Monday, February 14, 2011

My year with the saints

Over time now, I find a rhythm in my year. A liturgical rhythm. I think in terms of feast days...oh, you will be here on December 12? Our Lady of Guadalupe!
This living with the saints has developed gradually...I started by reading about the saints with my kids, then celebrating their feast days, then delving further for my own interest...Was St Therese really as sickly sweet as she seemed? The only way to find out was to read her own words...and. boy, I certainly found out why she is a Doctor of the Church! Strong. Loving. Not sickly sweet.
Living with the saints doesn't mean that I am a saint..no, way too tarnished for that.
It does mean, however, that just as I used to peruse self help books and popular psychology ( Thirty Days to A Better Life; Three Steps to a Super Marriage, Ten Ways Not To Fail As A Mum...) so now I perusue the writings of the saints.
As a booky person, reading and writing are givens for me when faced with life and its dilemmas.
Yet now it is reading of the saints and words by the saints. Asking the saints for prayers.
Living wiih the saints.
So my year with the saints becomes my life with the saints as friends to whom I turn.
Tonight I turned to Mother Teresa.
She was good at dying to self. I am not. I am good at building barriers around myself.
No matter. The saints words give me solace. Give me advice. My own twelve step programme.
My year with the saints is exemplified in my reading with Mother Teresa tonight.
How did she make it through?
With God's grace. And with her own determination and strength of character. Mother Teresa lived the joy that she did not always feel.
"You know how much Jesus loves you...Be good, be holy - Pull yourself up. Don't let the devil have the best from you - You know what Jesus and Mother expect from you - Just be cheerful - Radiate Christ..."
Radiate Christ. Thank you, Mother.

And this is why I live with the saints, remembering them, celebrating their feast days, asking for their intercession.
To learn. To love. To be better.
God knows how much I need it.

5 comments:

Gaye Englund said...

And you forgot to mention the one long party:)

Unknown said...

I want to say something deep so I won't perperuate my shallow image but what I really want to know is- which Therese did you mean? Of Lisieux (sp?) who I do think of as sickly sweet or of Avila, who I know nothing about except she was a Doctor of the Church?

Pam

Leonie said...

Yes, Gaye, I love parties and so I love celebrating the feast days! Pam, Yes, St Therese of Lisieux... Read The Story of a Soul, for example !

Lena said...

praise God that we have the communion of saints to be our models and intercessors.

i have a difficult time not to focus just on one saint, especially mother teresa. each saint could give me lifelong lessons and encouragement....orate pro nobis!

Pax Christi - lena

Leonie said...

Thanks you for your comment!!