Motherhood a sacred gift to be shared

By Christine Bordelon
Clarion Herald

“Tiny but mighty” is how Amy Verges describes Lisa Gennusa Flood, her friend in the Catholic faith.

“Lisa introduced me to ‘Lord, Teach Me to Pray,’ and she helped me to find the tangible relationship with Christ that I truly longed for,” Verges said in nominating Flood for the 2023 Council of Catholic School Cooperative Club’s (CCSCC) Regina Matrum award that exemplifies Catholic motherhood. “She not only leads others like a pied piper, she lives her faith, which is why I consider her a disciple of Jesus Christ.”


Flood will be honored by the CCSCC May 15 at a 7 p.m. Mass celebrated by Archbishop Gregory Aymond at her home parish, Our Lady of the Lake in Mandeville. A reception will follow.

Caught off guard
Flood was surprised by the announcement, which was made by Father Doug Busch, pastor of Our Lady of the Lake, at a Sunday Mass on March 12. Father Busch began speaking about the person given this year’s Regina Matrum honor.

“I started to cry. ... I didn’t know,” Flood said.

CCSCC representative Cindy Wooderson presented Flood with a bouquet of flowers as the 77th honoree.

“Lisa embodies true Catholic motherhood,” Father Busch said. “She opens her heart and home to numerous youth and young adults, showing them the love and mercy of Christ.”


Love of prayer, Mary
Flood may not be the age of previous Regina Matrums, but her prayer life and example as a wife and mother to her three boys and as a spiritual mother to many others is one that others seek to replicate.

“Prayer is everything,” said Flood, the oldest of four children in an Italian family who witnessed prayer and love of the Blessed Mother from devout Catholic grandmothers and her own parents, who prayed novenas to overcome infertility early in their marriage and erected St. Joseph altars.

Flood recalled seeing her father on his knees in prayer at bedtime. Her mother, Janace, died 11 years ago.

“I knew that the very fact that I existed was an answer to prayers to Our Lady,” Flood said. “My parents taught me the power for the Blessed Mother and the rosary bringing us to Jesus. In my family, motherhood was cherished.”

Flood, a graduate of St. Clement of Rome School, St. Mary’s Dominican High School, Louisiana State University and LSU Law School, always knew she wanted children. After practicing six years of law, she decided to be a full-time mom to her first child Ryan, now 24 and a student at Loyola Law School.

“I tell every single woman in my life, go as high as you can in your education … but do all you can do so you can make the choice if you want to stay home with your children, and I did,” Flood said. “I don’t regret it – either getting the degree or staying at home.”

Being a wife and mother has been her greatest joy.

“The two vocations go hand in hand,” she said. “My role as a mom has best been reinforced by my husband, because he teaches my sons to respect women. He insists upon it. He really fortified me as a mother with the way he instilled respect from our children. … What’s important to me is to teach them the love of God and love of family, just like my grandparents before me – faith and family.”

Scandals rocked her faith
When abuse scandals hit the church in 2000, Flood and three generations of her family stopped attending Catholic Mass.

“We loved Jesus and wanted to raise our children to love God, but we did not love Catholicism,” she said. “We were hurt and angry. We never left God, but we did leave the church and went to a nondenominational church for a number of years.”

Yet, she never truly gave up on Catholicism. During this time, she led a women’s rosary group that solidified her connection to Mary and Jesus.

Brother prompted return
It was her brother Tommy’s attending adoration chapel while away from the church and sensing Mary calling him to make a pilgrimage with men to Medjugorje that beckoned her family back.

“All of the men on the pilgrimage had a profound encounter with Jesus through Our Lady,” Flood said. “When they returned, my brother challenged me to go to an adoration chapel and ask Jesus what I wanted for my family. And, I did. … The Eucharist and Our Lady brought us home.”

She went to confession, joined a “Lord, Teach Me to Pray” (LTMTP) group as a participant and has been a leader for the past 14 years.

“My life began to change, my marriage began to change and my motherhood began to change,” she said.

Her husband, Herb, noticed her faith transformation during the second part of LTMTP, asking, “Who are you and what have you done to my wife? … I feel more loved by you now than I ever had in 14 years of marriage, and I know that it’s only because of your relationship with Jesus.”

“I started to cry and knew that God was changing me as he was loving me and revealing himself to me. I was becoming the woman I was meant to be in my home. My life started, every day, before anything else, praying Scripture and doing the Ignatian exercises. It’s quite a journey.”

Spreading the Word
Along the way, she’s co-hosted Focus TV, Catholic Community Radio programs “Kingdom Road” and “Catch the Fire” and now co-hosts “Faith and Marriage Today” with Jason Angelette and Dr. Mario Sacasa. She’s also started intercessory prayer teams at LSU, Loyola University New Orleans and most recently at St. Paul’s School.

“My gift is prayer,” Flood said. “I’ve discovered (from years of interviews) that at the heart of every Catholic conversion story, there was one thing in common. This impacted me more than anything else – each person had someone praying for them.”

She has become “Mama Flood” to countless youth as a confirmation and weekly Young Life youth fellowship leader at Our Lady of the Lake. Six years ago, she began a Bible study for teenage girls in her home, teaching them how to pray with Scripture and answering questions about being a wife, mother and woman.

Her husband contributes by telling his story of losing his father at age 7 and how God has restored and healed him, giving him the family that he longed for.

“He gives (the youth) hope,” Flood said. “No matter what they’ve been through, God has amazing things in store.”

‘In’ the world
The Flood family’s battle cry is to be in the world, but not of it. They try to be “authentically who God created us to be.”

Placing God at the center, even in our challenging culture, her sons have taken up the faith mantle.

“She expects us to try our best and that eventually those efforts will lead to the right outcome,” Ryan Flood said. “She lives her faith every day, so when she encourages me in my faith, she has all the credibility in the world.”

Flood said God blessed her with a deep hunger for prayer that she wants to share. She calls herself the biblical “Woman at the Well.”
“I met Jesus; he changed everything, and I go around telling everybody about him,” she said. “I have tried to be so on fire with the love of God, that other people want to know why – what makes you different; what is the reason for your joy? Now I know what it is and who it is. The Eucharist has become the center of my life, that’s why I came back.”

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