Ann Marie Paloucek, RIP

Father Anthony reports that Ann Marie passed away peacefully at 7:30pm Wednesday evening surrounded by her family. Please join me in this prayer for all of them:

Father of mercies and God of all consolation,
you pursue us with untiring love
and dispel the shadow of death
with the bright dawn of life.

Comfort Ann Marie's family in their loss and sorrow.
Be their refuge and strength, O Lord,
and lift them from the depths of grief
into the peace and light of your presence.

Your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ,
by dying has destroyed our death,
and by rising, restored our life.
Enable us therefore to press on toward him 
so that, after our earthly course is run
he may reunite us with those we love,
when every tear will be wiped away.
We ask this through Christ our Lord.
Amen.

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If you would like to send cards or letters to Ed and the children, please send them to:

The Paloucek Family

c/o  Fr. Anthony Mary, MFVA

5821 Old Leeds Rd

Irondale, AL 35210

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Funeral Arrangements:
Visitation will be on Monday, November 23 at St. Jerome Catholic Church in Oconomowoc, WI, from 4-7pm. The Mass of Christian Burial will be at 11am at St. Jerome Catholic Church on Tuesday, November 24, followed by a reception. The obituary is posted here: Ann Marie Paloucek.

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Please say a Divine Mercy Chaplet for Ann Marie

The latest word from Father Anthony is that Ann Marie is failing fast and may last only 18-24 hours. He and the entire family would greatly appreciate it if you would all say a Divine Mercy Chaplet for her happy and holy death.

Instructions on how to pray the Chaplet and the story behind it can be found here.

God bless you all.

Ann Marie in Hospice Care

Dear friends, 

This past August my sister's doctors put our family on notice that her condition had worsened and that, based on the medical tests, it appeared that she may not survive more than six months. Sadly, she recently experienced another major downturn in her battle with cancer. On Monday, she and her husband made the very difficult decision to begin hospice care. 

Please pray in earnest for Ann Marie that she may have the blessing of a peaceful death. Over the past year she has spoken to me with great sincerity about this final journey. She shared her fears, her questions and the concerns she has for the care of her young children whom she will be leaving behind. It was a privilege to witness in my sister such a brave soul, a woman of courage and dignified strength as she struggled to somehow find God's will in all of this. It has been a very long and challenging road but I have been impressed by the beautiful spirit of peace that she carries in her heart -- a gift that Ann Marie personally attributes to Our Blessed Mother from the pilgrimage to Fatima and Lourdes that the Sister Servants of the Eternal Word arranged for her and Ed and their daughter, Mariana Therese, a few years ago. She has been radiating that beautiful peace and sharing it with the rest of us throughout all of the ups and downs of her struggle with cancer over these past four years. 

Please, please pray for her. And please pray for her husband, Ed, and for their young children. My heart breaks for them. Jesus and Mary have them by the hand but the coming days and weeks will undoubtedly bring much sorrow. I also ask for your prayers for my mother, myself and for my family as we face this next reality. It will be a most challenging goodbye, and painful. May we be blessed to feel the presence of God and Our Lady! 

Many thanks for all your love and goodness. 

Peace, 

Fr. Anthony

Ann Marie goes to Mayo Clinic

Ann Marie heads to Mayo Clinic this week and will be staying there for several days of tests and appointments. Please keep her lifted up in prayer and continue to ask Father Solanus Casey's intercession for her healing. Perhaps you would consider making another novena using the prayer posted below. (If you mark the email sent out today as "unread" it may help to remind you to say the prayer every day.)

God bless you.

Thank you for joining in the novena

Ann Marie, Ed, Father Anthony and the entire family thank you for participating in the novena for her healing. Those of you who signed up after April 13 should simply continue to say the novena prayer for 9 days from whatever day you started. (The novena prayer is below.)

If you would be interested in joining a weekly prayer list that goes around the world praying for members' personal intentions, we invite you to sign up here. The optional "novena group" receives daily mailing of novenas for major feast days like the Immaculate Conception.

You may view a sample prayer list here. http://eepurl.com/bkpE8r

UPDATE (November 13, 2015): Some have been signing up for the prayer list over the past few days, but it is on temporary sabbatical. At the moment, it's a DIY blog where you can enter your own requests. You can view the blog here. I will still probably continue to send novenas; the next will either be for the Immaculate Conception or Our Lady of Guadalupe (or a combination of both).

Join our prayer list

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Brother Richard Merling at the Solanus Casey Center has told us that he has placed Ann Marie's name on the tomb of Father Casey.

Thank you for your continued prayers.

A word from Ann Marie

For those of you praying for me who don't even know me, I want to tell you a little about myself. I have been married to a wonderfully supportive man, Ed, for 17 years and am the mother of six beautiful children who are ages 15 to 5. Our family has been so blessed by a wonderful Church and school community and family that have helped us so much. We are totally humbled by how God has provided for all of our needs. 

In October of 2011 I was diagnosed with Stage 4 colon cancer that had metastasized to my lungs and liver. During the next 12 months I had surgery on my colon, liver, and lungs and had 12 rounds of chemotherapy.  The chemotherapy was difficult: it made me very sick and left me with bad neuropathy.  

Unfortunately the cancer was not eradicated.  During 2012, I had another liver surgery and began another type of chemotherapy. This time neuropathy was not a side effect; however it did worsen. This second type of chemo also caused me to get quite sick. I would have one week in bed and one week trying to be Mom.  

Unfortunately that chemo stopped working in the Fall of 2014. I began a third type of chemo in December 2014 and found it to be ineffective in March of 2015. The difficulty that I face is that there are not many positive options of medicine to move to. I am seeing a specialist early May who focuses on studies for colon cancer.  

We continue to pray for a miracle of healing.  We have seen miracles over the last 3-1/2 years in our family and know God has a plan. Thank you for joining us in this novena. 

God Bless You!

Ann Marie