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

[Jeanette_L]

One of the reasons that I began this thread is to focus on what really matters. Unfortunately, CAF is excessively focussed on rules and liturgical forms. But it is missing the most important part of the Christian life, sanctity.

We are led to Christ through faith, hope and love and the greatest of this is love.

I hope that you will encourage your friends to join us on this thread and explore the route of sanctity and break away a little from the route of legalism.

JR

This is why I seem to be so drawn toward studying the Saints and in particular the Mystics. Legalism was all I knew before becoming Catholic, and it was through the witness of the Church’s Mystics that I was confirmed in my spirit that this was in fact the true Church.

I had been studying the doctrines and was coming to the understanding through reason that the Catholic Church was who she claimed to be, but the witness of the Mystics sealed the deal for me, I knew I was free from legalism at last.

It has been quite a sad discovery really, to see so many trying to bring legalism front and center in the Catholic faith. I am happy however to find the Church’s rich teaching does not align itself with them.

Sanctity comes from a life lived in response to grace, to be consumed by anything that distracts us from this is a costly detour on the path to eternity.

More Saints please!

 

[JReducation]

This is why I seem to be so drawn toward studying the Saints and in particular the Mystics. Legalism was all I knew before becoming Catholic, and it was through the witness of the Church’s Mystics that I was confirmed in my spirit that this was in fact the true Church.

I had been studying the doctrines and was coming to the understanding through reason that the Catholic Church was who she claimed to be, but the witness of the Mystics sealed the deal for me, I knew I was free from legalism at last.

It has been quite a sad discovery really, to see so many trying to bring legalism front and center in the Catholic faith. I am happy however to find the Church’s rich teaching does not align itself with them.

Sanctity comes from a life lived in response to grace, to be consumed by anything that distracts us from this is a costly detour on the path to eternity.

More Saints please!

True sanctity comes from a life that has been consumed by the fire of Divine love.

JR

 

[Joysong]

More Saints please!

For many years, I have been a devotee of St. Francis de Sales, maybe because I belonged to a parish of that name, which prompted me to learn about him.

Here are some beautiful comments made by Pope Pius XI in his Bull of Canonization of our ‘gentleman saint.’

One would err, however, if he imagined that such a character as St. Francis de Sales possessed was a gift of nature, bestowed on him by the grace of God “with the blessing of meekness,” as we so often read to have been the case of other blessed souls. On the contrary, Francis naturally was hot tempered and easily aroused to anger. Since he had vowed to take as his model Jesus Who has said, “Learn of me, because I am meek, and humble of heart” so, by means of constant watchfulness over himself and of violence to his own will, he succeeded in learning how to curb and to control to such an extent the promptings of nature that he became a living likeness of the God of Peace and Meekness.

This fact is proven amply by the testimony of the physicians who prepared his body for burial for when, as we read, they embalmed the body, they found his bile turned into stone which had been broken up into the smallest imaginable particles. They knew from this strange occurrence what terrible efforts it must have cost our Saint, over a period of fifty years, to conquer his naturally irritable temper.

1. At the same time we learn from the Saint how not only to perform the customary acts of everyday life, (with the exception, of course, of sin) but also a fact which all do not know, how to do these things correctly with the sole intention of pleasing God. He teaches us to observe the social conventions which he calls one of the charming effects of virtuous living, not to destroy our natural inclinations but to conquer them so that little by little without too much effort, like the dove, if by chance there has not been granted us the strength of the eagle, we may raise ourselves even to heaven itself. What the Saint means by this metaphor is that if we are not called to an extraordinary personal perfection, nevertheless we can attain holiness by sanctifying the actions of everyday life.

He reminds me so much of St. Therese who, like St. Francis de Sales, is a Doctor of the Church. Both of them teach the importance of the little way, the sanctifying of everyday actions, and keeping a pure intention of pleasing God. Ah, Lord, may it be so for all of us.

One of my very favorite short prayers is the doxology:

Through Him, with Him, in Him, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, all honor and glory is yours, Almighty Father! May it be so! I have studied another carmelite blessed, Elizabeth of the Trinity, who adopted as her lifetime aspiration, to be a living “praise of His Glory!”

Carole

 

[Jeanette_L]

Carole, thank you so much for your post, it was just what was needed today! It’s the everyday things that can trip us up, need to keep a watch over my intentions to live it all for God.

Much to meditate on.

God bless!

 

[catharina]

Tooday’s Feast - Catherine of Siena
(from americancatholic.org., a Franciscan site)

April 29, 2008

St. Catherine of Siena, (1347-1380)

**The value Catherine makes central in her short life and which sounds clearly and consistently through her experience is complete surrender to Christ. What is most impressive about her is that she learns to view her surrender to her Lord as a goal to be reached through time. **

She was the 23rd child of Jacopo and Lapa Benincasa and grew up as an intelligent, cheerful and intensely religious person. Catherine disappointed her mother by cutting off her hair as a protest against being overly encouraged to improve her appearance in order to attract a husband. Her father ordered her to be left in peace and she was given a room of her own for prayer and meditation.

She entered the Dominican Third Order at 18 and spent the next three years in seclusion, prayer and austerity. Gradually a group of followers gathered around her—men and women, priests and religious. An active public apostolate grew out of her contemplative life. Her letters, mostly for spiritual instruction and encouragement of her followers, began to take more and more note of public affairs. Opposition and slander resulted from her mixing fearlessly with the world and speaking with the candor and authority of one completely committed to Christ. She was cleared of all charges at the Dominican General Chapter of 1374.

Her public influence reached great heights because of her evident holiness, her membership in the Dominican Third Order, and the deep impression she made on the pope. She worked tirelessly for the crusade against the Turks and for peace between Florence and the pope

In 1378, the Great Schism began, splitting the allegiance of Christendom between two, then three, popes and putting even saints on opposing sides. Catherine spent the last two years of her life in Rome, in prayer and pleading on behalf of the cause of Urban VI and the unity of the Church. She offered herself as a victim for the Church in its agony. She died surrounded by her “children.”

Catherine ranks high among the mystics and spiritual writers of the Church. In 1970 Paul VI named her and Teresa of Avila as doctors of the Church. In recent years, it has been suggested that she (among other possibilities) should be named patron of the Internet. Her spiritual testament is found in The Dialogue.

Comment:
Though she lived her life in a faith experience and spirituality far different from that of our own time, Catherine of Siena stands as a companion with us on the Christian journey in her undivided effort to invite the Lord to take flesh in her own life. Events which might make us wince or chuckle or even yawn fill her biographies: a mystical experience at six, childhood betrothal to Christ, stories of harsh asceticism, her frequent ecstatic visions. Still, **Catherine lived in an age which did not know the rapid change of twenty-first-century mobile America. The value of her life for us today lies in her recognition of holiness as a goal to be sought over the course of a lifetime. **

Quote:
Catherine’s book Dialogue contains four treatises—her testament of faith to the spiritual world. She wrote, “No one should judge that he has greater perfection because he performs great penances and gives himself in excess to the staying of the body than he who does less, inasmuch as neither virtue nor merit consists therein; for otherwise he would be an evil case, who for some legitimate reason was unable to do actual penance. Merit consists in the virtue of love alone, flavored with the light of true discretion without which the soul is worth nothing.”

Most touching for me is this.  My parish, St. Catherine of Siena, has celebrated its 100th anniversary this week.  We have artwork everywhere, Catherine tenderly holding a ship, the barque of Peter.  (Yes, Catherine is one of my own patrons.)

 

[JReducation]

DOCTOR CATHERINE OF SIENA

Yes, I did say Doctor. Certain ecclesiastical writers have received this title on account of the great advantage the whole Church has derived from their doctrine. Catherine of Siena is one of them.

The most important part of Catherine’s journey is not her life, but her theological and spiritual foundation.

Catherine practiced extreme austerities. Austerities are one of the methods which Christians employ to train the soul to virtuous and holy living.

She did not deny her body, mind or emotions. True austerity as Catherine practiced and taught embraced humanity, including her own. More importantly, it embraces the humanity of Christ, the perfect man. Catherine contemplated how prayed, taught, cared for sinners and the helpless. She devoted her life to imitate him. She shared her faith with those who came to her for guidance and she took an active role in the events of the world. She cared for the world. She prayed for the world and she spoke her mind on the important issues of society in her day, much as we should do today.

Catherine condemned political abuse, especially the neglect of the poor.
Catherine was keenly aware that the Church must never back down before the immorality of the State. However, she did not promote conflict and confrontation either. Instead, she persuaded popes and bishops to claim their rights as citizens to live as Christ had lived. All too often many of us detach ourselves from our civic duties under the false claim that we do not like politics. But Catherine realized that politics were not on the line, morality and the Christian life were on the line.

Catherine attempted to slay the disease in her soul, sin. She did not try to be a saint. She tried to live as Christ lived. Sanctity would flow from the grace of Christ, but it depended on the choices that she made. Along with teaching and sharing the faith, acting as a committed Christian lay woman in of her time, she adopted an intense life of prayer, spending long periods in silence and solitude with the Lord. She needed some structure. She adopted the life of St. Dominic and became a Secular Dominican. She never became a sister or nun. She followed Dominic’s simple method of teaching the Gospel to others, with great humility, using the power of persuasion and of charity toward the poor.

Catherine consecrated her virginity to Christ. This does not mean that one has to be a virgin to consecrate oneself to Christ. What is meant is that Christ became her spouse. Like any espousal between two people there is a conscious effort to get to know the beloved and to understand his or her actions and words. It is also important to understand the behavior of the beloved. Catherine put aside anything and everything that interfered with her understanding of and attention to the Lord Jesus Christ. Single people, divorced, widowed and married people can all live such a consecration. It is a matter of understanding Christ, spending enough time in his presence in prayer, before the Blessed Sacrament, one’s car, one’s room or wherever one finds the opportunity to reflect on Christ’s human behavior.

After three years of such a life of prayer and charity Catherine experienced what hagiographers have tried to represent as her mystical marriage. Here the mystical marriage consists in a vision in which Christ tells the soul that he talks it for his bride, there is literally a wedding ceremony with Mary, other saints and the angels present. This festivity is the accompaniment and symbol of purely spiritual grace or sanctifying grace. It is not something that we can do for ourselves or should even ask for. It is a special gift that God grants to special souls who know him intimately through conversational prayer, by sitting silently in his presence, through the practice of charity, by living their vocation responsibly (wife, mother, father, husband, teacher, laborer or whatever one’s place is in the world).

Catherine is a living example of what God can do for the soul when the soul focuses on living a life of grace by cooperating with grace. The soul must also recognize that every good that it accomplishes is through the grace of God and accept it with gratitude, rather than false humility. The soul never forgets that it is sinful, because saints do sin. The difference between a saint and the rest of the population around them is the person’s ability to recognize their sinfulness, to accept God’s forgiveness, and to rejoice in the fact that God is Mercy.

In Catherine’s writings we read that as the soul realizes its sinfulness and its ability to heal through the gift of reconciliation, the Eucharist and other sacraments, there is an augmentation of charity and familiarity with God. She states that one becomes much more comfortable with the idea that God will take care of one’s soul. One has to get to know Christ, imitate Christ, love Christ in himself and in others.

She also describes how one becomes closer to the sufferings of Christ by becoming closer to the sufferings of others. The sufferings of Christ are not an image that we contemplate on a crucifix. Just the opposite, the crucifix is a constant reminder that Christ continues to suffer due to our sins and through those who are vulnerable members of society. The crucifix is a reminder of suffering that is on-going, not something that happened 2000 years ago. Christ’s passion extended beyond time and embraces all suffering and heals all sin, if the person is willing to be healed.

She espoused the concerns of her Divine spouse, the redemption of man, the dignity of man and the sin of man. This was an extraordinary woman.

JR

 

[Jeanette_L]

Thanks Catherina and JR for some great posts on St. Catherine of Siena, Doctor of the Church!

We’ve had some really great posts today, much to go back and read a few times.

 

[Jeanette_L]

I wanted to post this here, I ‘stole’ it from Chewchoo’s thread entitled: Today’s Saint, (with her permission of course ), in which she does a fabulous job in bringing us some of the Saints bios whose feasts are celebrated each day.

forums.catholic-questions.org/showpost.php?p=3624393&postcount=269

I thought this particular post was a beautiful reminder that change in the Church is never without discomfort, resistence and controversy, but the Church moves forward as the Spirit wills. A great historical and spiritual lesson for us all.

April 30, 2008

St. Pius V
(1504-1572)

This is the pope whose job was to implement the historic Council of Trent. If we think recent popes have had difficulties in implementing Vatican Council II, Pius V had even greater problems after that historic council more than four centuries ago.
During his papacy (1566-1572), Pius V was faced with the almost overwhelming responsibility of getting a shattered and scattered Church back on its feet. The family of God had been shaken by corruption, by the Reformation, by the constant threat of Turkish invasion and by the bloody bickering of the young nation-states. In 1545 a previous pope convened the Council of Trent in an attempt to deal with all these pressing problems. Off and on over 18 years, the Church Fathers discussed, condemned, affirmed and decided upon a course of action. The Council closed in 1563.
Pius V was elected in 1566 and was charged with the task of implementing the sweeping reforms called for by the Council. He ordered the founding of seminaries for the proper training of priests. He published a new missal, a new breviary, a new catechism and established the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine (CCD) classes for the young. Pius zealously enforced legislation against abuses in the Church. He patiently served the sick and the poor by building hospitals, providing food for the hungry and giving money customarily used for the papal banquets to poor Roman converts. His decision to keep wearing his Dominican habit led to the custom of the pope wearing a white cassock.
In striving to reform both Church and state, Pius encountered vehement opposition from England’s Queen Elizabeth and the Roman Emperor Maximilian II. Problems in France and in the Netherlands also hindered Pius’s hopes for a Europe united against the Turks. Only at the last minute was he able to organize a fleet which won a decisive victory in the Gulf of Lepanto, off Greece, on October 7, 1571.
Pius’s ceaseless papal quest for a renewal of the Church was grounded in his personal life as a Dominican friar. He spent long hours with his God in prayer, fasted rigorously, deprived himself of many customary papal luxuries and faithfully observed the Dominican Rule and its spirit.

Comment:
In their personal lives and in their actions as popes, Pius V and Paul VI (d. 1978) both led the family of God in the process of interiorizing and implementing the new birth called for by the Spirit in major Councils. With zeal and patience, Pius and Paul pursued the changes urged by the Council Fathers. Like Pius and Paul, we too are called to constant change of heart and life.

Quote:
“In this universal assembly, in this privileged point of time and space, there converge together the past, the present, and the future. The past: for here, gathered in this spot, we have the Church of Christ with her tradition, her history, her Councils, her doctors, her saints; the present: we are taking leave of one another to go out toward the world of today with its miseries, its sufferings, its sins, but also with its prodigious accomplishments, values, and virtues; and the future is here in the urgent appeal of the peoples of the world for more justice, in their will for peace, in their conscious or unconscious thirst for a higher life, that life precisely which the Church of Christ can give and wishes to give to them” (from Pope Paul’s closing message at Vatican II).
americancatholic.org/Features/SaintofDay/

THANKS CHEW!

 

[chewchoo]

I wanted to post this here, I ‘stole’ it from Chewchoo’s thread entitled: Today’s Saint, (with her permission of course ), in which she does a fabulous job in bringing us some of the Saints bios whose feasts are celebrated each day.

forums.catholic-questions.org/showpost.php?p=3624393&postcount=269

I thought this particular post was a beautiful reminder that change in the Church is never without discomfort, resistence and controversy, but the Church moves forward as the Spirit wills. A great historical and spiritual lesson for us all.

THANKS CHEW!

you’re welcome

 

[JReducation]

Jeanette and Chew

Thank you for this beautiful post on St. Pius V. On my way home I was thinking about him, remembering his feast day, but also remembering that this is the holy man who so many have placed in such an incovenient position between Trent and Vatican II.

In reflecting on the life and work of Pius V, I observe several details which may appear insignificant, but are major signs of this man’s love and holiness.

Let’s contemplate for a moment the fact that he was the Vicar of Christ. Prior to the revision of Canon Law in 1983, when a religious was ordained a bishop he ceased to belong to his religious order or congregation. His vows were automatically dispensed and he returned to the secular state. They continued to be bound to celibacy (no marriage), but not to community life.

If we observe Pius V, this was a man that was almost 400 years of ahead of his time. Observe that he continued to wear the habit of Dominican Order, which as your post says is why Popes wear white with the white cape, as do the Dominicans. Also observe that he continued to be an active Dominican living according to the spirituality of St. Dominic and the rules of his Order. This actually became law in 1983. All religious who are ordained bishops continue to be members of their religious communities and are bound to the rule of their religious communities except in those matters that interfere with their duties as bishops.

How often have people upheld this man above and against the changes in the Church in the 20th century. Yet, this holy man foreshadowed changes that would come 400+ years later by retaining his Dominican identity.

Observe that your post says that he continued to live as a friar. Friar is the Latin term for Brother, not priest. A Brother is a man who is consecrated to Christ through vows of obedience to his superiors, he gives up his will and accepts the will of another or the will of his community as the voice of Christ. A Brother is a man consecrated by a vow of chastity. Not only does he give up the right to marriage, but he assumed a place within a community of brothers with whom he forms a new family of love, prayer, ministry and penance. A Brother is a man consecrated by the vow of poverty. His gives up all rights to own anything and shares all of the material goods of this community. Anything that is not necessary for daily sustenance or for ministry is given to the poor or used to take care of the older Brothers who are sick and can no longer work.

He inherited the confusion and trials that went with implementing the Council of Trent. How often do we hear people quote the Tridentine this or that. To us, who live 400+ years later it sounds like it was such a simple thing. Almost as if the Council of Trent waved a magic wand and everything was put into place.

Yet we examine the life of St. Pius V and we see that nothing could be further from the truth. He struggled with liturgical reform, including the Liturgy of the Hours, not just the mass. There as a need for better formation of priests. Until that time, secular priests did not attend seminaries or study theology in great depth. This was not the custom. They studied enough to perform their priestly functions, but few were actually scholars. Theologians were few and most belonged to religious orders such as the Dominicans, Jesuits, Carmelites, Franciscans and Benedictines.

Pius knew that the Church needed well educated diocesan priests, because religious had their own mission. Christ did not give them to the Church to run parishes. This was a secular function. The Church needed well educated secular priests, to free religious to go out preaching, praying, doing missionary work, or performing corporal works of mercy. He needed to reform the priesthood so that the religious communities could do what Christ had sent them to do and the Church would benefit from their contribution and that of the diocesan priests. Educating a generation of priests who were not used to the rigours of academic life was not going to be easy. There would be resistance and there was. But Pius pressed forward.

Pius stayed focussed on the Lord. His writings, his reforms and his private life all reflect his focus on the Lord, not on his own desires or personal preferences. In fact, when he wrote his famous encyclical on the the Liturgy his stringent rule that it should never be changed, was not because it was his persoanl preference or because this was the only way that the liturgy could be celebrated. He clearly stated in in his encyclical that we need to stay focussed on Christ and our worship must be consistent with the worship of the holy Apostles.

He did not bind the Church, on the contrary, he liberated the Church from everything that interfered with the proclamation of the Good News. He even went as far as reforming the catechism and creating a Confraternity of Christian Doctrine (CCD) to evangelize all people. This CCD was born from both the need of the Church and the model was taken from the mission of St. Dominic, founder of the Order of Preachers. Being a member of the Order of Preachers, Pius V borrowed from his religious tradition to lift up the Church.

It seems to me that instead of being in juxtaposition with Paul VI and John Paul II, they actually walked in the same shoes and faced the same issues. If anything, our study of St. Pius V should reinforce those famous words of John Paul II, “Do not be afraid.” We faced reforms once and survived. We can do it again.

Pope Pius V lived this radical life, despite the fact that he was the Vicar of Christ, the Pontiff and the Emperor of the Vatican State. He lived exercised is papacy as a Brother. How hurt would he be, if he saw how his name and his work is used to minimize or to trash the work of his brother Popes. Would this be an attitude consistent with this holy man’s life and vision.

JR

 

[catharina]

Beautiful. Thank you, all.

JR, I’ve so often thought much the same about Pius X. How hurt he would be …

 

[Jeanette_L]

Beautiful. Thank you, all.

JR, I’ve so often thought much the same about Pius X. How hurt he would be …

There are so many Saints and great leaders of the Church, past and present, who are misquoted or whose words or ideas are taken out of context or the spirit in which they were intended, I’m sure it grieves them and the heart of Christ that they are used in this way.

 

[JReducation]

Beautiful. Thank you, all.

JR, I’ve so often thought much the same about Pius X. How hurt he would be …

You mean Pius V, right?

 

[chewchoo]

thank you for the continued lesson on the feast of pope pius V.
we complain about such trival things, in all aspects of life.
pope pius just did as he was directed. what an example.

 

[JReducation]

There are so many Saints and great leaders of the Church, past and present, who are misquoted or whose words or ideas are taken out of context or the spirit in which they were intended, I’m sure it grieves them and the heart of Christ that they are used in this way.

Sanctity is not about documents and rules. Of course we need rules. As human beings we strive for structure and order. That why the Holy Spirit has given the Church the gift of so many spiritualities, so that each of us can find a path that leads to Him. We all need paths or we get lost in the woods.

Yet all of these paths lead to the same great road through Calvary to the Resurrection.

I heard a Spanish love song that inspired me to write this silly little “song” about the love between the soul and Christ. It’s not really mine. I was just inspired to put it together based on the love between lovers. But this is how I imagine Christ courting the soul.

**I am he who every night follows your soul,
the one who gives his life for you.

I am the one who waits for you,
who dreams of you.

I am the one who gives his life for you,
to earn your love in return.

I am the one who may seem distant,
but have not forgotten you.

I am the one who prays for your love.

I am here,
here to love you.

I am here to embrace you,
to tell you that no one has ever loved you as I have.

I am here to call you by name,
My Beloved.

I love you through time and space,
with my body and blood.

I love you in silence and in noice,
when you laugh and when you cry,

I love you with the depths of the sea,
and the force of the wind.

I love you with the heat of a flame,
and the soul of Eternity.**

Forgive my lack of talent. I just wanted to share this on this thread, because to me, holiness is about being in love. It’s about confusing your body and soul with his body and soul, where the two are so intimately united that they are difficult to separate.

It’s the perception of God’s hand in your life, discovering how beautiful life is. It’s walking through the world naked, just being who you are.

Walking with God is seeing the Lord’s heart in the tiniest star in the heavens. It’s listening to your voice, without speaking.

Walking in holiness is cofusing your temporal time with his eternal time, because the only thing that makes sense is eternity, all else is passing.

Walking in holiness is reaching and touching my Beloved through a child with autism, a youngster with emotional difficulties, listening to a child who wants to unburden himself, without an adult solution, just someone who will treasure what he has to say.

Walking in holiness is listening with your heart, touching with your mind, embracing with your eyes and speaking through your silence to the child who cannot organize his thoughts well enough to hold a normal conversation.

Waling in holiness is speaking with a firmness that is soaked in compassion and mercy. Directing toward holiness, while recognizing that I should follow my own guidance.

Finally, walking in holiness is walking behind a child or adolescent who is frightened of the world, never telling him that he has nothing to fear. On the contrary, letting him know that you too are afraid and you need his companionship to make you feel safe.

I’m sorry for saying so much, but as I meditate on the saints, I can’t help rambling.

I just wanted to share.

JR

 

[Jeanette_L]

That’s very touching JR, thank you for sharing that with us.

 

[catharina]

You mean Pius V, right?

No, I mean Pius X but I should have explained. He’s presented so often as this force of rigidity when OTOH, I learned as a child from my parents that because of changes instituted by Pope Pius X they were able (with their contemporaries) to receive their First Holy Communions at a young age. If I’m remembering correctly, it was Pope Pius X who made this amazing change although people keep labeling him with conformity to the past and a loathing of change.

It makes me sad that his name is used in that way.

 

[Jeanette_L]

thank you for the continued lesson on the feast of pope pius V.
we complain about such trival things, in all aspects of life.
pope pius just did as he was directed. what an example.

It takes a lot of courage to do what you know is God’s will in the face of enormous opposition. He was obviously a man of great unshakable faith. Like you said, an example.

 

[chewchoo]

It takes a lot of courage to do what you know is God’s will in the face of enormous opposition. He was obviously a man of great unshakable faith. Like you said, an example.

they were talking about st catherine of siena on the radio yesterday, and one point that keeps sticking in my mind was that she was pulled out of her life of comtemplation, her comfort zone, and into a life of action. that’s another example to try to follow. we get so set in our ways… need to step outside of the box. (just need a little courage)

 

[JReducation]

they were talking about st catherine of siena on the radio yesterday, and one point that keeps sticking in my mind was that she was pulled out of her life of comtemplation, her comfort zone, and into a life of action. that’s another example to try to follow. we get so set in our ways… need to step outside of the box. (just need a little courage)

Look at Mother Teresa. She left a religioius order and took on the dress of a Hindu woman living on the streets of Calcutta. Talk about stepping outside the box. LOL

JR