Saints alive! It’s what we’re called to be

Growing up, I was surrounded by reminders of my Catholic faith. For example, in my maternal grandparents’ home, where I spent lots of time, there was a large painting in the dining room of Jesus praying over Jerusalem, as well as crucifixes on various walls, all with a blessed palm nestled behind them.

Most memorable, though, was a tile mosaic of St. Thérèse, the Little Flower, made by my Uncle Nick, to honor the patron saint of my grandma, Theresa “Reza” Modrcin. Saints were always a big deal in my family. We celebrated the feast days of our patrons with as much gusto as birthdays and other holidays.

This family tradition explains why I have religious objects on my walls, all with a blessed palm behind them, of

Mark My Words

cup of a man selling flowers and sped on his way. Half a block down the street, however, he turned around and made his way back to the poor flower seller.

Father Mark Goldasich

He has been editor of The Leaven since 1989.

course. I even have three icons of St. Mark watching over me. Near my computer is an icon of another saint whose feast day is Jan. 24 and whose intercession I invoke often (particularly on deadline day). It’s Francis de Sales, the patron of writers, journalists and the deaf. By the way, he’s the patron of the deaf because he developed a method to teach the catechism to a young deaf person (and not because the work of writers and journalists tends to fall on deaf ears!).

Even though I’ll never be a doctor of the church like St. Francis, his icon gives me encouragement to write and be an editor.

This little story explains things more colorfully:

A businessman tossed a dollar into the

“I’m sorry,” the man said, picking out a flower. “In my haste, I failed to make my purchase. After all, you’re a businessman just like me. Your flowers are priced fairly and of good quality. I hope you won’t be upset with my forgetting my purchase.” With that, he went on his way.

Several months later while at lunch, the businessman was approached by a neatly dressed, handsome man. “I’m sure you don’t remember me,” said the man, “and I don’t even know your name, but I’ll never forget your face. You’re the man who inspired me to make something of myself. I was that vagrant selling flowers on the street corner until you gave me back my self-respect and a sense of dignity. Now, I believe I’m a businessman, too.” (Story found in “Sower’s Seeds Aplenty,” by Brian Cavanaugh, TOR.)

It sounds weird, but I have a paper plate in my bathroom. Every day, I hold it behind my head like a halo, to remind myself that I’m called to become a saint. It makes me laugh, injecting a spirit of joy in my day — a joy I’m supposed to share.

This past Christmas, my parish handed out the book “Wisdom of the Saints,” words of inspiration for each day of the year. I’ll close with the book’s opening words from St. Catherine of Siena: “Be who God meant you to be and you will set the world on fire.”

C’mon, saints in training, we’ve work to do!

Miracles await! But we need to be open to them

In 1957, Reader’s Digest published a short item by an obscure writer named Allen Saunders. It ended up becoming a piece of popular wisdom that has been re-quoted, reused and repurposed countless times. “Life,” Saunders wrote, “is what happens while you’re busy making other plans.” also about letting go of one thing to seize another; it challenges us to think more deeply about what we do with the time we’re given.

It happened then. It is happening now.

KEVIN died 618

Oral tradition preserved and embellished the story of this founder of one of Ireland’s main pilgrimage sites. Born in Leinster and baptized by St. Cronan, Kevin was educated in a monastery near Dublin. After ordination, he lived alone in a cave for seven years, compromising his health and using a BronzeAge stone tomb as his church. After recovering, he gathered some disciples and founded the abbey of Glendalough in Wicklow. According to legend, he made a pilgrimage to Rome, visited St. Kieran at Clonmacnoise and lived to the age of 120.

Well. Who could disagree? How many of us spend our time scribbling bucket lists, saving for a rainy day, plotting for a future that seems like it will never arrive? We spend our time dreaming instead of doing. Too often — like the men by the seashore in Sunday’s Gospel — we are busy mending our nets.

And then, everything changes.

Deacon Greg Kandra

Deacon Greg Kandra is an award-winning author and journalist, and creator of the blog “The Deacon’s Bench.” He serves in the Diocese of Brooklyn, New York.

This Gospel is fundamentally about answering the call of Christ, whenever and however it comes. But look closely. There’s more going on. It is

It’s significant, I think, that the author of the Gospel described what those fishermen were doing when Jesus walked by. They had jobs, obligations, distractions, responsibilities. Like all of us, they had things to get done.

Then, at an unexpected moment, something — someone — entered their lives. On an otherwise unremarkable day, in the middle of the tedious chores of life, in a place where days were measured by tides and currents and how many fish you catch, God walked by.

Suddenly, nothing was the same.

Maybe we’re preoccupied with our jobs, our hobbies, getting bills paid and meals cooked and tearing another page off the calendar so we can do it all over again. But wait: Is there something else we’re supposed to be doing? Is someone calling us to something else?

Are we so concerned about the ordinary that we miss the extraordinary? Looked at another way: What are our nets?

This Gospel serves as a bracing reminder that God can enter our lives when we least expect it, and what happens next may lead us where we never imagined. Did any of those fishermen foresee this?

“He went around all of Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and curing every disease and illness among the people.”

Miracles await! But we need to be attentive, open, ready for God to interrupt our lives and alter their direction.

This Gospel declares: Be prepared to put aside our nets and follow where the Lord leads.

It isn’t easy. It can be terrifying. Discipleship comes at a cost, as every apostle discovered. But we cannot forget that the Christmas season persists. Even all these weeks later, Emmanuel remains! God is with us. We do not walk alone. The Father is looking after his children.

Evangelization is the ‘oxygen’ of Christian life, pope says

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Sharing the faith is the “oxygen” that “invigorates and purifies” Christian life, Pope Francis said.

Beginning a new series of catechesis focused on evangelization and apostolic zeal, the pope said that when Christian life loses its aim of proclaiming the Gospel, it becomes “atrophied” and “self-referential.”

“Without apostolic zeal, faith withers,” he told people gathered Jan. 11 in the Vatican audience hall.

The pope specified, however, that “to be a missionary, to be apostolic, to evangelize, is not the same thing as proselytizing,” or actively seeking to convert someone.

Quoting the late Pope Benedict XVI, who died Dec. 31, 2022, Pope Francis said that “the church does not proselytize, but rather she grows by ‘attraction’” to the beauty of God’s love. Evangelization “does not begin by seeking to convince others, but by bearing witness each day to the love that has watched over us and lifted us back up,” he said.

“Communicate this beauty to convince people,” Pope Francis said.

“We are the ones who announce the Lord, we do not announce ourselves, nor a political party or an ideology. Put people in contact with Jesus without convincing them.

“Let the Lord convince them.”