Saints, martyrs and heroes

Saints are ordinary people -- like us -- who lived the gospel in extraordinary ways.

The Catholic Community informally explores the life of a different "hero of faith" (some canonized, some not) through a handout that's available after mass most Saturdays.

Their lives show that sainthood is not out of reach for any of us.

Heroes to date this semester:

The Annunciation (March 6)

Jude (Feb. 27)

Fulton J. Sheen (Feb. 20)

Rose of Lima (Feb. 13)

André Bessette (Feb. 6)

Our Lady of Perpetual Help (Patron of Haiti -- Jan. 30)

Heroes from Fall 2009:

Lucia/Lucy (Dec. 12)                    Martin de Porres (Oct. 17)     

Henri Nouwen (Dec. 5)                 Gertrude the Great (Oct. 10)

Dominic (Nov. 21)                       Dietrich Bonhoeffer (Oct. 3)

Our Lady of Guadalupe (Nov. 14)  Aloysius Gonzaga (Sept. 26)

Anthony of the Desert (Nov. 7)    Karl Rahner (Sept. 19)

All Saints Day (Oct. 31)               Rose Hawthorne Lathrop(Sep. 12)

Zelie & Louis Martin (Oct. 24)       John the Baptist (Sep. 5) 

Heroes from Spring 2009:

Martha                         Solanus Casey           C.S. Lewis

Meister Eckhart             Louis Lallemant          Rita of Cascia

Margaret of Scotland     John the Evangelist     Mychal Judge

Maria Goretti                Colman & the early Celtic Christians

Heroes from Fall 2008:

Paul                                          Mechthild of Magdeburg

Flannery O'Connor                     Charles de Foucauld

John of the Cross                      All Souls Day/Odilo

Philomena                                 Catherine Doherty 

John Henry Newman                   Matt Talbot

Josephine Bakhita                      Joseph

Thomas the Apostle                   The Wise Men

Some of the heroes from 2007-08:

Peter                        Agatha                       Miguel Pro

Simone Weil              Abbé Pierre                 Nicholas

Bernadette                Francis de Sales          Louise de Marillac

Mother Teresa           Anthony of Padua        Hildegard

“We pester God day and night with our entreaties and say: ‘Lord, Thy will be done.’ And then, when God’s will is done, we are angry, and that is quite wrong.”

Meister Eckhart

“If you want your faith, you have to work for it. It is a gift, but for very few is it a gift given without any demand for … time devoted to its cultivation.”

Flannery O'Connor

“You are under the influence of His grace. He has brought you a step on your journey; He wishes to bring you further.”

John Henry Newman

'To be a saint means to be myself.' 

"A tree gives glory to God by being a tree. For in being what God means it to be, it is obeying him. ...

For me to be a saint means to be myself. Therefore the problem of sanctity and salvation is in fact the problem of finding out who I am and of discovering my true self."

Thomas Merton