Saint of the week

Saint of the Week

                                    Blessed Luigi and Marie Beltrame Quattrocchi

 

Yesterday was a banner day at my house.  Actually I should be thankful as I felt that I had been lacking material for the "Saint of the Week" and was stressing over it.  So God in His infinite goodness gave me yesterday.

 

Yesterday was the kind of day that all mother's pretend not to have.  It is the day where we are thankful that there is not a hidden camera crew putting us on reality TV, because if there were, we'd be locked up. 

 

I really do not relish this kind of day, and have to admit that they are few and far between (although my kids might feel otherwise, especially my 9 year old who looked so surprised when I came out of the confessional last month and said with all seriousness, "Are you done already?  I thought that you'd be in there a lot longer!")

 

Basically my day yesterday boiled down to my schedule being totally shot, my son complaining about no less than seven major things of the day, my having a boat load of work to do and not being able to get to it and the phone ringing incessantly.    Truly these are all small things in the grand scheme of life.  But sometimes it is the small things that seem like Chinese water torture.

 

It all started well, with prayer as always, then, went down from there.  At the end of the day it felt good to melt into my lazy boy and be mindless.  I felt badly for not being the person that God wants me to be.  I felt badly for not being the mom my kids need me to be.  I felt badly for my husband who walked into it all.

 

Recently I was reading about Blessed Luigi and Marie Beltrame Quattrocchi.  They were born in the 1880's and died in the 1950's and 60's respectively.  They had four children.  They lived in Italy though 2 wars.  They lived simple, God based lives.  Their family was indeed, church.  They were welcoming, focused on community, charitable and loving.  Theirs was the family that prayed together and stayed together.  They were a couple who knew how to love and respect each other through the best and worst of times.  No wonder they are destined for saint hood.

 

Today I pray for their intercession.  I want to achieve what they did.  I want to do more than just survive the Chinese water torture.