Before she passed away from cancer, Jessica Hanna, a well-known Catholic and pro-life mother, left a powerful message about the importance of interceding for souls and never ceasing to offer Masses for the deceased.
The mother of four, known on social media as @blessed_by_cancer, shared her pro-life testimony and faith while facing the disease. She decided to forgo cancer treatments to protect the life of her unborn child.
On April 6, 2024, Jessica Hanna's husband, Lamar, sadly announced her passing.
Shortly before the first anniversary of her passing, let us recall one of Hanna's messages, which invites us to pray for the souls of the deceased:
“If something happens to me, at all, like if it happens out of nowhere, please remember to just get me Masses and pray for me and for my family.
"That would be the one thing that I ask of everybody to do because the one thing I don't like about this Instagram, and Instagram in general– it gives you a false sense of reality, right? You hear about 'Instagram versus reality,' and people write so much great stuff.
"I honestly told my husband the other day, 'I'm going to quit; literally quit Instagram, because I don't want this false reality of me out there. Like that, I don't need prayers, and I'm going straight to heaven.'
"Absolutely not! I'm going to need a ton of prayers. I'm going to need a ton of Masses. You guys don't see me day-to-day. You don't see my struggles, you don't see my sins, you don't see things I do. Just like I don't see yours. Just like we don't see the other people on Instagram that we look at and we pray with and we think they're incredibly holy people.
"And they could be incredibly holy people, but nobody knows. Nobody can judge a heart except God. So that's all I ask of everybody because that's the one thing about this Instagram page that it just gets me.
"Sometimes I'm like, 'Is it gonna give a false sense to other people and think they don't need to pray or they don't need to give masses?' Yes, please do please offer Masses. Please offer prayers as much as you can, and I do that for you guys too.
"Anytime I see somebody on here who's passed away from cancer or something like that or if you ask me to, I remember and I'll even put in Masses for those people because everybody needs prayers."
Here's the video below:
"In our prayers, let us not forget sinners and the poor souls in Purgatory, especially our poor relatives." - Saint Bernadette