“Whoever has God lacks nothing: God alone is enough.” Born: March 28, 1515 Died: October 4, 1582 Feast Day: October 15 Patron of headache sufferers and Spanish Catholic writers Background If you heard a teen guy describing a girl as “witty and beautiful, intelligent and charming, funny and deep,” you
Francis of Assisi had a deep love for God, people, animals, and the environment. Put simply, he saw God in everyone and everything. Above all, he cared for and loved the sick and poor in a way that few others ever have.
If you were to ask most people what they know about St. Patrick, you would most likely get a wide range of answers. And, inevitably, most would be incorrect. Much like St. Valentine, St. Patrick is more known for his now secularized holiday than for his actual feast day.
The road was little more than a path of dirt covered with small jagged rocks and pebbles. It was far from a desirable place to lay your head, much less land on. How humbling it must have been for Saul, powerful Saul, to quickly go from being the hunter to the hunted.How ironic that he landed upon the earth when God humbled him, for both ground and humility share the same root word in Latin (a language Saul certainly knew).
Here’s the thing about Lent: Your thing is your thing. What you give up and what you add on is between you and God, not you and your friends.
If, however, you take every opportunity (consciously or unconsciously) to share just how much you’re giving up or how much you’re doing, it’s not holiness you’re seeking — it’s attention.
This is one of those Scripture passages that many people 'know' (meaning, they've heard it before) but countless people fail to understand. My own parochial school teacher taught us that it simply meant God loves poor people 'more.'
Ummm, to put it as charitably and bluntly as possible . . . no, that's not what it means . . .
I am doing the same thing that the saints do for me when I ask them to pray with me to Jesus… to join their prayers to mine, en route to Christ. Since they’re closer to Him than I am, it actually makes even more sense for them to pray for me, than for my earthly friends to pray for me.
Before you open God’s Word, ask the author of that word – the Holy Spirit – to be present in a bold and fierce way. Quiet yourself, spend some time in silence, and hold the Bible in your hands as you pray.
To be clear, the Church doesn’t “make someone” a saint. The Church recognizes the holiness of certain individuals and honors some with the title of “saint.” If you make it to heaven, you are a saint – whether or not the Church recognizes you as one publicly.
The title of saint is conferred on someone after what is called the canonization process.
