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Jesus left no formal religious rule for his followers. The closest he came was his proclamation of the Beatitudes: Blessed are the poor in spirit, the meek, the merciful, the peacemakers…. Francis took to heart this spiritual vision and translated it into a way of life. In various ways, other saints before and since have done the same.
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?
The prayer practices of St. Teresa of Avila can help us in our own spiritual journey.
Clare of Assisi gave up a world of privilege for a world of poverty. Her radical faith is a model for us all.
For many years, American Catholics who wanted to follow in the footsteps of a saint had to travel to Europe. In Assisi, they could step where St. Francis did. In Ireland, they might walk the byways of St. Patrick.
Love is our foundation and our destiny, says this noted Franciscan. But how can we remove the barriers between us and God?
A Catholic agency helps resettle families from war-ravaged Syria and Iraq, helping their dreams of a better future become a reality.
Saint Anthony of Padua is a name that conjures up many ideas and images: some factual, some the stuff of legends, some just plain silly.
The prayers we learned in childhood don’t have to be left there.
One of my high school students asked if someone with a prosthetic hand could be ordained. If so, would that hand be anointed? What if a man was born without arms?
I think that all the things you mentioned are possible. The Catholic Church has established various impediments to ordination, but it can also dispense from many of them.
At one time, a man blind in his left eye could not be ordained because that was his “canonical eye. ” The missal rested on a stand to the priest’s left at the altar.
