Our Saint of the Day is the patron of the visually impaired. 👓
December 13, 2024
Dear John,
We are so appreciative of our donors. There is no Franciscan Media without you! This is the 27th day of our Rebuilding God’s Church $125,000 match campaign today. Click the link to donate. Your donations help us unlock this match money! This campaign will run through Easter next year, which means we have 127 days left! If you are a recurring donor, and you would like your donations to be redirected to this campaign, please email giving@franciscanmedia.org. Thank you to those who have already done this!
Saint Lucy, today’s Saint of the Day and martyr, reminds us of the radical challenge Catholics and Christian face when trying to lead faithful lives in an often-unsupportive culture. While most of us are not called to martyrdom—thank God!—we are all called to lead faithful lives, which comes with its own challenges. Lucy’s example reminds us that witness, which is what the word martyr means, is at the heart of what it means to be faithful. Our witness, in and out of season, with or without support, always needs to be one of charity and mercy.
With profound gratitude,
Deacon Matthew Halbach, PhD President & Publisher,
Every little girl named Lucy must bite her tongue in disappointment when she first tries to find out what there is to know about her patron saint. The older books will have a lengthy paragraph detailing a small number of traditions. Newer books will have a lengthy paragraph showing that there is little basis in history for these traditions. The single fact survives that a disappointed suitor accused Lucy of being a Christian, and she was executed in Syracuse, Sicily, in the year 304. But it is also true that her name is mentioned in the First Eucharistic Prayer, geographical places are named after her, a popular song has her name as its title, and down through the centuries many thousands of little girls have been proud of the name Lucy.
One can easily imagine what a young Christian woman had to contend with in pagan Sicily in the year 300. If you have trouble imagining, just glance at today’s pleasure-at-all-costs world and the barriers it presents against leading a good Christian life.
Her friends must have wondered aloud about this hero of Lucy’s, an obscure itinerant preacher in a far-off captive nation that had been destroyed more than 200 years before. Once a carpenter, he had been crucified by the Romans after his own people turned him over to their authority. Lucy believed with her whole soul that this man had risen from the dead. Heaven had put a stamp on all he said and did. To give witness to her faith she had made a vow of virginity.
What a hubbub this caused among her pagan friends! The kindlier ones just thought her a little strange. To be pure before marriage was an ancient Roman ideal, rarely found, but not to be condemned. To exclude marriage altogether, however, was too much. She must have something sinister to hide, the tongues wagged.
Lucy knew of the heroism of earlier virgin martyrs. She remained faithful to their example and to the example of the carpenter, whom she knew to be the Son of God. She is the patroness of eyesight.
Reflection
If you are a little girl named Lucy, you need not bite your tongue in disappointment. Your patron is a genuine authentic heroine, first class, an abiding inspiration for you and for all Christians. The moral courage of the young Sicilian martyr shines forth as a guiding light, just as bright for today’s youth as it was in A.D. 304.
Saint Lucy is the Patron Saint of:
The Blind Eye Disorders
Rediscover our sacred bond with Creation in this updated classic!
Many Catholics of my generation and older have been influenced by women religious who educated us as young Catholics. In my life, it was the Ursuline Sisters, founded in the early sixteenth century by Angela Merici. The Ursulines were the first Catholic women’s congregation devoted to teaching.
Angela joined the lay Franciscan movement while still a young woman. She was attracted to a life of simplicity, and moved to work with poor children as a teacher. She was gifted with gifts of leadership that drew others to her. She gathered others around her who shared her vision. But it was not until her late fifties that her “Company of St. Ursula” took shape. Their goal was to reinvigorate Christian life by training women for marriage and family life.
A good teacher, in a real sense, is doing the work of God. In today’s passage from Isaiah, God claims the role of teacher, leading us and offering the commandments as the way to life. Let us be grateful for Angela, and those who came after her, who taught us in the faith, and in doing so, imitated our God.
When we think of the words of carols, “Come, Let Us Adore Him” is a favorite, repeated chorus. It brings us a feeling of joy to adore. And if we gaze at Jesus this way throughout the year, not only during Advent, we align ourselves with the pure heart of Mary, who adored him first.
Pray
Today, no matter the pressures, the tedious circumstances, let us open our hearts to adoring God, here in this place where the light of his love expands, eternally, within us. Where his innocence infinitely illuminates fresh hope. Every day—today—we can gaze upon the Beloved, more fully. Everything we long for awaits, precious, within us. Let’s adore this treasure, all year.
Act
The Nativity is one of the Joyful Mysteries of the rosary. Say a decade of Hail Mary’s, and let yourself really imagine the glowing radiance of this mystery.
Today's Pause+Pray was written by Maureen O'Brien. Learn more here!
This newsletter is not free to produce! Please consider making a donation to help us in our efforts to share God's love in the spirit of St. Francis.
