saint of the week

Last week I just happened to look down and notice that my Golden Retriever's nails were painted red.  I honestly laughed out loud.  You see, for prior two weeks,  I have had the flu, then bronchitis.

With Thera Flu and albuterol I could basically function, but certainly not nearly at the pace that I maintain on healthier days.  Needless to say, my daughter and I have stayed home.

I guess the dogs nails were a causality of a rainy day, a sick mom and new, just-got-for-my-birthday nail polish and an inventive nine year old.  I wish I was a fly on the wall to see how this endeavor went down; especially how she got the dog to put her paw in the ladybug nail dryer. (I assume the dog's nails were dry because there is not a speck of nail polish to be found anywhere on the floor). 

 

They say that where there is a will, there is a way.  So it is.  This is also true when it comes to our faith.  For thousands of years, Christianity has been put upon by one group on another, yet it flourishes. 

 

Where there is a will there is a way.

I think of the "Black Robes' who came to this country, the courageous folks like Maximilian Kolbe who preached and practiced Catholicism in the face of Nazi occupation, the Irish priests who hid in holes and men like Andrew Dung-Lac who were martyred in Viet Nam.

 

Catholicism was brought to Vietnam by the Portuguese in the 1600's.  It had never been embraced by the governments. (That was a nice way of saying, Catholics were persecuted).Andrew Dung-Lac was born in 1785. He was a Vietnamese priest; certainly not a safe occupation in this era. But where there is will there is way.

In 1820 Andrew and some 100 other Catholics were martyred. St. Andrew was actually beheaded for doing nothing more than being a priest. All toll in the sixty years that followed somewhere between 100,000 and 300,000 Catholics were either martyred or abused.

 

Yet in Vietnam Catholicism survives. It struggles, but it survives. A dear friend of mine is a missionary there right now. She works through various, discrete means to nourish the souls of those hungry for Christ.

 

Let us pray now that God will instill in us the will to preach the gospel and the ways or opportunities to do so.  While you're at it, put in a good word for my friend and all of the strong-willed missionaries who are out there everyday finding ways

 

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"All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well". St. Julian of Norwich


Jamie Dillon