Our new friend, St. John Neumann

I've heard it said that at times we don't always pick our favorite saints rather the saints pick us. That happened last November when we went to Philadelphia. Tyler was on a work trip and I came along to hangout with our friend Aly. We took the day on Saturday to explore the city and when we asked people where we should go, they recommended we visit St. Peter the Apostle Parish. There we would find the National Shrine of St. John Neumann. We were up for an adventure so thanks to Aly's ease of driving in city traffic we found ourselves parked in front of St. Peter the Apostle Catholic Church. 

We found the shrine and went into the little chapel. As I said a quick prayer I was overcome with a sense of peace. Someone suggested we go up to the top church because Mass was about to start and we needed to see the church because it was so beautiful.

Inside St. Peter the Apostle Catholic Church

As we we were looking around inside the church I kept noticing pictures of St. Gerard who is the patron saints of mothers. He is one of Tyler's and my go-to saints when praying for children. For the past two years we have said a prayer to him every night asking his intercession for a child. I was getting exciting and wondered if he had some connection to this church.

Stained glass of St. Gerard (left) and St. John Neumann (right)

We had some time before meeting Aly's mom for lunch so we ventured into the gift shop. There I found a holy card of St. Gerard and so I asked the gentleman behind the counter what the connection was between St. John Neumann and St. Gerard. He introduced himself as John and our conversation went as follows:

Me: Excuse me sir, what is the connection between St. Gerard and St. John Neumann?
John:  They were both Redemptorist Priests. (click here to read about the order of Redemptorists)
           Why, do you want children?
Me: Yes I do! My husband and I have been trying for three years.
John: Let me tell you a story. A few years ago a women came into this gift shop and said the doctor told her she would never have children. I looked at her and said, "You will have children." Three years later she came back with two little ones and one in the oven! It'll happen for you too.

Then he gave me a holy card of St. Gerard, a booklet of prayers and two medals of St. John Neumann. And he said:

John: Go back into the chapel and kneel down in front of his tomb and call down the power of St. John Neumann.  Pray to Moses, he's not busy! And John the Baptist, he'll listen to you!

Then John asked if he could pray for me and he laid his hands on my head and prayed for healing and for a child. As we were leaving we thanked him and he told us we would have to come back in a few years with my child.

So Aly and I went back to the chapel. We were the only ones in there so we knelt right in front of St. John's tomb. We prayed a prayer from the book John had given us and we touched the medals to the tomb. After we finished I started to cry. I was overcome with a renewed sense of hope to pray for children. For the longest time I had felt discouraged in praying. I knew God heard us and would answer in His time but it had been about two years since we first conceived and I was tired of asking.

I told Tyler all about my experience and what John said. We started to pray to St. John Neumann and the renewed sense of hope to pray for a child continued. I remember a prayer I said a few days after this. I told Jesus I trusted in His timing and His plan for our family but that we would really like conceive in the next three months.

God heard our prayer and the prayers of our new saint and a month later we found out we were pregnant. Praise God!