Monday, April 13, 2015

It's the ninth day of the Omer, and the ninth day of Easter... at least by the way I am counting. I think I'm a day off on one or the other.

It has been a mad house at work. Fun, but busy. I haven't had time for a walk or a sit on the roof. It's just all work, all the time.

I did have one little mental companion yesterday, though. 

Blessed Margaret of Castello

photograph of a statue of Blessed Margaret at the Saint Louis Bertrand Church, Louisville, KY, date unknown, sculptor unknown, photographer unknown; swiped off the Saint Louis Bertrand Church web site 
Also known as
  • Margaret of Citta-di-Castello
  • Margaret of Metola
Born a blind, lame, deformed, hunchback midget. When she was six years old, her noble parents walled her up beside a chapel; she could not get out, but could attend Mass and receive the Sacraments. After 14 years of imprisonment, her parents took her to a shrine to pray for a cure. When none occurred, they abandoned her. She became a lay Dominican, and spent her life in prayer and charity. When she died, the townspeople thronged her funeral, and demanded she be buried in a tomb inside the church. The priest protested, but a crippled girl was miraculously cured at the funeral, and he consented.*

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Can you imagine!
Being blind, lame, and a deformed migit is a lot to bear even today when we think we are so enlightened. Imagine what it was like for poor Margaret. And then being basically buried alive! You just have to wonder what people were thinking!

But, here's the thing... In the end she came back and did a miracle. Now, this may reveal more about me than it does about Margatet, but I don't think she did that miracle out of divine love. I think it was her little way of putting everyone in their place, not least of which would have been that nasty priest.

I don't think that I'll make it to sainthood. THAT would be a miracle. But, on the off chance that I do, I'll be back for a few miracles too, a few pointers before I go. I even have a some ideas, I admit it. I would like to show a few people... You know.

In the readings from I John we hear that God is light and in him there is no darkness at all. A lot of the readings have seemed very, I don't know, one-way-or-the-other to me. This, not that. Light, not dark. In the world, not in the world. Sinless, or a liar... Like Margaret: abandoned by mortals, but loved by God.

That's OK when you're telling a story, or making a point. It all seems much more swirled to me, though. I am saved and abandoned in the same breath. I am redeemed and broken. It's not so clear, all the light and dark.

Sometimes joy is hard, but it is worth the effort.

I wonder what Jesus would think? I wonder that a lot. I rarely wonder what he would do, but I frequently want to know what he thinks.

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*“Blessed Margaret of Castello“. CatholicSaints.Info. 13 April 2012. Web. 14 April 2015. <http://catholicsaints.info/blessed-margaret-of-castello/>

2 comments:

  1. What a wonderful story of grace and courage in the face of the most adverse circumstances. I had never heard of Margaret of Castello. Thanks for telling her story.

    When people ask, "Are you saved?" I say, "Yes, every day, some days several times." I agree that the distinction between light and dark is not always clear, and I often wonder what Jesus would do, and sometimes I even think I know what he would do.

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  2. I like reading about the obscure saints.

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