"I'm Still Here": Matt Naveau’s Journey of Cancer and Companionship with Mother Adèle

"I'm still here, Matt."

Those four words, spoken during a moment of profound challenge, changed everything for Matt Naveau. In this episode of Sharing Our Marianist Stories, Matt shares his deeply personal journey of encountering Adèle de Batz de Trenquelléon—not as a distant historical figure, but as a living companion through some of the most challenging years of his life.

At age 33, Matt was diagnosed with a rare blood cancer, leaving him to navigate chemotherapy and the terrifying reality of his own mortality while raising two young children. What followed was a series of miraculous encounters and a growing sense of "accompaniment" that saw him through the diagnosis, a year of pandemic isolation, and eventually, a call to new leadership.

A transcript of this podcast episode is available here.

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Recorded 7 March 2025. Edited by Mike Bennett, Media Administrator for the North American Center for Marianist Studies (NACMS).

Theme song: “Travel Light” by Jason Shaw (used with permission via Creative Commons License; see more of his work at http://audionautix.com/)

"My Heart is Too Small" from the musical Spectacle (c) 2011, Nick Cardilino, Jim Ford and Bro. Stan Zubek, SM. (Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdedzuINDPQ)

Other ambient music from freesound.org.

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