My paternal grandparents, Thomas & Helena Maloney
“Teacher, tell my brother to share the inheritance with me.”
My father was the youngest of nine children, so by the time I was born, his father had already passed away and his mother was quite old. I recall visiting her big old house, just around the corner from our parish church. Every Sunday after Mass, many of her grown children gathered around her rocking chair in the big kitchen, while grandchildren ran noisily around the garden or quietly explored the attic where old toys and dusty treasures were hidden away. We weren’t allowed to play in the formal parlor, which held furniture covered in plastic dust covers, the walls decorated with framed images of Jesus, Mary, and the saints alongside family photographs. Several years after my grandmother died, the house was finally sold, and my father had the job of clearing and distributing what remained there. When all was done, he ended up with a few boxes of odds and ends and several framed holy pictures. Having rediscovered my Catholic faith not long before, I was interested in my grandmother’s Catholic treasures and browsed through what was left.
I took home a little black prayer book and a picture of a nun holding a crucifix draped with roses. My father told me it was St. Thérèse. I didn’t know anything about her, but I was soon to learn.
When I got home, I hung the picture in my daughter’s room. I discovered a novena to St. Thérèse in the little prayer book and began to pray it. Soon, St. Thérèse began to make herself known to me in subtle ways – a holy card, a rose, or some reminder of her would appear unexpectedly. I began to think of her as a sister, watching over me and my family from heaven. I learned about her Carmelite spirituality, which enriched my prayer life and drew me closer to the Lord.
These treasures, dusty and abandoned, turned out to be some of the greatest riches of my inheritance. I believe my grandparents’ prayers came along with them. Perhaps those prayers had already helped me find my way back to the Church – I may never know until I reach heaven. Now in my turn, I pray for my grandparents to have found eternal peace in the Kingdom of Heaven, where our true inheritance lies.
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