saint of the week 10/25

 

 

Jamie,
Bless you for your saint stories! I appreciate them so much.
Joyce

saint of the week

October 25 Saint of the Week.

 

Since I am a bit late on my Saint for this week, I promised myself that I would do it tonight.  Truth is, I am not much in the mood.  I just returned from a frustrating encounter at Best Buy.  Without further rambling suffice to say that I received a defective item and no one seems to be concerned with doing the right thing.  (FYI I will never do business there again and I caution you).

 

Ironically though, this entire scenario has been played before me at least a dozen times in my youth.  My mother was a single parent, long before it became the norm.  She was a single mom when divorce was spoken in hushed terms and Dad's got out of paying child support and fingers were easily pointed.  She was a single mom in a Brady Bunch era.

So, here is this woman raising three girls and it seems that nearly every time she purchased something . . . it was defective and needed to be returned or replaced or there would be parts missing or what have you.  She was single woman standing toe to toe with many a store manger.

 

In the early years, my mom had a sidekick.  That was my grandmother.  Yes, my mother looked after my grandmother, but my grandmother looked after us and held my mother in constant prayer.  My grandmother's parting words to us were always, "Button your coat and help your mother".

 

I remember one time when grandmother was staying with us, my mother lost her wallet.  It was all that she had.  She was frantic.  My grandmother being the awesome sidekick, pulled St. Anthony from her utility belt and prayed.  Not the "St. Anthony, St. Anthony please look around, so that was is lost can be found," Prayer that he hears on an almost daily basis from me, but rather prayers bursting with passion and faith.  That night, my grandmother had a dream.  In her dream she saw St Anthony holding the wallet.  He told my grandmother where he had found it.  When she awoke, she told my mother where to look and, well, there it was. 

 

Another time, my nephew was very, very ill.  He spent months in Children's hospital and the doctors were stumped.  My grandmother prayed with all of her heart to St. Jude. We all followed her lead. Today my nephew is 20 years old.  He still wears a St. Jude medal.

 

I know it sounds like the Saint of the week should be my grandmother or my mother or St. Anthony, but actually, it is St. Jude.  St. Jude NOT JUDAS was one of the 12 apostles.  He was a distant cousin of Jesus.  One of his letters appears in the New Testament.  In that letter he urges us to persevere in the midst of all the frustration and turmoil that the world can bring.  To be a Christian in times when it may seem almost impossible, (like being in Best Buy with a defective product or being a single parent).  Because of that, he is known as the Saint of Desperate situations.  I have attached a prayer for you.

Most Holy Apostle, St. Jude Thaddeus, faithful servant and friend of Jesus, the name of the traitor who delivered your beloved Master into the hands of his enemies has caused you to be forgotten by many. But the Church honors you, and I invoke you as the special advocate of those who are in trouble and almost without hope. Help me to realize that through our faith we triumph over lifes difficulties by the power of Jesus who gave his life for us. Come to my assistance that I may receive the consolation and succor of heaven in all my needs, trials, and sufferings, particularly (here make your request) and that I may praise God with you and all the saints forever.

FW: Re: saint of the week

 

 

-------------- Forwarded Message: --------------
From: aomt@comcast.net (Anne Thomasmeyer)
To: jamiedillon@comcast.net
Subject: Re: saint of the week
Date: Tue, 9 Oct 2007 16:31:15 +0000

No, no, no . . . never just a youth minister. When you say that it reminds me a of a time that we were having some work done on our house and one of the carpenters needed to come in and use the bathroom, saying something about he was "just a carpenter" possibly dragging dust into my house. I assured him that wasn't at all a problem, but it's always been a regret of mine that I didn't add that "after all, my boss is a Jewish carpenter." Where would we be without carpenters? Or youth ministers?

 

And please, please, can we pretend that St.Theresa (my very own Confirmation namesake) at least occasionally wanted to eat truffles during Confirmation? The visual image is irresistible. (And I hope you got some punch when you were done.)

 

A.

 

 

saint of the week

Hi everyone: 

Here is this week's saint.  If you want to read other "saint of the week" messages just go to www.stscholasticayouth.org and click on saint of the week!

 

 

 

Saint of the Week: October 9

 

Last night I attended confirmation at St. Scholastica.   We had over 85 candidates and  their loved ones.  Needless to say, the church was packed.  Being that is has been unseasonably hot, the church was like an oven.  I thought of it as being a real way to experience the FIRE of the Spirit!  Most people though, were fanning themselves.  I guess that sometimes the fire can be a bit overwhelming.  After the sacrament I decided to help straighten up the church.  As I stacked chairs (dozens of extras were pulled out because the pews were filled) , I found several candy wrappers on the floor.  I tried to figure out a way that candy could tie into confirmation.  I don't think that truffles are a gift of the Spirit even though it is something that I for one, could certainly benefit from occassionally.  Being unable to tie candy to confirmation, I realized that someone was just having a snack and then rudely left their wrappers in the church.  That's when my temper began its own fire.  The Holy Spirit however, must have been lingering, because as I walked to the garbage can I thought of St. Therese of Lisieux, the Little Flower.

 

St. Therese's feast day was October 1.  She was a Carmelite nun who died about a century ago at the age of 24.  St. Therese is not a saint because she healed someone or walked through fire unscathed.  She is a saint because she did the little, demeaning jobs unscathed.  She completed her work with great love.  She kept her mind and her heart focused on Jesus.  She did not complain about the heat.  She did not eat truffles during confirmation.  Sh e did not complain about picking up truffle wrappers after confirmation while everyone else was having cookies and ice cold punch.

 

I usually try to keep my unkind thoughts in my thought bubble, like a cartoon character.  But really, if my mind and heart were focused on Jesus, there would not be any room in my bubble for anything else.

 

I guess that's why St. Therese is a saint, and I am just a youth minister.