Spiritual Board of Directors: Part II
Continuing with All Saints Month, here are the rest of the members on my Spiritual Board of Directors. I love that there is a mix of those who had purity of heart from the moment of their birth and those who took a little longer to get there…
St. John the Beloved
Jeannine is French and is the feminine and diminutive of John, so it is translated “little John.” -at least according to my mother. But she never told me which John she named me after.
Over the years I’ve thought about that…I am “little John” but which John – John the Baptist or John the Beloved? For some reason those were the only two Johns I thought about.
I often felt like I was too little to be named after John the Baptist. He was a Wildman (in the best sense of the word), eating locust and honey, crying out in the wilderness – strong, bold, and courageous.
I am none of those things.
John the Beloved was little (young), relative to the rest of the Apostles. He knew that he was beloved, so much so that he had no problem resting his head in full confidence on the heart of Jesus just as a child does in his father’s lap, secure and safe in his father’s love.
This is more relatable for me. As the youngest, I had that unique position of “Daddy’s little girl” growing up. My mother often mused that I had eyes only for my dad because she was busy with my older siblings and the duties of work and household. The story went that it was as if I made the decision at six months old that he was all mine. And into his arms I would crawl to rest my head on his heart when I was tired or frightened or needed his love around me.
I lost my father 35 years ago.
But St. John the Beloved reminds me that I have another Father, God the Father.
Into His lap I can crawl to rest my head on His heart – to be still there, to let Him love me there, and to bring every worry and fear there to be evaporated by the security that I am Beloved.
St. Rita
Making the impossible, possible.
This lady has given me my little family and I am so grateful. Not only is her story amazing (from marriage to widowed to peacemaker to convent), but as the saint of the impossible, she found a way to give me two children under impossible circumstances.
When the doctor told me I would not be able to have children, Michael and I asked St. Rita’s assistance through a nine day novena and then we let it go.
Within three months I was pregnant.
We did a pilgrimage to St. Rita’s Shrine in Philadelphia (we lived in Washington, DC at the time) and I was blessed with a relic of St. Rita by a priest to whom I told the story.
Here’s the part where most people say “so you named the baby Rita?!” and I say, a little deflated, “nooo, we named her Isabelle” because I couldn’t manage my family calling her ‘Reeder’” (I’m originally from Boston).
And then there’s the story of my youngest ,who came to us through adoption. St. Rita arranged everything in such a way that it was crystal clear her hand was in the adoption of our little Rita (my husband demanded that this one be given the name Rita no matter what the Massachusetts fam called her).
And just for a little icing on our St. Rita cake: our Rita, as only St. Rita would have it, was conditionally baptized on St. Rita’s Feast Day and someone brought roses from her Shrine to the baptism.
St. Charbel or St. Sharbel
The Miracle Monk of Lebanon
My husband is of Lebanese descent and grew up in both the Roman and Maronite Rites of the Catholic Church. I had never heard of St. Charbel until Michael took me to a Maronite Mass at St. Charbel close to where he grew up in Michigan.
Let me just say that the Maronite liturgy is beautiful with its Eastern Rite rituals and Syriac language. It is a feast for the soul.
Considered the “St. Anthony of the Desert” of Lebanon, St. Charbel felt a similar inner call to leave everything, follow Christ, and live his life as a hermit.
His one desire was to be wholly God’s own. He lived a life of humble simplicity, constant prayer, and deep devotion to the Eucharistic within the grounds of his monastery. But it didn’t stop people from all over from seeking him out. Both Christians and Muslims sought this gentle monk for his wisdom, his blessings, and his miracles.
St. Charbel continues to tell “God’s Story” (that’s what Charbel means in Aramaic) of healing and restoration through the countless miracles still happening today.
He reminds me that God sees me, sees my need, and is working always to bring about my healing and restoration. And I really can’t have too many miracle workers on the Board!
St. Teresa of Avila
In the words of When Harry Met Sally “I’ll have what she’s having…”
Bernini’s famous sculpture called “The Ecstasy of St. Teresa” put to image what St Teresa described in a spiritual experience as so intense that it left her “utterly consumed by the great love of God.”
In that mystical experience, an angel plunged a spear of Divine Love into her heart.
When her heart was examined after her death, they actually found a wound from a spear.
I just can’t even…who leaves such physical manifestations of His love other than a personal and loving God.
This would be enough to put her on my Board – that she shows me how to live a life of complete union with God, so much so that life in the physical world would be lived through the Divine.
But there’s another reason…keep reading…
She was an intellectual and spiritual giant (the first female Doctor of the Church), a contemplative, a mystic, and a reformer.
She was clever, practical, and determined. She stood up to a lot of people who were against her…as a mystic, as a reformer, as a woman.
I’m not even scratching the surface.
But the BIG reason that she is on my Board is that she, the giant that she is, was a spiritual late bloomer.
She spent a good many years avoiding prayer, avoiding God, even as a Carmelite (the contemplative order). It wasn’t until she was close to 40 (isn’t 50 the new 40 in our times) that she put aside her fears of how God saw her (she really thought she was a terrible sinner) and started pursuing a deeper relationship with God through prayer.
And guess what folks, He didn’t reject her, punish her, or tell Her she was too late. Instead, HE PIERCED HER HEART WITH DIVINE LOVE! Alleluia for the late bloomers!
When I look back on my life, I feel like I’ve wasted so much time, St. Teresa tells me NO, loud and clear.
She tells me to keep moving forward in trust, not to look at the time wasted but look to God and God alone. He redeems it all, even time gone by (she even wrote a prayer for that).
St. Francis deSales
You know that “Universal Call to Holiness” thing from the Second Vatican Council?
St. Francis was the one who laid the groundwork for that. He believed that holiness was for everyone (just like Jesus did), not just priests and religious.
He even wrote a book about it around 400 years ago. You may have heard of it – Introduction to the Devout Life.
St. Francis’s one desire was to touch others with God’s love through words and letters and guidance. He was the spiritual Director of St. Jane Francis deChantal (she is on my list of Emeritus Board Members) and directed thousands of souls tirelessly.
But there’s another, perhaps lesser known, fact about him that has me talking with him often….
He was a hot head.
You’d never know it by how he lived his life but he had anger issues. It took him almost 20 years to get his anger under control.
I grew up with a lot of anger in my house.
I didn’t realize how much it impacted me until I was much older and I looked inside my heart and saw the anger that had been absorbed and stored and was oozing inward, outward and all over the place, in all manner of ugly.
When I feel it all bubbling up inside me like a tidal wave ready to crash over those closest to me and especially over myself, I call on St. Francis to help me change my focus to what is needed to overcome.
And just as an aside – when I learn these details about these saints – anger issues, avoidance issues, even scandalous details (think St. Paul and St. Augustine and St. Mary of Egypt), I’m so grateful because I know that if God showed them a way through it all to Him, then He will most certainly do it for me.
Venerable Matt Talbot
I know he’s not officially a recognized “saint” but he’s on his way so that’s good enough for me.
For those of you who don’t know Matt, he grew up in a tough family life. He started drinking when he was 12 years old and was a full blown alcoholic until he was 28 when he sought out a priest, took the pledge, and turned everything over to God.
Although alcohol isn’t my struggle (it can be replaced with any number of things that I struggle with), I internalized many of the behaviors and thought patterns of an alcoholic. Having grown up in an alcoholic and rage-a-holic home (these were not the same person), I brought the coping and survival skills necessary in such a home into adulthood and they have wreaked havoc on some of my relationships (especially with myself).
I created a world of shame, guilt, and fear. And I took direction from the critical voice inside my head that had been allowed to run unchecked throughout my life.
I attributed the critical voice to God. There is nothing worse than believing that the Creator of the Universe thinks you’re worthless too.
But it’s not His voice.
Ever.
Not even a little tiny bit.
Once I hit the bottom of the unlovable barrel, I started a program of emotional sobriety and recovery.
And that is when I began to hear God’s real voice,
The loving voice,
The voice that encourages, blesses, and affirms me.
And the true voice that’s been speaking over me for my entire life.
I still struggle with control and fear and irrational thoughts. But every morning I ask Ven Matt Talbot to help me work my recovery program, to help me surrender my day to God and help me practice Serenity, Courage, and Wisdom.
Emeritus Board Members
These are members who are not as active as they used to be but always present.
I’ll share about them another time.
But here’s a little taste.
St. Agnes: I was born on St. Agnes’s feast day (so was my sister) and my mother’s confirmation name was Agnes. So it’s a family thing. But more on her at a later time.
St. Anthony of the Desert or Saint Anthony the Abbot: Sold everything he had and went to live a life of deep union and contemplation in a cave. He was sought out for his wisdom and miracles.
St. Jane Frances deChantal: Mother, Widow, Nun, Foundress but wait til you read about this saint’s hand in the lives of my children….crazy good.
Mary Magdalen: the Apostle to the Apostles. She was healed by Jesus and never left his side from that moment forward.
