Living Without School: My year with the saints

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:); 11:56 pm
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; 12:36 am
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 !; 11:37 am
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; 1:23 am
Leonie said...: Thanks you for your comment!!; 7:12 am

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Prayer of Consecration of St. Maximilian Kolbe

O Immaculata, Queen of Heaven and earth, refuge of sinners and our most loving Mother, God has willed to entrust the entire order of mercy to thee. I, N___, a repentant sinner, cast myself at thy feet humbly imploring thee to take me with all that I am and have, wholly to thyself as thy possession and property. Please make of me, of all my powers of soul and body, of my whole life, death and eternity, whatever most pleases thee. If it pleases thee, use all that I am and have without reserve, wholly to accomplish what was said of thee: "She will crush your head," and, "Thou alone have destroyed all heresies in the whole world."

Let me be a fit instrument in thine Immaculate and merciful hands for introducing and increasing the maximum in all the many strayed and indifferent souls, and thus help extend as far as possible the blessed Kingdom of the most Sacred Heart of Jesus. For wherever thou enters, one obtains the grace of conversion and growth in holiness, since it is through thy hands that all graces come to us from the most Sacred Heart of Jesus.

V. Allow me to praise thee O Sacred Virgin.
R. Give me strength against thy enemies.

Prayer of St Bonaventure

Pierce, O most Sweet Lord Jesus, my inmost soul with the most joyous and healthful wound of Thy love, with true, serene, and most holy apostolic charity, that my soul may ever languish and melt with love and longing for Thee, that it may yearn for Thee and faint for Thy courts, and long to be dissolved and to be with Thee.Grant that my soul may hunger after Thee, the bread of angels, the refreshment of holy souls, our daily and supersubstantial bread, having all sweetness and savor and every delight of taste; let my heart ever hunger after and feed upon Thee, upon whom the angels desire to look, and may my inmost soul be filled with the sweetness of Thy savor; may it ever thirst after Thee, the fountain of life, the fountain of wisdom and knowledge, the fountain of eternal light, the torrent of pleasure, the richness of the house of God.May it ever compass Thee, seek Thee, find Thee, run to Thee, attain Thee, meditate upon Thee, speak of Thee, and do all things to the praise and glory of Thy name, with humility and discretion, with love and delight, with ease and affection, and with perseverance unto the end.May Thou alone be ever my hope, my entire assurance, my riches, my delight, my pleasure, my joy, my rest and tranquility, my peace, my sweetness, my fragrance, my sweet savor, my food, my refreshment, my refuge, my help, my wisdom, my portion, my possession and my treasure, in whom may my mind and my heart be fixed and firmly rooted immovably henceforth and for ever. Amen.