This is a letter from his four sisters. It is well worth the extra minutes it would take to read it, and hopefully it will inspire more prayers along the way. Please feel free to share this far and wide.
We are writing to beg your prayers for our only brother, Jamie, who has a very rare and aggressive cancer. There are, in the words of a medical journal article, “no effective medical treatments” for the condition. The cancer is inoperable and has grown through his face and jaw. Eating and speaking are difficult and painful and becoming more so each day. Time and options are running out.
He needs a miracle.
So, as it happens, does Fr. Emil Kapaun, the most decorated military chaplain in US history, whose cause for canonization is advancing. Servant of God Kapaun needs a miracle for beatification.
Last week, on our brother's 60th birthday, we learned that day (May 23rd) is also the date of Fr. Kapaun's death and therefore will be Fr. Kapaun's feast day when he is canonized.
Please join us in asking Fr. Kapaun's intercession.
Please pray the prayer below, use as a novena if you can. Please share this request everywhere you can.
Following the prayer is a longer back story about our brother, and more information on Fr. Kapaun. Read if you have the time and interest.
Servant of God
Priest, soldier and friend – pray for us.
Father Emil Kapaun, you gave glory to God
by following his call to the priesthood and
thus serving the people of Kansas
and those in the military.
Father Kapaun, I ask your
prayers of intercession to the Lord our God
for complete spiritual and physical healing
for Jamie Miller
and that I too may follow your example of
service to God and my neighbor.
For the gifts of courage in battle
and perseverance of faith,
I give thanks to the Lord our God.
[Recite one Our Father, one Hail Mary, and one Glory Be.]
Thank you for your prayers,
Jeanne, Cathie, Terry and Kristi (nee Miller)
The Longer Back story (optional read)
Our brother Jamie is the oldest sibling and we sisters grew up loving and adoring him. We still do.
After our parents separated, Jamie took on himself many burdens to lighten our mother's load and to help us sisters.
He is the hardest worker we have ever met. He worked from a young age, generously giving money to our mother. One story among many: when he was 13, Jamie bought a used car for mom. (It wasn't a good car -- we all remember the clothesline that held one of the back doors shut -- but it got us from place to place.)
His adventurous spirit led Jamie to the oil fields of Alaska. He married his college sweetheart and together they generously welcomed 9 children to their family. Most of these children joined the family through adoption, several have special needs.
Ten years ago, tragedy struck. Jamie's wife Renee was murdered. The children were then aged 6 through 20. Jamie showed amazing strength as he walked through that dark valley for the sake of his children. With help from the best friends in the world, he continued raising his 7 sons and 2 daughters.
Now he is in a fight for his life. Again, he is fighting for the sake of his children, who still need him.
Like Fr. Kapaun, Jamie is courageous and self-giving. He is a warm and loyal friend who, although having no biological brothers, has a cadre of close friends - a true band of brothers.
We began seeking Fr. Kapaun's intercession because of a slight family connection (a friend's father, Colonel Walter Mayo, was in the N Korean prison camp with Fr. Kapaun).
Fr. Kapaun was a Catholic priest and U.S. Army Chaplain born in Pilsen, Kansas in 1916. He was a hardworking farm boy.
Four years after his ordination as a priest, he entered the Chaplain Corps to serve the troops in World War II and was sent to the Burma-India theater. After the war he went back to parish life, but re-entered the Chaplain Corps in 1948.
Chaplain Kapaun and the 8th Cavalry Regiment of the Army’s 1st Cavalry Division were among the first troops sent to help defend South Korea after its invasion by the North. Chaplain Kapaun quickly gained a reputation for bravery by ministering to soldiers in the thick of battle, often having to be reminded to keep his head down from oncoming bullets.
Kapaun braved the battlefield to rescue men or give them Last Rites. He showed his dedication to his "boys" by choosing to remain with a number of wounded men rather than escape.
Captured by the enemy, this group was forced to march over 60 miles to a prison camp along the Chinese border in the bitter cold. Along the way, Father Kapaun carried his wounded comrades and encouraged them to do likewise.
For his actions at the Battle of Unsan, Kapaun was awarded the military’s highest award, the Medal of Honor, in 2013. Fr. Kapaun was particularly commended for his actions saving the life of Herbert Miller.
In his seven months in the prison camp, Father Kapaun spent himself in heroic service to his fellow prisoners. Ignoring his own ill health, he nursed the sick and wounded, stole food for the hungry, picked lice off of men, washed dirty and soiled clothing, and encouraged men through prayer and humor to keep fighting for life. Fr. Kapaun died May 23, 1951, of illness and starvation in prison camp.
Fr. Emil Kapaun - Catholic Diocese of Wichita
There is much information about Fr. Kapuan on the Internet. This is a good place to start:the Father Kapuan Guild (LINK) which is dedicated to spreading the Servant of God's story and advocating for his beatification and canonization.
