Find what you’re looking for
Even as a child, Frances Xavier Cabrini knew she was made to be a missionary; she loved crafting little paper boats and sending them off to sail with “missionary” flowers aboard.
Elizabeth Ann Seton and her husband had a busy, beautiful life together in Lower Manhattan. They cohosted a party for George Washington’s sixty-fifth birthday. They lived next door to Alexander Hamilton. They were stalwarts of the Episcopal church, and set a good example for their children in their charitable activities.
I often speak about the female saints to Catholic women’s groups, and two things tug at my heart. The first is the little boxes we try to put these holy women in. They weren’t perfect, folks, and they would have been the first to tell you about their struggles with the loss of loved ones, their health, their dignity. The faith and confidence they had in the Lord make them bigger than those little boxes. That brings us to the second thing: Like them, you are blessed. Not tomorrow, not when the kids go off to college, not when you get that next promotion. Now. Today. How do I know that?
We find our own spiritual poverty in many different ways: in humbling ourselves and working and living simply; in stripping ourselves of all the titles and possessions that give us pride; in finding the faith to set aside all the fears and paranoia that give us anxiety. For God to fill us up, we must first empty ourselves of all the stuff that stands between him and us. If we are strong enough to do that—to accept spiritual poverty, to understand that all we need is God and when we have God we have all we need—we begin to see the kingdom of heaven.
Parish nurses take their ministry seriously. They blend health with spirituality. And that’s faithful medicine!
Sister Rose Pacatte, FSP, reviews The Hate U Give, Smallfoot, and On Her Shoulders.
The prayer practices of St. Teresa of Avila can help us in our own spiritual journey.
It was the very closeness of God that moved Francis to the depths of his being. He was no longer alone. God was with him and with the whole world. God was in him and God was in every creature, and all was blessing.
— from the book Surrounded by Love: Seven Teachings from Saint Francis
Think of the rosary as being like the ocean: There’s something in it for everyone, whether you consider yourself a veteran mystic longing to go deeper in prayer with our Lord, a novice struggling to learn how to pray, or someone seeking the Lord’s help, right now, with something going on in your life. The deep-sea explorer and the child making sand castles on the beach can fully enjoy the same ocean while playing at different levels. And this is true with the rosary.
“When I was by myself, I began to reflect on the spirit of poverty. I clearly saw that Jesus, although he is Lord of all things, possessed nothing. From a borrowed manger he went through life doing good to all, but himself having no place to lay his head. And on the Cross, I see the summit of his poverty, for he does not even have a garment on himself. As exteriorly we should possess nothing and have nothing to dispose of as our own; so interiorly we should desire nothing. And in the Most Blessed Sacrament, how great is your poverty!
