The first month I did this, I randomly chose a saint, asking the Holy Spirit's intercession, and met St. Claude de la Columbiere. He had a great devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, so I asked him to help me to develop a devotion as well. I started the month off with a novena to this awesome saint and on the eighth day of the month I went to confession. The priest told me to say my penance with my head resting against the Sacred Heart! Beautiful! Two days later we did a votive Mass to the Sacred Heart.
Throughout the month the Sacred Heart would appear, one time in a used book store, I picked a book up and a prayer card fell out. One guess the image on that card! :-)
I bought a book on his teachings and learned as much as I could about his life. Turns out he was a priest and had been the spiritual director for St. Margaret Mary Aloqoque - who also had a great devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. (She also has a connection with St. John Vianney.....this happens a lot I have noticed - saints having connections with one another).
I have again started this practice of picking a new saint to get to know each month. I want to invite you to do the same. There are many ways to go about this friendship building and you will have to find what works best for you or your family, but I like doing a novena to my new friend at the beginning of the month, asking him/her to intercede for me in all things, and to help me come to a better understanding of their life and devotions. Buy a statue, books or even prayer cards. Invite them into your home to become a part of your life.
Picking a saint is always the hardest thing for me, but I found a wonderful website to help. I prayed and asked the Holy Spirit for help and then hit the Find Me A Saint button and up came the name of my new friend! http://jenniferfulwiler.com/saints/
Give it a shot, who better to befriend but those who have already been here and done that and are now living all eternity in heaven!
1 comment:
I loved having you send that link out on New Year's this year, and btw...the saint I got was St. Claude de la Colombiere. I have not read up on him much, in fact this post was the most I have read on him. Interestingly enough I am reading a book on St. Margaret Mary this lent and picked out the Sermons of St. John Vianney for Dave to read. Looks like St. Claude is working on me even though I have not dug into him too much! I frequently pray the one thing I did learn about him, which was this beautiful prayer of his: Lord, I am in this world to show Your mercy to others. Other people will glorify You by making visible the power of Your grace by their fidelity and constancy to You. For my part I will glorify You by making known how good You are to sinners, that Your mercy is boundless and that no sinner no matter how great his offences should have reason to despair of pardon. If I have grievously offended You, My Redeemer, let me not offend You even more by thinking that You are not kind enough to pardon me. Amen.
Just wanted to share!
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