Saints: How Would They Live In Today's World?

[JReducation]

She puts the rest of us to shame. To have a heart like hers…you’d have to have a heart that was willing to be crushed. That’s an awesome undertaking.

Unfortunately, many people only see Mother on the surface. They fail to see her as she really was. She was truly a contemplative. To contemplate is to look at, to focus on, to target with our attention.

Mother saw only Jesus in every man and woman. She was not looking for anything or anyone else, but Jesus. While it’s true that she served the poorest of the poor, the fact is that in her mind’s eye, she served Jesus. As she looked at each person, she looked to see the face of Christ.

The most interesting part is that she didn’t look for the glorified Christ. She looked for the suffering Christ. She looked for the crucified Christ. She was truly a daughter of our Holy Father St. Francis. When she saw a human she remembered two words that Christ said on the cross, “I thirst.”

She translated that into “I thirst for love, justice, mercy, hope, freedom, dignity, peace, life, home, family, health and Heaven.”

The more that she contemplated Christ in the people whom she met, the more that she understood his thirst. She came to understand his mind when he spoke those words. She knew that he thirsted not only for water, but for that which only selfless love can provide.

JR

 

[catharina]

I think I might be a Saint, is this the thread I come to?

You might as well come here. This thread should exist as an antidote to the ones that tend to sour quickly. Who can go sour on the Saints? (Do you prefer to called “Saint?”)

 

[Jeanette_L]

You might as well come here. This thread should exist as an antidote to the ones that tend to sour quickly. Who can go sour on the Saints? (Do you prefer to called “Saint?”)

Who knows, there may be some Saints out there that people might not think should be saints…

Who is one of your favorites Catharina? Do tell!

 

[JReducation]

It’s one thing to say we desire heaven, another altogether to understand what that really means. It means giving up earth and all that we cling to. That is a huge process, even the desiring part. The more I think I desire heaven, the more aware I am of what I don’t want to let go of. Very painful, the letting go.

I can’t wait to get into more of her. Must get more reading done tonight.

This was the lesson that St. Benedict and St. Francis of Assisi introduced into the Church.

For Benedict one had to depart from the human city to live in the city of God. He responded by leaving the world and becoming a monk. He devoted himself to a simple life and to constant work and prayer. “Ora et labora” was his motto. If you work and pray the rest will come.

St. Francis picked up on this same idea, but within the world. While he had the utmost respect and love for Benedict and the Benedictines, so much that they gave him a mountain where he could retire to be alone and pray, Mt. Alverno, just outside of Assisi. It’s a beautiful place to visit.

But I digress, Francis embraced Holy Poverty. He did not hate material goods, as many people believe. What he found was that our attachments to things, people, places, even our jobs could get in the way between us and God.

He discovered that one could detach from whatever distracted one’s attention from love. For when our attention is distracted from love, it is distracted from the God who is love.

One does not have to give up as much as detach. To place anything before love keeps us from true holiness.

This is what makes saints different from nihilist ascetics. Nihilist ascetics, are those who aspire to live a simple life for its own sake. Francis, Benedict and Teresa of Avila aspired to live a simple life to be free. They aspired to be free so that they could love without interference.

Nonetheless, this was not a fate that they achieved in a day or even a year. It took an entire life time.

What is most impressive about them and the greatest lesson that they teach us is the attachment to love. No matter how difficult life become or how difficult it was to detach from what interfered with our capacity to love, as long as we remain attached to love, we shall overcome, sooner or later.

When do we overcome? This too is part of detachment. We do not choose when we become detached. We simply work on it. True detachment means that we become detached from our own holiness. We don’t worry about it or try to measure it. We trust the Holy Spirit. We trust God to get us to where we want to go. All we do, is love love and more love. Always putting aside anything that stands between us and love and using whatever helps us to love more perfectly.

JR

 

[JReducation]

This is an awesome thread. I feel we don’t pay enough attention to our beloved Saints, at least I don’t feel I have The frist Saint I read about was Teresa of Avila. I remember really liking her for some reason. I should go back and read why:blush:

Chew’s thread is perfect.

Anamchara, welcome

If you like Teresa of Avila, I have read much of her work. It was my MA thesis many many many years ago: The Detachment Theology of Teresa of Avila and Francis of Assisi.

My favourite book on her is a biography by Shirley du Boulay Teresa of Avila: An Extraordinary Life

If you have not read it, you may like it.

JR

Hmmm, I wonder if that makes me sound too old.

 

[catharina]

Mother Seton, yes, and my generation of Catholic school stuidents knew her as Mother Seton, the foundress of the Catholic school system in the United States. I don’t recall exactly when she was canonized but I think it was in the last forty years since I do remember attending the commemorative Mass at the new Cathedral in San Francisco. Her life was filled with personal losses through death, first her mother’s death while she was still a little girl, then her husband, some of their children some of her closest friends, priest-advisors - and she lost her very home since she was a New Yorker who was no longer welcome there after her conversion. She lived instead in Maryland and opened her first school for girls there, in Emmitsburg MD. So she had worries for her school, for the religious community of women that she was steadily founding and for the FIVE offspring that she brought to her own widowhood.

Nothing in her life was very easy and it’s no wonder that she knew the Eucharist kept her alive…

 

[catharina]

Who knows, there may be some Saints out there that people might not think should be saints…

Who is one of your favorites Catharina? Do tell!

All-time favorites: Francis of Assisi, Teresa of Avila, Catherine Laboure with special soft spots for our Blessed Mother Mary and St. Joseph. Joseph of Arimethea too, for his courageous love.

St. Peter for his rare humility.

PS - have to add my Vincentian Saints too. St. Vincent de Paul who took service of the poor to a level of the sacramental in all of his works, Louise de Marillac who co-founded the Daughters of Charity with Vincent, the Four Martyred Sisters of Arras (beheaded during the French Revolution because they refused to stop serving the poor, and one of the newest Vincentian Saints, a real favorite of mine, John Gabriel Perboyre. John Gabriel was a missionary priest (Vincentian, aka CM for Congregation of the Mission). After some years of ill health, he was finally allowed to serve in China where he lived for two years (disguised as a Chinese peasant while preaching the Gospel) before he was captured and crucified.

OOOOPS! You asked for one!

 

[Jeanette_L]

Hmmm, I wonder if that makes me sound too old.

That depends on the crowd you’re hanging with.

 

[chewchoo]

Chew:

We have to team up. You do today’s saint and we discuss their spirituality and theology. What a combo!!!

JR

it’s amazing just how many saints there are. i have been collecting websites for my thread, but i am mainly sticking to the ones that present the saints according to their feast day.

and then we have all of the saints in making, whose causes are still being evaluated. the list for discussion is endless

i am looking forward to this discussion.

 

[Jeanette_L]

Mother Seton, yes, and my generation of Catholic school stuidents knew her as Mother Seton, the foundress of the Catholic school system in the United States. I don’t recall exactly when she was canonized but I think it was in the last forty years since I do remember attending the commemorative Mass at the new Cathedral in San Francisco. Her life was filled with personal losses through death, first her mother’s death while she was still a little girl, then her husband, some of their children some of her closest friends, priest-advisors - and she lost her very home since she was a New Yorker who was no longer welcome there after her conversion. She lived instead in Maryland and opened her first school for girls there, in Emmitsburg MD. So she had worries for her school, for the religious community of women that she was steadily founding and for the FIVE offspring that she brought to her own widowhood.

Nothing in her life was very easy and it’s no wonder that she knew the Eucharist kept her alive…

You see, this is what gets me. I am completely drawn to these women who have persevered under such hardships, and yet I feel very intimidated in a way, because I am very soft in comparison.

I think we take for granted at times what it means to live the crucified life.

 

[JReducation]

Mother Seton, yes, and my generation of Catholic school stuidents knew her as Mother Seton, the foundress of the Catholic school system in the United States. I don’t recall exactly when she was canonized but I think it was in the last forty years since I do remember attending the commemorative Mass at the new Cathedral in San Francisco. Her life was filled with personal losses through death, first her mother’s death while she was still a little girl, then her husband, some of their children some of her closest friends, priest-advisors - and she lost her very home since she was a New Yorker who was no longer welcome there after her conversion. She lived instead in Maryland and opened her first school for girls there, in Emmitsburg MD. So she had worries for her school, for the religious community of women that she was steadily founding and for the FIVE offspring that she brought to her own widowhood.

Nothing in her life was very easy and it’s no wonder that she knew the Eucharist kept her alive…

The most inspiring quality about Mother Seton or St. Elizabeth Ann, whichever one prefers, is that unlike so many who debate about the Eucharist, she saw beyond the externals. Remember, she was Episcopalian and in the early 1800s they celebrated mass with communion. Obviously, it’s not a valid mass, but Elizabeth didn’t know this until later.

However, when she encounters the true Eucharist, she sees beyond the externals. She doesn’t waste her time or energy comparing and contrasting the Catholic celebration to the Episcopalian celebration. She was so focussed on the fact that this was the Son of the Living God that nothing else mattered to her. In him she found more than just communion. She found her beloved Eternity.

This helped her cope with her losses. Her mother, her husband, her dearest sister-in-law Rebecca (her soul mate), and her two daughters, all died before she did. Despite the pain and the depression which is natural, she came through it because she believed that she was intimately connected to them through the Eucharist, as the Eucharist lifts our souls out of time and space and places us in communion with the saints who make up the Mystical Body.

It was also interesting that she never despaired for her mother and husband, because they had died Protestant. She was aware that Christ’s charity is like the heavens, it covers the entire Earth. As long as the individual had at least one thing in common with the Church, they were in communion with the Church, even though this was an incomplete communion. However, to Elizabeth, there was at least a single thread that tied her beloved husband and mother to the Church, their faith in Christ, which is the faith of the Church.

She truly believed that salvation takes place within the Church. But she was smart enough and trusted God enough to know that God could use one Catholic virtue to save souls. She understood that this was not the ideal situation, but she also understood that the Church is built on divine mercy and love and that any connection to the Church, even if it’s one thread, is a thread that God can use. To Elizabeth, one single Catholic thread was all God needed to save souls, even though she understood that it was best to be at home in the Church, she didn’t despair. She trusted God’s Eternal mercy, which like the heavens, hovers over all of us.

There is an incredible depth to her understanding of Christ’s mercy and the grace of the Church.

JR

 

[catharina]

(Her love for the Eucharist …)
… helped her cope with her losses. Her mother, her husband, her dearest sister-in-law Rebecca (her soul mate), and her two daughters, all died before she did. Despite the pain and the depression which is natural, she came through it because she believed that she was intimately connected to them through the Eucharist, as the Eucharist lifts our souls out of time and space and places us in communion with the saints who make up the Mystical Body.JR

Beautifully put, JR, and a new thought for me. Thanks.

 

[JReducation]

Beautifully put, JR, and a new thought for me. Thanks.

You’re welcome.

I hope that my posts are helpful. If they’re not, please let me know.

Thanks,

JR

 

[Jeanette_L]

She truly believed that salvation takes place within the Church. But she was smart enough and trusted God enough to know that God could use one Catholic virtue to save souls. She understood that this was not the ideal situation, but she also understood that the Church is built on divine mercy and love and that any connection to the Church, even if it’s one thread, is a thread that God can use. To Elizabeth, one single Catholic thread was all God needed to save souls, even though she understood that it was best to be at home in the Church, she didn’t despair. She trusted God’s Eternal mercy, which like the heavens, hovers over all of us.

There is an incredible depth to her understanding of Christ’s mercy and the grace of the Church.

JR

This reminds me of why I was so drawn to the Chaplet of Divine Mercy. My first Catholic devotion, I wasn’t even committed to becoming a Catholic just then, but I was pulled in by this devotion and message.

So Elizabeth had an understanding of this long before the message had been given to St. Faustina. Very cool.

And since St. Faustina is my patron Saint, I guess that’s why St. Elizabeth Ann would be a natural for me to feel close to, besides the fact that we both converted under difficult circumstances.

 

[anamchara]

Anamchara, welcome

If you like Teresa of Avila, I have read much of her work. It was my MA thesis many many many years ago: The Detachment Theology of Teresa of Avila and Francis of Assisi.

My favourite book on her is a biography by Shirley du Boulay Teresa of Avila: An Extraordinary Life

If you have not read it, you may like it.

JR

Hmmm, I wonder if that makes me sound too old.

Thanks for the welcome I have a book on her but I forget what’s it’s called. I bought too many Catholic books when I converted and have forgotten now what I even have. How bad is that?

You don’t sound that old

 

[Jeanette_L]

I have a book on her but I forget what’s it’s called. I bought too many Catholic books when I converted and have forgotten now what I even have. How bad is that?

I have tons of books too that have gone unread and just bought more. I have to stop this insanity, my book obsession.

But like I said above, so many Saints, so little time.

 

[JReducation]

If we notice, St. Faustina’s feast day is the day after St. Francis’ feast day. This is not a coincidence. The Church deliberately places certain feasts on certain days, almost as in groups. Oct. 3 is St. Terese the Little Flower, Oct 4 is St. Francis of Assisi, and Oct 5 is St. Faustina all lived very humble lives.

Saint Faustina was almost twenty when she entered the Congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy, whose members devote themselves to the care and education of troubled young women. The following year she received her religious habit and was given the name Sister Maria Faustina, to which she added, “of the Most Blessed Sacrament”, as was permitted by her congregation’s custom. In the 1930’s, Sister Faustina received from the Lord a message of mercy that she was told to spread throughout the world. She was asked to become the apostle and secretary of God’s mercy, a model of how to be merciful to others, and an instrument for reemphasizing God’s plan of mercy for the world. It was not a glamorous prospect.

Her entire life, in imitation of Christ’s, was to be a sacrifice - a life lived for others. At the Divine Lord’s request, she willingly offered her personal sufferings in union with Him to atone for the sins of others; in her daily life she was to become a doer of mercy, bringing joy and peace to others, and by writing about God’s mercy, she was to encourage others to trust in Him and thus prepare the world for His coming again. Her special devotion to Mary Immaculate and to the sacraments of Eucharist and Reconciliation gave her the strength to bear all her sufferings as an offering to God on behalf of the Church and those in special need, especially great sinners and the dying.

She died of from tuberculosis in 1938, even her closest associates were amazed as they began to discover what great sufferings and deep mystical experiences had been given to this Sister of theirs, who had always been so cheerful and humble. She had taken deeply into her heart, God’s gospel command to “be merciful even as your heavenly Father is merciful” as well as her confessor’s directive that she should act in such a way that everyone who came in contact with her would go away joyful.

Through Faustina God reminds us of his mercy. If God who is all perfect and all good is merciful toward all people, how can we deny anyone our imperfect attempt at mercy? This is what many people, including Catholics often forget when making judgments against others. Through people like Faustina, God teaches us to merciful, not judge and jury.

JR

 

[Jeanette_L]

Through Faustina God reminds us of his mercy. If God who is all perfect and all good is merciful toward all people, how can we deny anyone our imperfect attempt at mercy? This is what many people, including Catholics often forget when making judgments against others. Through people like Faustina, God teaches us to merciful, not judge and jury.

JR

I haven’t made it all the way through her diary, although I did read her biography. I was very drawn to her simplicity in her love for Christ. And of course I was very drawn to the message itself, it just made so much sense to me, that of course, this is how our hearts have always longed to understand God, that he is much more merciful than we can fathom, it was just such a blessing to have discovered this right at the beginning of my Catholic journey.

 

[JReducation]

I haven’t made it all the way through her diary, although I did read her biography. I was very drawn to her simplicity in her love for Christ. And of course I was very drawn to the message itself, it just made so much sense to me, that of course, this is how our hearts have always longed to understand God, that he is much **more merciful **than we can fathom, it was just such a blessing to have discovered this right at the beginning of my Catholic journey.

Observe what I underlined in this post. These are the virtues that lead the soul closer to God.

When Teresa of Avila began her reform of the Carmelite Order she was looking to instill a spirit of simplicity in the life of the nuns and friars. As it turned out her reform turned into a new religious order of Carmelites. God brings new life to his Church and to the world through simplicity, not complications.

God’s mercy is simple. He loves us because we are his sons and daughters. He needs no other reasons to love us.

Faustina’s life is a witness to the unity between simplicity and mercy. These virtues go together. The merciful person sees others as God sees them, sons and daughters of the Father. The simple person is merciful. He sees the sinner above the sin, just as Christ did on the cross. Remember the words, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”

Even though Christ was offended by the idiocy of Pilate and the High Priest, his indignaton did not interfere with his mercy. This is true simplicity, the ability to experience human indignation and divine mercy at the same time. Remember, indignation is not the same as hatred or condescention. Indignation is the proper response to injustice. Mercy is the ability to offer forgiveness.

For many of us, this is not as simple as it sounds. It takes practice and prayer. Look at Faustina.

 

[catharina]

A bit off the subject but one of my favorite run-up/s of Saints is the March series: March 15th, St. Louise de Marillac, March 17th, St Patrick and then March 19th, St. Joseph. I consider all of them to be established parent-figures. Louise taught her Sisters “Be daughters of the Church.” (Mother Seton might have read that from Louise’s own writings.) St. Patrick is doubtless, father of the Irish Saints - and there are LOADS of those. Then we celebrate St. Joseph, a special father to all of us.

PS - shall I add that the fact that these feasts (one or all) often oierrode part of the long Lenten fast in my childhood might have made the feasts feel more special?