November 5, 2007
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My Favorite Saint
In honor of the recent (Nov. 1st) Feast of All Saints, I thought I would share with you my favorite saint, Gemma Galgani (1878-1903). Here is a letter that she wrote that I just LOVE.
“Often I seem to be alone, but really I have Jesus as a companion. I try to deprive myself of everything, but instead I find all. I shun all the pleasures of life, and I happen on one so great that I am utterly happy. I am always on fire with love, and I always want to love more. I suffer, and never have enough of it. I long to live and I long to die. I experience love, but my lover I do not understand. I cannot fathom him, being thus ignorant, still I can sense that he is an immense good, a prodigious good: Jesus.
I wish that my heart could beat, that I could live and breathe only for Jesus. I wish that my tongue could utter no other name than that of Jesus; that my pen could write only about Jesus, and that my thoughts could soar to nothing but Jesus. I have often wondered where on earth there might be something on which I could center my love. But neither on earth nor in heaven do I find any such thing but only my beloved Jesus.
Paradise is waiting for us. If living for Jesus on earth makes us so happy, what must heaven be like where we shall see him in all his infinite greatness, goodness and beauty? I hope for mercy from this Jesus, mercy for me and for all poor sinners. If I could, I would atone for all their sins and mine.
Let us recall that we are disciples of this Jesus who suffered so much. It is not enough to look at the cross, or wear it, we must carry it in the depths of our heart. Together, let us visit Jesus Crucified; let us look at him; he is lifted up on the cross. If Jesus is nailed there, let us not complain if we must stand at his feet. My poor Jesus! I wish I had a heart composed of all the hearts that love you most, so that I might show you my sympathy and help you. However, all the powers of my poor body, and all the love of my miserable heart, I consecrate to you. May it never be said that we would fail Jesus and leave him alone on the road to Calvary. Let us stay with him, not as far as Calvary but to the cross and death. Let us together rush to the cross, to new crosses. Let us put our arms around them and say: O holy cross, if we remember the immeasureable love with which Jesus greeted you, we would never part with you again.
I am the fruit of your passion, Jesus, born of your wounds. O Jesus, seek me in love; I no longer possess anything; you have stolen my heart. I always say to myself that to love is to be in pain; you give the cross to the one you love. Treat me as your Father treated you. Jesus, compel me to drink the cup of your sorrows to the last drop; give me a little at a time. So Jesus, do not leave these poor sinners to themselves. I am willing to do something. You died on the cross; make me die too. These sinners are your sons and daughters. Since they are, do not abandon them. Jesus, I want them all to be saved. If you desert them, there is no hope. Must not I be the one to suffer for them? Then arrange it so. You have so many sinners, so few victims.”
-La povera Gemma
Basically, she articulates beautifully what I would say if someone asked me how I felt about where I am at right now.
I love this letter of hers; part of me feels like I wrote it, especially the first paragraph about shunning the pleasures of life and happening upon one so great that I am just silly-happy over it, and also about experiencing love but not understanding my lover. I also love the line near the end, “I am the fruit of your passion, Jesus, born of your wounds.” How beautiful is that image? Oh I love St. Gemma so much. If anyone has a chance to read about her, DO IT; she is amazing, and to think that she died only 104 years ago? Our great-grandparents may have known of this remarkable girl! Heck, look above the post; how often do you get to see a photograph of a saint?I love our Church.
Who is your favorite saint and why?
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Comments (21)
I just finished her autobiography earlier today (yesterday)
. Stigmata every week? That has to be challenging to endure…
My heart is close to St. Joan of Arc right now, particularly with the fiction class incident. But St. Maximillian Kolbe has also been on my mind a lot. I suppose he helps remind me of my hope in humanity when I study the Holocaust. No greater love is there than this: to give up one’s life for one’s friends… or a total stranger. And, of course, St. Peter Canisius. The writings of his that I’ve gone through so far reveal his deep and constant affection for his friends.
Speaking of which, I simply cannot wait to talk with you tomorrow.
I’m not sure. Saints change like the weather for me. Lately I’ve liked St Joseph for the invisible life of work he led while supporting Mary and the Child Jesus. So much of the work I do for the kids I have not idea if it makes an impact. My work is invisible to me, maybe more to the world. God saw Joseph, and He sees me. That’s what matters, right?
Duh do I really need to tell you that one? Love you
I’ll make another pass of my collection tonight and let you know what I’m willing to part with. For the soldier, it was a lot of duplicates and films I haven’t watched for a while, and a few Full Screen films I somehow inherited.
I’m just guessing that you have a copy of Serenity up there, though, right?
I’m sure I could find a few to send your way this Thanksgiving/Christmas time for the Jesuits collection. too. Lord know’s I’ve got plenty of boxes from Amazon to use to ship them.
Any complaints about Full/Widescreen?
I should pray to her. I can’t imagine having that level of devotion. I like St. Thomas More because I like his story of standing for what was right in a time when doing so meant losing his life. That’s bravery I don’t know if I’d ever have.
i love your background.
–Sorry for the long-timed response.
thanks for the comment and information.
Star Wars is aweeesome.
We should discuss. There is more. I may call you today…
That post came from an email that the campus minister sent to me which he got from Sr Jan of the Sisters of St Joseph of Cardonlet. I had no idea who he was. I’ve got a meeting on tuesday to find a spiritual director.
As of 9 a.m., the package is in the mail. Let me know when you get it please. I’m hoping it will arive just before Thanksgiving, but who knows? Hope you have a great week!
What a gorgeous letter, indeed… Wow. I will read it again later
God bless,
Addy*
peace is a foreign concept
Did talk about it in the confessional, and it’s only left me questioning whether Father actually considers spiritual attacks to be a reality or not, or if he’s ever had any ‘strong’ ones. But then again, who is to say what a strong spiritual attack is, as it may all easily depend on the strength of relationship with God, the strength/amount of faith, and extraneous variables I’m forgetting?
I know that’s this weekend and I forgot to add it to my countdown. I’m a little unsure if I can wrest the remote control from my sister to watch it, too, and my aunt and uncle will be watching football, more than likely. I’m definitely going to try to catch it, though.
As for the DVD, check my rule of not buying DVD’s until after Christmas for myself. Superbad and Stardust don’t make that list of mine, either, though I am looking forward to them being released. I just won’t be buying or renting them when they are and wait until after Christmas to buy some of the DVD’s I wanted but didn’t get.
Rest assured, my BSG fan flag is still flying. I’m just waiting for the ridiculous long wait for Season 3 to make it to DVD to get pumped for the new and final season.
Did those DVD’s arrive yet?
Have a great week!
Post idea (but I know you’re busy, so you totally don’t have to):
Can you describe for us the differences between monastic, apostolic, and evangelical religious orders? What characteristics of the Society of Jesus make it apostolic? Personally, I’m clear on the first two, but fuzzy on the characteristics of evangelical.
Today was a good day. Peace out!
Yes, I’d agree. It had potential, that’s for sure, but a few of the revelations are going to have an impact in the final season. It’s like they needed to have them down on paper before realistically changing their tune in the final season. Starbuck as a potential Cylon has been hinted on since early on in the second season. I just want season three on DVD so bad to be able to watch during the writers strike when reality programming starts kicking in. I’m glad to hear that BSG’s season is coming in March, too.
The revelation that Cain, the hard as nails commander was having a relationship with Six doesn’t really surprise me, especially in how she seemed to enjoy the punishment they’d handed out to her.
The Csilla incident was sort of surprising, but it reeks of Cain’s command differences to the Adamas. Adama is more passionate, where Cain was more ruthless. She got what was coming to her, and the Beast went out in a blaze of glory saving the citizens of New Caprica from Cylons.
The thirty second preview for Season Four was enough to whet my appetite, even if they did push the show even further back for a release, too.
Season four is either going to be really good or really bad.
I loved having a DVR for the weekend. I ended up losing in a game of Monopoly while BSG was on and watched it right after. Lee Adama’s first command actually went pretty smoothly, except for the one character dying.
Have you ever noticed in any film when you want to rely on a detonator that it usually doesn’t work and someone has to sacrifice themselves to make the bomb go boom and then learn critical information they can’t impart to others? That’s a caveat that’s beginning to annoy me in films. I mean, come on. It’s simple: bomb and detonator makes for an explosion. Detonators the first thing you should check before high tailing it out of there.
Hope you have a great week!
RYC: Not only interesting, but delightful.
Thanks again, my dear.
WHOA, REDECORATING. It looks nice! Yes, you are correct, and the first name would be Peter.
It was nice to sit next to him. And thank you: I LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!! back. 
And more LOVE to your family; did you guys have a nice time? Did they leave already, or are they still there? If they’re still there, tell them ‘hi’ for me!
Hey, thanks for the lovely Christmas card. It really brightened up my Friday getting my first Christmas card of the season. I also enjoyed the Bizarro comic you sent almost a month ago. That’s on my cubicle wall. Hope you have a Merry Christmas and had a great visit from your family!
Sorry we didn’t get to spend more time together. I loved the Novitiate, and I’m sorry I wasn’t feeling well. Can I call this week sometime?
I will wait until this weekend. I envy your silent retreat. I could totally use one of those right now. Love ya!
My favourite Saint is Saint Thomas Aquinas because I love reading Philosophy (it was my Major in my University undergrad years) and Saint Thomas Aquinas is my favourite philosopher.