Pilgrim progress- a disciple on a journey!

St. Teresa of Avila I recently finished reading a biography of St. Teresa of Avila by Shirley du Boulay. What can I say but that once more I have been kicked out of my comfort zone. I had read biographies of her life in my earlier days in the convent but for some reason she has made a return to my reading shelf. Here as in all her major writings, the reformer of Carmel has that gift in making us believe that she is speaking directly to us. She doesn’t compose a long soliloquy on God’s wonders or present a third-person discourse on the objective conditions for a more fulfilling life. Instead, Teresa seems to sit down with her reader, seeking out individual needs and also possible resistances to what she proposes. She establishes a You-and-I relationship and tugs at your sleeve if she fears you might walk away. There is a strength in Teresa which is fruit of the strong union she has with the Lord. Her sole desire is to love him and serve Him, listening to the str...

Thank God for auto-correct! How often have I signed myself off in an email or a text message as ‘St.’, that is, Saint, instead of ‘Sr.’, that is, 'Sister'.  Though yesterday some kind person actually texted me as ‘St. Louise’! Whilst I giggled, it was also a moment of reflection on the huge commitment I have to become a saint. Yes, I aspire to be a saint. It may sound proud for someone to say out loud that one aspires to be a saint. I am convinced that I have lived with and live with saints, holy people who aspire to ‘be’ completely for Christ, for to be a saint to is be holy, in the footsteps of Jesus who is Holy.  They are ordinary people, to say it somehow, without a visible heroism, but in their everyday goodness I see the truth of the faith. This goodness, which they have matured in the faith of the Church, is for me a sure defence of Christianity and the sign of where the truth is. I came across this blog from Neal Obstat  which had a post entitled: “We need sai...

Communion of Saints by Elizabeth Wang A cross post from the Aggie Catholic blog She wrote this in 2013 so some of the saints have changed title since! "The top 50 Saints’ quotes, in an arbitrary ranking. -“Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ.” St. Jerome “Since Christ Himself has said, “This is My Body” who shall dare to doubt that It is His Body?” -St. Cyril of Jerusalem “Teach us to give and not count the cost.” -St. Ignatius de Loyola “Pray as though everything depended on God. Work as though everything depended on you.” -St. Augustine “Don’t you long to shout to those youths who are bustling around you: Fools! Leave those worldly things that shackle the heart – and very often degrade it – leave all that and come with us in search of Love!” -St. Josemaria Escriva “For me prayer is a surge of the heart, it is a simple look towards Heaven, it is a cry of recognition and of love, embracing both trial and joy.” -St. Therese of Lisieux “To convert somebody g...

Shrine to St. Elizabeth Setton Photo: KJM Today would be the memorial of St. Elizabeth Anne Setton but obviously the second Sunday after Christmas takes precedence. Given my love of the saints, I count myself very blessed to have been able to visit many saints tombs, birth places, places of conversion and strong spiritual experiences. During my stay in New York last Christmas 2013 I had the opportunity to visit the Shrine to St. Anne Seton there. It is quite a strange architectural juxtaposition against the dizzying skyscrapers of the Manhattan skyline. Located directly across from entrance to the Staten Island ferry, it is hard to miss and definitely merits a visit. It is a beautiful red-brick stately building which pays homage to St. Elizabeth Anne Setton. Her story is quite interesting. Convert to Roman Catholicism; foundress of the American Sisters of Charity, which was the first sisterhood native to the United States; a wife, mother, widow, sole parent, foundress of the...

God works in mysterious ways! On the feast of St. Clare whose memorial we hold today albeit somewhat silent because of the Sunday precedence, I had the opportunity to attend a monologue based on the life of St. Therese. I confess I didn’t really know what to expect. An hour of just one person talking! For a self-confessed multi-tasker, this seemed intense just to have to focus on one thing and one person though essentially that is what we do when we come to prayer. The performance was originally written in French and later translated to English. It has been performed about 500 times and seen by 100,000 people around the world written and directed by Michel Pascal. Check out his impressive bio here . The performance is based on St Therese’s writings, which recount her life from her childhood days to her life in the Carmelite monastery. According to Pascal, the play portrays the saint’s life of simplicity and openness, and aims to touch audiences, inviting them to discover inner peac...

St. Ignatius of Loyola St. Josemaria Escriva, Founder of Opus Dei, once said: “Reading has made many saints!” This is what came to mind today as I reflected on the life of St. Ignatius of Loyola and how a book changed his life. Ignatius was a solider in the Spanish army fighting against the French when a cannon ball and a series of bad operations ended his military career in 1521 and left him confined to bed for a long recovery period.  It was not pain that brought him suffering, it was the boredom. During his days of recovery he asked for books on chivalry, his favourite reading, but there were no such romances in the Loyola castle. So instead he was given the only books in the house -- one was a Life of Christ by Ludolph, a Carthusian monk, and the other was Flos sanctorum , a collection of lives of the saints. Iñigo set about reading them, and as it happened, this was the most important reading he would ever do. During his convalescence Iñigo reflected on the books he read ...

Today, 13th of December, the Church commemorates the feast of Saint. Lucy. There are many interesting traditions and customs associated with this saint, especially in the Scandinavian countries. You can check them out here and  here. On a spiritual note, Saint Lucy is one of seven women, aside from the Blessed Virgin Mary, commemorated by name in the Canon of the Mass. Hagiography states that Lucy was a Christian martyr during the Diocletian persecution. She consecrated her virginity to God through pious works refused to marry a pagan betrothed, and had her wedding dowry distributed to the poor. Her betrothed pagan groom denounced her as a Christian to the governor of Syracuse, Sicily. Miraculously unable to move her or burn her (they tried with 50 men and 150 oxen to move her!), the guards took out her eyes with a fork. In another version, Lucy's betrothed admired her eyes, so she tore them out and gave them to him, saying, "Now let me live for God”. Extreme and gory as al...

After Christmas and Easter, All Saint's Day is my favourite feastday of the year! I had hoped to write a series of blog posts in preparation for the feastday but haven't got that far yet! I blame 'General Norms' and so after tomorrow's exam, I can have my life back for a while! In the meanwhile, here's a few thoughts about the saints from a blog I posted a while back at the time of the beatification of Chiara Badano . Happy feastday to you all! "Did you ever wonder what people in heaven do all day? Float on clouds? Wander around on gold pavement? Sing a cappella? Maybe. But many of us have the wrong impression if we think heaven is a perpetual resting home where we indulge our every desire and forget about other people. The saints are at peace and are resting in the Lord, but it’s not the kind of rest that is oblivious to the world! No, they are always aware of us and are prepared to receive our prayers in love. Some people frown on the idea that we sh...

Did you ever wonder what people in heaven do all day? Float on clouds? Wander around on gold pavement? Sing a cappella? Maybe. But many of us have the wrong impression if we think heaven is a perpetual resting home where we indulge our every desire and forget about other people. The saints are at peace and are resting in the Lord, but it’s not the kind of rest that is oblivious to the world! No, they are always aware of us and are prepared to receive our prayers in love. Some people frown on the idea that we should pray to saints seeing it as a form of idolatry. But they have a misconception of the role of the saints. St. Paul tells us that we are a communion of saints, and a saintly communion, united with the Lord, is not divided by death. Those who are called to God might leave our earthly eyes, but they are present, and they are family and family members do not ignore each other when one of their own asks for help. Think of the saints as agents of God. No, they are not just an...

Checking out the route Time to pack the suitcases again...we're on the road to Piedmonte! Back to visit to the land of our origins, the land which exhales our charismatic history. It's all very exciting, especially for those who are making the journey for the first time. After participating in the Eucharist with the community, preparing our picnic (it's an 8 hr journey more or less), we piled into our minibus with Sr. M. Micaela at the wheel! A few prayers to our Lady and to our Guardian Angels later, we were on the way! Leaving early was a great idea and thus beating the traffic. Cruising along the picturesque Italian countryside is indeed a feast for the eyes. Our journey brought us through four different regions: Lazio, Umbria, Tuscany and Piedmonte, each one of them with their particular characteristics. A common characteristic to them all were the bountiful harvests of corn, various grains, fruit and the general sense of the Autumn season reminding us of creation a...