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Gerard believed he had found his vocation as a lay Redemptorist, throwing himself into whatever task the community assigned him: sacristan, gardener, carpenter, and of course tailor, which had been the young man’s training.
Born in Guarantingueta near São Paulo, Antônio de Sant’Anna Galvão attended the Jesuit seminary in Belem but later decided to become a Franciscan friar. Invested in 1760, he made final profession the following year and was ordained in 1762.
Call it palace intrigue, call it family intrigue. Edward the Confessor’s life was filled with alliances and misalliances. After repairing a rift with his powerful father-in-law, Edward became more focused on his faith (“confessor” refers to his piety, not that he was ordained). It’s the rare family that hasn’t had some drama—someone who won’t speak to a sibling over a long-ago hurt, children estranged from their parents after a divorce. Edward’s example shows us that while relationships may never be restored to what they once were, with God’s help, respect and civility can be restored.
Anthony Mary Claret was a missionary, religious founder, social reformer, queen’s chaplain, writer and publisher, archbishop and refugee. He was a Spaniard whose work took him to the Canary Islands, Cuba, Madrid, Paris, and to the First Vatican Council.
Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli never left his roots as a northern Italian farmer’s son; it’s just that the places where he planted and sowed changed.
When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain, and after he had sat down, his disciples came to him. He began to teach them, saying: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven.
Born at a time when the bubonic plague had decimated the population and the Church was split with two, maybe three, claimants to the papacy, Saint John of Capistrano was a voice of strength and hope. He was known for his preaching and his ability to reconcile warring factions. His talents were felt in the Church and in the Franciscan Order.
“Dear young people, let yourselves be taken over by the light of Christ, and spread that light wherever you are.” (St. John Paul II)
Born in Wadowice, Poland, Pope Saint John Paul II had lost his mother, father, and older brother before his 21st birthday. Then his promising academic career at Krakow’s Jagiellonian University was cut short by the outbreak of World War II.
Amid all the disaster and distress
that wheels around and swirls within us in chaotic times,
there are also always marvels to behold.
Let neither fear nor preoccupation
keep you from being touched
by wonderfully wounded life.
May you find a way in every day,
to share your great-fullness
for all that touches your eyes.
May you refuse to be crushed
but rather, look lovingly upon all with tear-washed eyes,
trained on woundedness, straining for wonder.
As you savor the sweet brevity of your days,
