patience

Saint Dominic: Model of Humility

I recently completed reading Saint Dominic and the Rosary by Catherine Beebe. Saint Dominic’s life was a saintly one in every sense of the word. He practiced the saintly virtues of humility and patience throughout his life. We should also practice these virtues during Advent as we prepare to celebrate Jesus’ birth and reflect on the life of the greatest saint, our Mother Mary, who is the paradigm of patience and humility.

Catherine Beebe’s book walks through Saint Dominic’s life from his early childhood through his holy death. Keep in mind that this isn’t an academic or rigorously historical book. It contains conversations and events that I’m sure came from second and third hand sources or were created in an attempt to better explain aspects of Saint Dominic’s personality. But that in no way takes away from the motivational and inspiring power of this book. Personally, I want to learn about Saint Dominic’s virtues, not a dry day-by-day historical account of his life.

According to the book, Saint Dominic strived for sainthood his entire life. He always oriented himself towards bringing people closer to God. When he was a young priest traveling through Spain, he was never too tired or busy to preach to the Albigensian heretics and try to convert them. He lived humbly, never indulging in earthly delights. In fact, he never ate more food than what he needed to stay healthy. Even the order he founded put their faith in God to provide for them as they relied entirely on people’s donations of food, clothing, and other provisions.

It is this total giving of self that is the main theme throughout
Catherine Beebe’s book. And I think this is also why our Mother Mary choose Saint Dominic to bring Her Rosary into the world. She too, was a total servant of God; putting aside Her wants and expectations to completely accept God’s plan for Her. That is what God wants out of a saint — a complete and willing submission to His Will. When I say “submission” I’m not talking about it in that dominating sense of the word. I mean that we willingly put our lives into God’s hands with faith that He will lead us to true happiness.

You have to be humble to be a servant to God. Humility is the virtue which defeats pride. And pride is the sin of centering your entire life around your wants and desires. You can’t put yourself into God’s hands while centering your life around what you want at the same time. You have to choose. Likewise, saintly behavior requires patience. It’s a lifelong journey of trusting in God when times are either good or bad. You can’t say you’re devoted to God and then bail on Him at the first sign of hardship. Is it easy? Of course not. But where do you think the phrases patience is a virtue and patience of a saint come from? Being a saint isn’t easy but it’s the life God calls all of us to live.

The Rosary Connection

Look at Mary in the First Joyful Mystery. She showed great humility placing Her life in God’s hands in the Annunciation. Now move on to the Fifth Joyful Mystery. Mary and Joseph searched for Jesus for several days “in sorrow.” Imagine the patience Mary had to show and not give up hope of finding her lost son. We can learn from Mary that even when times are difficult, we need to show patience for God to show us the way. It is in that quiet patience that God will show us the way out of hardship.

PSA: archive.org

Lastly, I want to point our a really useful Rosary resource — www.archive.org. I found that book about Saint Dominic on archive.org and, like a library, I was able to check it out as an ebook. If you do a search for “rosary” on the site, you will find all sorts of books, newsletters, pamphlets, etc. Many of those are out of print and you cannot find anywhere else (which is the whole point of why we have archive.org). If you’re looking for some new Rosary material, give archive.org a look (and support it with a donation if you find anything of value).

Make Lent a Time to Practice Patience

Have you ever heard the term, the patience of a saint? Like many virtues, patience is a hard one to demonstrate as that quality seems to be reserved for the select few. Lent is a great opportunity to reflect on and practice the virtue of patience.

One of the most obvious ways of practicing patience is sticking to your promise to fast and give up something pleasurable. I know it can be hard, but keep in mind that you will get back in 40 days whatever you give up during Lent. You aren’t giving up sweets, alcohol, or Facebook permanently. You just have to be patient. Lent is the perfect time to push yourself and say, “I know this is hard but exercising patience in small things will help me be patient in the large things.”

What do I mean by patience in large things? Look at last Sunday’s Gospel about the leper. My parish priest gave a great homily about how there are many lepers around us. They may not have the physical disease of leprosy but we cast them out all the same. These lepers are the friends and family that we hold grudges against. They are the poor and helpless that we ignore. And they are the people who we are short-tempered with and don’t show much patience. We quickly snap at them because they inconvenience or annoy us. Maybe we are even impatient with ourselves and are too quick to beat ourselves up over the smallest imperfection.

By showing patience by giving up something small for Lent, we establish a base that we can build up to show patience with others, especially the lepers in our lives. If we can go 40 days without a particular treat, we show ourselves that we can handle certain challenges and inconveniences in doing God’s Will. And that shows us that we are capable of pushing ourselves and opening our heats up to what God really wants of us — to love and be patient with each other. Because ultimately, the purpose of Lent isn’t about giving up treats. Lent is not some sort of Church mandated diet plan. It’s about opening ourselves up to what God is asking of us by clearing our hearts and mind of earthly pleasures and showing patience for the Holy Spirit to work through us. By practicing patience in the small, we can work our way up to the true level of patience God asks us to demonstrate.

Your Rosary Meds

We can turn to the Fourth Joyful Mystery of the Rosary and see Saint Simeon‘s demonstration of patience. He prayed and waited in the temple because God promised him he would see the Chosen One. It couldn’t have been easy for Saint Simeon waiting and preparing to see the baby Jesus. Did he have other plans for his life that didn’t include spending much of his time in the temple praying? Did he ever grow frustrated as the days passed without seeing the Chosen One? Do we grow impatient when God’s plans for us aren’t immediately obvious?

We can also meditate on Saint Joseph and Mother Mary in the Joyful Mysteries of the Rosary. Both of them seemed to have been planning for a normal life together before God upended those plans in the Annunciation. Joseph even had doubts about God’s plan when he tried to divorce Mary (Matthew 1:19). But ultimately, he showed patience and great faith by protecting Mary and Jesus even if he didn’t completely understand God’s ways.

Pope Francis gave a great homily on the virtue of patience. Meditate on his words and think about them throughout Lent.

So often we are impatient: When things don’t go our way, we complain. But, step back for a moment, think about the patience of God the Father, embrace patience, as Jesus did. Patience is a beautiful virtue. Let us ask the Lord for it.

Expecting the Unexpected — How God Answers Our Prayers

Lately I have contemplated prayers, intentions, and how God answers our requests for help. On the Catholic Answers forums, I see so many people angry or saddened because they feel so distant from God and they wonder if He isn’t hearing their prayers. I understand how easy it is to feel discouraged when the news headlines are filled with stories of violent crimes, wars, and civil unrest not to mention the unreported hardships we all face about our jobs, family, finances, relationships, etc. You look at all the problems in this world and it is easy to conclude that God just doesn’t care. However, what I think happens more often is that we fixate on a specific solution and completely miss how God actually answers our prayers.

Here’s an example of God answering prayers in unexpected ways taken from my own experiences. Like many people, I pray in a general sense that I may be stronger in the seven virtues of chastity, temperance, charity, diligence, patience, kindness, and humility. But how do I know God hears me and answers my requests to be a better person? After all, nothing really seems to change in my day-to-day life that indicates that I’m stronger in any of those areas. I don’t wake up and say, “Thanks God! I feel more diligent today!” So how does God answer my prayers?

I remember all the days and nights I spend with my 1.5 year old son. I play with him when I come home from work although I’m tired and just want to relax in front of the television. I try to read his favorite books to him for the hundredth time with the same excitement as the first time. It’s exhausting work at times. But then it hits me. All those times when I pulled out a little more energy to be there for my family, I was demonstrating acts of patience, kindness, and charity. I asked God for strength and He answered by giving me an opportunity to exercise virtue.

I would say that one can only dream babies acted liked angels, but that assumes a parent could ever get some sleep.

Next, let’s look at a story that made the news rounds lately. There is a picture circulating around the internet of a wife carrying her double-amputee husband on her back. Jesse Cottle lost both his legs after stepping on an IED while serving in the Marines in Afghanistan. In rehab, he met his wife, Kelly. In an interview on Good Morning America, Jesse said that he wouldn’t change anything that happened to him because if he hadn’t lost his legs to that IED, he never would have met the love of his life.

God always answers our prayers but not always in ways we expect.

I’m not sure whether Jesse is an overtly praying man, but I’m sure he must have had some very low moments after his injury and asked God to somehow improve his situation. But God just didn’t miraculously grow Jesse’s legs back or change the IED blast so he didn’t lose them in the first place. I’m sure many of us in Jesse’s situation would look for those specific answers from God if we were in that situation. And we would probably be saddened when God didn’t physical heal us. But God often answers prayers in unexpected, but better ways. Sure, God could have physically healed Jesse. But then Jesse never would have met Kelly in rehab. While what happened to Jesse was tragic, God brought about a greater good by touching the hearts of two people, instead of healing the legs of one.

What RosaryMeds Do I Need?

What rosary mystery doesn’t involve God working in some unexpected way? The whole New Testament is the account of Jesus saying and doing unexpected things. Sometimes He did the unexpected to great fanfare like performing miracles. And other times Jesus’ unexpected nature upset people, especially the scribes and pharisees when He challenged their practices and authority. When you pray the rosary, meditate that God’s ways aren’t always our ways. When it comes to God, expect the unexpected. For example:

The Annunciation (First Joyful Mystery): God chose an unwed teenager to be the Mother of God. Mary may have been physically poor, but God raised her up to be rich in spirit.
The Nativity (Third Joyful Mystery): The King of Kings was born in a stable. Like His ministry, Jesus’ birth was marked not by earthly power, but by humility.
The Proclamation of the Kingdom of Heaven (Third Luminous Mystery): When Jesus proclaimed that He was the Word made flesh, people chased him out of town. How many times do we get upset when God shows Himself in unexpected ways in our lives?
The Crucifixion (Fifth Sorrowful Mystery): Jesus died and redeemed us all. People challenged Him by saying that if He was really the Son of God, He could save himself. But Jesus knew that it was far more important to save our souls than save His body.

The Annunciation, by Francesco Albani. "H... — The Annunciation, by Francesco Albani. “How can this be, for I know not man?”, Luke 1:34 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Remember, God’s ways are not our ways. But that should be a reason to rejoice, not for disappointment. God sees the big picture. So shouldn’t we rejoice that someone who sees and knows everything is looking out for us? Do you have any stories to tell of how God answered your prayers in unexpected, but ultimately better ways? Leave a comment.