“There is more value in a little study of humility and in a single act of it than in all the knowledge in the world.” – St. Teresa of Avila
November 1st commemorates All Saints Day, a day to remember and honor the saints. In “our times,” the saints feel foreign and distant, hard to relate to. But with a little research, you discover that many of the saints were people walking the same roads we are on (most tougher), living regular lives extraordinarily and consistently. Faced with daily challenges and struggles, choosing the higher road. So when I look for “models” of a life well lived, I reflect on the lives of the saints, not sports figures, politicians or popular personalities of the day.
They achieved sainthood not by perfection, but persistence; not by holding on, but letting go; not by being first, but being last. And in honor of Molly and Lily’s favorite saint, St. Francis of Assisi (Patron Saint of Animals and Ecology), I share his prayer that certainly fits in “our times” quite well:
“Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.
O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.”
Given the choice, I would rather aim high (fail and get back up again) than not to set the bar at all.
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