\u201cThink Hope\u201d<\/a> (Ascension, 2025, 174 pp., $19.99), which traces the journey of Maria\u2019s \u201clife of unyielding trust in God.\u201d<\/p>\nBorn Sept. 10, 2002 and baptized two months later at St. Agnes Parish in Sellersville, Maria Middleton grew into childhood and attended the Regina Academy at St. John the Baptist in Ottsville then Villa Joseph Marie High School in Holland.<\/p>\n
She excelled as a student and an athlete, possessed a witty personality, and prayed with deep piety. Her own loving relationship with God and her deep sense of responsibility to serve others were capped by an overarching trust in God\u2019s will.<\/p>\n
She recorded her spiritual insights in personal journal entries beginning at age 11 with the words \u201cGod is merciful.\u201d Her final written words, just months before her death on Oct. 8, 2020 from complications of an inoperable brain tumor, were \u201cThink hope.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cShe had so many gifts,\u201d said Maria\u2019s mother, Susan. \u201cShe realized these gifts were given to her by God. She developed them with commitment, but she knew where they came from, and they came from God.\u201d<\/p>\n
Even in Maria\u2019s earliest writings as a child, she described her intention to use her gifts to serve God. \u201cOne of the messages Maria leaves, especially with the youth trying to figure out \u2018What do I do with my life?\u2019 she gives us a beautiful message: Take the gifts you were given and use them to serve (God),\u201d Susan said.<\/p>\n
Maria received the diagnosis on Jan. 30, 2019 that she had an incurable illness that would lead to much suffering. In the face of the bleak prognosis that she might only live another nine months, Maria wrote that it \u201cwas the best year of her life\u201d because she understood that \u201cjoy and pain coexist,\u201d Susan said.<\/p>\n
For the next twenty months, \u201cMaria focused on the joy amidst her pain. She didn\u2019t dwell on the suffering but on the present moment where God lives and God\u2019s grace is there to help. That\u2019s how she navigated it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Maria\u2019s father, Brian, describes his family\u2019s experience and the subsequent interest in his daughter\u2019s possible sainthood as \u201csurreal.\u201d\u00a0 From the moment of Maria\u2019s diagnosis, he said, \u201cwe began to experience things that were not explainable. We began to realize, as Maria said, this (illness) wasn\u2019t a punishment, it was the purpose of her life. We\u2019re comforted by the fact that Maria is in heaven. If the Church thinks that Maria can be a role model to spread God even further, we want to help in any way we can.\u201d<\/p>\n
People from all over the world have contacted the Middleton family with stories of deepening their own faith and commitment as a result of Maria\u2019s example. \u201cPeople are asking for her intercession, people who are impacted by her life, how she is very present and active in their life,\u201d Susan said.<\/p>\n
When people discover Maria\u2019s writings, especially through the book \u201cThink Hope,\u201d she becomes for them \u201ca model of hope,\u201d Susan said. \u201cI struggle because I want her here, but God had a different plan for her, and I can see now that is the greater plan. She doesn\u2019t belong to me or Brian, she belongs to (God) and to the world.\u201d<\/p>\n
Reflecting on his daughter\u2019s reputation for holiness, Brian believes her ability to live with cancer heroically until the natural end of her life can be synthesized into four messages.<\/p>\n
Maria was assured of her identity as a child of almighty God. \u201cThat could never be stripped from her, and she knew it,\u201d her father said.<\/p>\n
Maria understood that with our freedom we can control our attitude about things beyond our control. \u201cShe chose gratitude over anger, she chose meaning over victimhood, and she chose hope over despair.\u201d<\/p>\n
Maria appreciated her calling in this world. \u201cHer purpose was, is and always will be to know, love and serve God by serving others in this world and, ultimately to be eternally happy with Him in heaven in the next. Her purpose never changed even with a terminal diagnosis.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lastly, Maria cherished ultimate things. \u201cShe valued truth, beauty and goodness.\u201d<\/p>\n
Those four pillars of spirituality, Brian said, helped Maria navigate through the months of suffering she endured \u201cwith hope, with joy, with trust and with peace.\u201d<\/p>\n
For the Catholic Church of Philadelphia, and beyond, recognition of Maria\u2019s virtuous life may one day serve as a model of holiness for all, especially young people searching for meaning and purpose in life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Matthew Gambino \u2022 Posted June 26, 2026 On behalf of the Think Hope Foundation, Jeannine Marino, a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":230539,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[99161,99727,3852,69,71,70],"class_list":["post-230538","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-maria-middleton","tag-matt-gambino","tag-matthew-gambino","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230538","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=230538"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230538\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/230539"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=230538"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=230538"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=230538"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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