Ava Duchesne. Her parents led the charge, joined by their large extended families and friend networks with pilgrimages to Lourdes, prayers to candidates for canonization, constant pleas to Heaven, fastings, half-marathons, all night vigils, and Heaven knows what else. In October of 2024, when her diagnosis was still fresh and her treatment just beginning, we had the Healing Mass, for which little Ava was one major inspiration. More followed. Then the family rosaries on Wilder, outside the home. In the past few months, not a few Masses were offered for her in the Duchesne home. In her last weeks, Ava was a daily communicant. She received Confirmation and Anointing of the Sick. The relics of the Twelve Apostles, St. Gemma, and others were by her bedside. God only knows how many people across the continent and around the world have been imploring God to show mercy and heal this very special little girl.
All those prayers. That mountain of prayer! What are we to think about them today, now that Heaven has given Its answer? What was the miracle, or was there none?
I can’t give a full answer to that. I can give a beginning to one. I can say for certain that those prayers were not without their effect. The ordinary “miracle” of prayer is that it draws us closer to God. Oh, how many souls were drawn closer to God and to one another these past two years! There is the miracle of how her parents bore this trial. And blessings that have yet to be discovered or bestowed, won from the heart of God by all those prayers, blessings that will continue to ripple outward through time and space, now that this little pebble has dropped into the ocean of eternity.
But the prayers were for Ava, which means the miracle, the choicest fruit, must have taken place in her heart.
And that fruit must remain, in part, hidden. But we are not without some idea of what God did in secret, in Ava’s heart, in answer to our prayers. Ava’s disease involved a progressive slowing down and loss of control over her little body. Meaning first she could no longer run, then no longer walk, then hold her own head up or speak. Which could not have been easy. It was not easy. Just when a child is usually learning to do everything on her own, Ava had to become more dependent, less able, more still and silent and isolated. Even so, there were signs of a blossoming within Ava’s soul. She never complained. She was entirely trusting. Her demeanor was always so peaceful, so resigned. And one day near the end, when little Ava could only communicate by moving her eyes, I asked Ava if she was ready for Jesus to take her home. She did not hesitate: her eyes shot upward in an emphatic “yes,” looking towards Heaven itself as she did.
Ava outlived her prognosis four times over, giving her that much more time to be filled with grace and “to grow into union with Christ through a death like His” (Rom 6:5). At her departure from this world, she was fully awake, entirely at peace, and in her parents arms until Jesus took her into His.
These, said Fr. Simon at Ava’s burial, were the miracles. Not the kind we had in mind. But far better than we could ask for or imagine. God has wrought a good thing in our midst: an awful thing, but a beautiful thing. And the best thing for Ava and us. Through Jesus Christ our Lord.
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