Faith & Life Inspirational Message

Two saints!  The Roman Catholic Church has a ton of saints.  Of course, that is a statement by a Quaker, a tradition that typically does not talk about saints.  As I grew up in the Quaker environment, the only time I heard “saint language” was about some of the writers in the Bible.  I did hear people talk about St. John or St. Paul.  As a kid, if asked about saints, I would have assumed saints are “Bible guys.”  Since I never gave it any thought, I never thought about women saints.         My own Quaker tradition has held the radical equality of men and women since the beginning of our seventeenth century.  That part of Quakerism rubbed off on me and I have been very happy about that.  I have always seen women as my equal.  In fact, I would usually assume women were, by and large, better saint candidates than men---myself included!           I am glad that my...

I like learning about various saints.   Most of the ones I come to know are saints within the Roman Catholic tradition.   Since Quakers don’t really honor saints, I did not grow up learning about saints nor even thinking about them.   Of course, there were a few legendary historical Quakers about whom all young Quakers learned.   For example, I learned about people like John Woolman, the seventeenth century Quaker who was far ahead of his time in working to free slaves.   But no one thought about him as a saint.   And I know all the religious denominations and traditions have similar saintly people, but few of them are called saints. In the Catholic lectionary I use, I noticed yesterday was the special day honoring St. Romuald.   I like him.   I learned about him a few years ago.   I suspect even in Catholic circles, he is a pretty obscure saint.   Romuald lived into the eleventh century in Italy in the Tuscany area just north of R...

I like to follow the monastic (Catholic) lectionary.   As a Quaker kid growing up in Indiana, I would have had no clue what the word, lectionary, meant.   And if you had told me that it meant, “daily reading,” that would not have helped too much.   I would not know that many in the liturgical church tradition follow a daily reading of Christian scripture and other supplementary readings.   All of this was designed to be a devotional aid in relating to God on a regular basis.             And now in my adult years, I find the lectionary a helpful tool.   For those of us who want this kind of discipline, it is very nice for someone to have organized a daily regimen of reading.   This provides a good basis for reflection and meditation and other disciplines.   I personally like the fact that I am focusing on the same texts that my monk friends are doing.       ...