Saints Among Us
As editor of the Christ Our Life series, I once spent almost three months living in the Shelter of God’s Love in Chicago. This was a home for people with disabilities who have no other safe place to go. The home was the realized dream of Rosemary Koenig, a fiesty, petite, white-haired woman. Rosemary’s husband had left her to raise four children alone. After the children were grown and Rosemary retired, she wanted to do something to thank God for the many people who had helped her. So with hardly any money, she pursued the project of forming a community of needy people. A pastor, who Rosemary liked to say was as crazy as she, agreed to lease St. Andrew Parish’s convent to her. It included a chapel. Rosemary commented, “The nuns left, but Jesus stayed.” Proudly, Rosemary told me that my newly-carpeted room was the one where Cardinal Bernardin had vested when he came for the dedication of the Shelter.
When I arrived, the family comprised two women with cerebral palsy, two with spina bifida, one with multiple sclerosis, and one young blind woman. The members were an assorted group. Pam was a freckled Irish girl, while Diane was Black. “Tinkerbell” was about twenty-three, and Evelyn had had six children. Each night after supper the community prayed for their benefactors and for the intentions people had placed in the Shelter’s large Baby Jesus crib in the dining room. Rosemary’s faith in Divine Providence was unfailing and was always rewarded. She said that whatever she needed for her work, God supplied. A fundraiser yielded money to pay for an elevator to the penny. A piano was donated. When Rosemary needed to learn computer, a young woman showed up volunteering to live in the home for a year. She was computer literate.
After I left the Shelter, Rosemary began a second community in another house, one for elderly people. Then Rosemary took up a new ministry, mailing her friends and relatives a “Letter from Jesus” from time to time. I continued to receive the Shelter’s newsletter and a letter from Jesus until Rosemary’s death. I look forward to meeting her again someday.
When has Providence placed an extraordinary person like Rosemary along your path?
St. Peter’s Wife: A Historical Romance
I’ve written a novel, The Fisherman’s Wife: The Gospel According to St. Peter’s Spouse. You might call this a novel experience for me because all of my other books are nonfiction! A few months ago I was reading Philippa Gregory’s novels The White Princess and The Red Queen when it occurred to me that I could write a similar book about a person in the Bible. I chose St. Peter’s wife. We know that he had a wife because the Bible tells how Jesus healed Peter’s mother-in-law. But we don’t know anything else about this woman who was married to the chief apostle and presumably bore his children. This lack of facts gave my imagination free rein in telling her story. (more…)
St. Joseph, Head of the Holy Family
This week Pope Francis called for St. Joseph’s name to be inserted in the Eucharistic Prayers. It only took 2,000 years! Today people desperate to sell their houses, bury Joseph’s statue upside-down in the ground. (I hope they know that after the house sells they are supposed to set the statue in a place of honor in their new home.) Some people turn Joseph’s statue to face the wall when they want a favor. Joseph probably just smiles at the simple faith of these people. He probably also smiles at our portrayal of him as an old man (an attempt by artists to protect Mary’s virginity). Yet, Joseph is known as the greatest saint after his wife, Mary. (more…)
Coincidences or Divine Intervention
Recently I became aware of Carl Jung’s concept of synchronicity. This is the unexpected occurrence of two things happening together. I recall a few times when I experienced such a surprising event. When I entered the convent, I was assigned a four-digit “religious number,” which served to identify my articles of clothing and me. The first summer that I was admitted to the dormitory at the University of Minnesota, I was given my room’s phone number. It was my religious number! (more…)
Tending to Our Souls
Have you ever paged through Vogue? My sister gave me the issue with Michelle Obama pictured on the cover. The magazine is 324 pages mostly of pencil-thin models selling clothes, accessories, and perfume, many of them costing in the thousands! Our culture is obsessed with our bodies. Not just clothing them. We’re bombarded with programs, articles, and ads touting the latest diets, exercises, healthy food, and guaranteed-to-work medicines. What if we paid equal attention to our souls? How do we clothe, feed, tone, and heal them?
Colossians 3:12 advises us to clothe ourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. Ephesians 6:13–17 tells us to put on the armor of God: truth, righteousness, readiness for the gospel, faith, salvation, and the word of God. Most challenging, Galatians 3:27 reminds us that in baptism we have clothed ourselves in Christ. These garments are priceless! They also are required dress for entering the eternal celebration in God’s kingdom.
How do we nourish our souls? By two of God’s precious gifts: the Eucharist and his Word in Scripture. Just as we eat every day to stay alive—three square meals and a snack or two or three, we need daily contact with God to keep our souls from starving. He is our source of life.
Yoga, tai chi, massages, and exercise keep our bodies in good form and working smoothly. We strengthen our souls every time we practice self-control. For example, we might bite our tongue when tempted to hurt someone by our words. We might refrain from shopping or watching TV. Or we might squeeze in time to volunteer to help someone. These kinds of actions are like push-ups for the soul.
Last but not least, when something is wrong with our bodies, we treat them and may go to the doctor. What good is it to have a perfect body if one’s soul is sick? Our souls are healed of sin and faults and renewed by Communion and by the Sacrament of Reconciliation. We go to the Divine Physician.
Imagine if there were a 324-page magazine focused on the soul. Do you think anyone would buy it?
