Saint Catherine of Siena, the Bride of Christ, had a great devotion to God and taught us all how we shall love our neighbor as yourself. For example, she says “love of neighbor is the sweet and holy bond which links the soul with its Creator; it binds God with man and man with God.” Not only did she teach us how we should love, but also took religious vows. Although she took vows, she lived in the world as most people do. However; she was not like most people, she received a vision of Jesus at only six years old. Besides having a vision of Jesus, she is also known as the Bride of Christ. It is said that during one of her prayers she entered a mystical marriage with Jesus. I believe she was chosen to be the Bride of Christ because of her extraordinary …show more content…
She is the patron of nurses and can be helpful when you pray to her. For example, a month ago I fractured my ankle and the doctor said I would be out for around six weeks. I prayed for her to help the pain and swelling go away. Also, I prayed to Saint Catherine, to not be out for the full six weeks, so I could go back to cheer and not miss any important national competitions. Besides being helpful she is inspiring to me, of her abilities to resist temptations and her devotion to God. One time my dad told me to only have water because it was late at night. However, I had been desperately craving iced tea all day and thought I “had” to have it. So I opened the door and took out the iced tea, but before I poured it in, I thought about my decision. I remembered how my saint was able to pray to God to help her resist her temptations. Therefore, I placed the iced tea back in the fridge and accepted water instead like my dad suggested. As a result of having thoughts to disobey my dad, I prayed to God like Catherine did for help. Saint Catherine lived a life dedicated to God in the real world (reality). It is encouraging to me that she was able to live a life fully devoted to God and not have any distractions, doubts, or fears holding her
Our lady of Guadalupe is the most venerated and respected by the Catholics. The appearance of the Virgin caused a great commotion in the Catholic Church. Ever since the Virgin's first appearance, Catholics have respected and acquired so much faith to the Virgin. The lady of Guadalupe has so many faithful followers that believe in her without any hesitation because of the miracles that she has made for the people that were once suffering and were miraculously helped by her. Because of the help that she has provided for those who were suffering people never forget her and they celebrate the day of her appearance every year by doing parties in her honor. The Lady of Guadalupe’s appearance certainly changed the belief of Catholics and, I believe
A mystical marriage is, “a vision in which Christ tells a soul that He takes it for His bride, presenting it with the customary ring, and the apparition is accompanied by a ceremony; the Blessed Virgin, saints, and angels are present” (Catholic Encyclopedia). Obviously Kempe was ecstatic about the arrangement, because it was an honor to be chosen. However, even Christ himself was guilty of objectifying Kempe. He tells her, “‘I command you, boldly call me Jesus, your love, for I am your love and shall be your love without end” (Page Number). Jesus is commanding Kempe to be in love with him, which is ownership. He is using his power to make her marry and love him. He also displays denial of autonomy to Kempe, in all of his commands to her. He tells her that if she wants to be perfect, she needs to; fast, stop eating meat, stop praying on beads, weep, and contemplate. He also tells her that it is within her job to love him and lie with him; “I want to be loved as a son should be loved by the mother, and I want you to love me, daughter, as a good wife ought to love her husband” (Page Number). Christ denied Kempe to make choices for herself; he takes away her
In life, empty, forsaken, lonely people in dire need of help put their faith toward God or a significant individual. A current example includes the 10 year old boy released by his kidnapper after singing a gospel song for hours. In Mark Twain’s The Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc, Joan Arc, a teenage French military commander shows faith whenever she goes to battle or is about to face death. Eventually she gets captured and even though she will die she continues to keep her faith in God. By showing the effects of faith on Joan of Arc and her comrades, Mark Twain illustrates his belief that the value of an intense personal faith is important in everyone’s life.
Growing up, Saint Kateri Tekakwitha had a hard life. When she was just four in the year of 1660, an epidemic of smallpox ran through her native tribe, affecting both of parents and brother, killing all three. Though Saint Kateri survived, the disease left her weakened, partially blinded, and scarred in the face. For this reason, Saint Kateri had ‘Tekakwitha’ added to her name, which means “The One Who Walks Groping For Her Way”. After the tragic death of her immediate family, she moved and shared a house with her uncle, a head Mohawk chief, and her two aunts. In the culture that Saint Kateri Tekakwitha grew up with, it was expected to make marriage arrangements around the age of seven and eight. Instead of willingly agreeing to marry the boy her two aunts arranged for her to marry, she said that she dedicated her life to Christ. Remaining firm in her faith, Saint Kateri Tekakwitha stood with God throughout all the hardships.
St. Teresa was born in Avila, Spain on March 28, 1515. She was baptized as Teresa Sanchez de Cepeda y Ahumada. At a young age she would often give gifts to the poor and pray. Her father and her mother were both Catholics which inspired her to do the same. Her father was a very strict man a demanded her to never lie, while her mother told her to lie and comforted her. This created a ton of turmoil in the family and made St. Teresa end up loving her mother more due to her father’s severe strictness. St. Teresa felt that everything she was doing was wrong. During her teens her mother passed away leaving her to deal with her father by herself and she was relieved of some of the pain by turning to the Virgin Mary for comfort. In her late teen years
She found out about this saint when her sister told her one day: “keep praying to Saint Peregrine”. She was not aware of whom this person was, but nevertheless, she took her sister’s word and continued to pray to him. Then suddenly one day, she received a small book with a picture of Saint Peregrine on the front, from my cousin Jonalyn. Inside was the story of Saint Peregrine’s upbringing and the miraculous tale of how his cancer was cured. Ever since then, my mother continued to learn about the saint and she acquired many pictures, statuettes and other little memorabilia that had any relation to this particular saint. She adored Saint Peregrine and what the stood for. My mom was able to turn to him whenever she was in need of help and eventually, her state became better. She is currently almost completely cancer-free, but until that day, she says she will continue to pray to Saint
Mother Teresa was one of the most renowned humanitarians of her time. She dedicated her life to other people never to herself. She had many missions throughout her lifetime and was well known throughout the world. Mother Teresa was a kind-hearted woman whose quest was to make this world a better place.
Agnes (Mother Teresa) parents were Albanian. She was one out of five siblings, but only three of them survived (“Mother Teresa Bibliography”). Unfortunately for her and the family her father died when she was between the age of seven and nine years of age. By this age Agnes felt and knew that she had a great love for god. After Agnes father died she was very involved in the church. Agnes heard the calling of god about the age of twelve for her to devote her life to him (“Mother Teresa-Facts”). Since, she was too young to join the nuns so she just continued to go to church until she was of age to do so.
Joan of Arc is perhaps one of the most well-known and influential women in Western history. Arthur Conan Doyle argued that “Next to the Christ the highest spiritual being of whom we have any exact record upon this earth is the girl Jeanne" (Denis 5). Her fearlessness and devotion to God has been praised by iconic figures such as Winston Churchill, Pope Benedict XVI and Mark Twain. Her accomplishments are immortalized in history books, art and pop culture. Unlike any other, Joan stands as a feminist leader and an inspiration to all Christians.
In the early stages of Catherine's life the surfacing modern age was bringing with it social turmoil which spread throughout Europe (Giordani 3). During Catherine's lifetime, according to Mary Ann Sullivan in her essay “St. Catherine of Siena,” the center of Catholic rule fluctuated between Rome and Avignon and contributed to a schism between popes in Italy and France (1). Catherine was born 23rd in a line of 25 children and, according to Sullivan “even at a young age, [she] sensed the troubled society around her and wanted to help” (1). While her parents were not exceptionally religious, St. Catherine's biographer Blessed Raymond of Capua discusses Catherine's early zeal for Catholic practices: “When she was about five she learned the Hail Mary, and repeated it over and over again as often as she could…she was inspired by heaven to address the Blessed Virgin in this way whenever she went up and down stairs, stopping to kneel on each step as she did so” (24). Her devotion to the Virgin Mary would become especially important in a vision she had around this time while walking with her brother to visit one of her sisters.
The Life of Saint Faustina was very different from how we live today. She saw many things that most people couldn't even imagine of. The stories Faustina tells us still amazes me till this day. Faustina was born on August 25, 1905. She was the third child out of ten in her family. She was very poor and lived with her siblings. She was baptised and her name was actually used as Helena. This was very weird to me on how she lived but in the end she obeyed god and whatever he told her to do. In Faustinas childhood, she spent her whole life praying, going to church, and pulling her full focus into God. Putting God over all is not easy to do, whats her story?
Joan of Arc was born in the village of Domremy in 1412. Like many girls her age she was taught like many other young girls her age not how to read or write but to sew and spin. but unlike some girls her father was a peasant farmer. At a inferior age of thirteen she had experienced a vision known as a flash of light while hearing an unearthly voice that had enjoined her to be diligent in her religious duties and be modest. soon after at the age fifteen she imagined yet another unearthly voice that told her to go and fight for the Dauphin. She believed the voices she heard were the voices of St. Catherine and St. Margaret and many other people another being St. Michael. She believed they also told her to wear mens attire, cut her hair and pick up her arms. When she first told her confessor she did not believe her. When she tried telling the judges she explained to them how the voices told her it was her divine mission help the dauphin and rescue her country from the English from the darkest periods during the Hundred Years’ War and gain the French Throne. She is till this day one of the most heroic legends in womens history.
This was for a women to take on the role of a Nun and it seems this involved a smaller amount of women due to the smaller amount of monastaries founded in the period between 1200 and 1400. The role of the Nun involved living a life of contemplation, prayer and work and was based upon the suffering Jesus was inflicted with when on the Cross.
for the church as she approaches the end of the age. It is of paramount importance
I am St. Ignatius Loyola the man who found the Society of Jesus or the Jesuits. My original name is Inigo de Loyola and I was born in 1491 in a place called Azpeitia in the Basque province of Guipuzoa in northern Spain. I was the youngest of thirteen children. At the age of sixteen I became a servant for Juan Velazquez, the treasurer of the kingdom of Castile. I was considered a member of the Velazquez family so when ever Juan went to court I would go with him. In doing this I began to like court and any thing to deal with court, but I gained the biggest interest in the woman. I also began to like gambling; I liked it so much I became addicted to it. I was also very completive and was open to competing in anything-even sword fighting.