#Catholic Saints

[ohholydyke]

See the thing about fundamentalists and trads and Christian nationalists and MAGA evangelicals and ethnocratic bigots is that they render the faith so boring.

I take no issue with the fact that they would look at me and say that I’m not a member of the faithful because their faith is radically, inherently, ontologically distinct from mine. My God is too big and too loving and too esoteric to fit neatly into the gendered understanding of an authoritarian white father disciplining his children for not perfectly falling into lockstep. My Savior is the man who told the religious leaders “Caesar can have his idolatrous blood money, but give God your heart and your faith,” challenging the notion of an earthly ruler. My apostles wrote of the throne of man being empty—there are no masters or kings or governments, there is only Jesus Christ, Basileus Basileōn, king of kings. I believe in radical oneness with God through Christ—one flesh and one body, biblical marriage with the bridegroom whose flesh and blood make up the holy Eucharist. My faith is Queer, ancestral, esoteric, anarchist, insurrectionary, anticolonial, antiracist, unorthodox, disruptive, free. When I encounter the divine, or pray to the saints, or sit in the chapel to pray, I am experiencing communion with the sublime, in every sense of the word, the same presence that made the apostles fall to their faces before the transfiguration, that shaped the world from void, that animates the deep care and rage which boil into every aspect of my being.

When conservatives tell me I am not a Christian it is only because they cannot conceive of a Christ and a faith so big, so all encompassing, so beyond anything our human minds can comprehend, and they cannot conceive being in tune with this divinity and being left senseless by the knowledge that the divine above all else is us and loves us more than we could ever comprehend, such that experiencing this love is enough to leave one fundamentally, ontologically changed down to the fiber of their being. I feel sorrow for them. I pray that Christ may reach into their hearts and open their eyes, that they may see not only the horrors that they commit but also the deep love and freedom that awaits them through abandoning their fundamentalism and their bigotry.

Or, in other words, me every time I see another conservative Christian whining about how people aren’t doing Christianity right because they don’t adhere to a super narrow and watered down version of the faith:

[give-me-a-username-plz]

don’t let marauders fans find out there’s a canonized catholic saint called Saint Regulus and he died at sea

[psalmlover]

mary in a flower crown, st gabriel of the sorrowful mother, pennsylvania, usa

[austerity-audacity-asceticism]

The atomic habits of St. Therese of Lisieux

I used to be one of those people that were like “oh I love St. Joan of Arc, St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Paul, St. Teresa of Avila” because I thought they were Cool and Heroic and they did Big Things

And whenever someone would talk about “The Little Flower of Lisieux” I was like “mehhhhh… okay”

Not in a way that was totally disrespectful, but not totally aware of the enormity of her interior life

Because guys

Wow

You’d have to read The Story of the Soul to really appreciate just WHY she is a doctor of the Church

(She’s the Doctor of Divine Love, btw)

Because St. Therese? She was in the details

They like to say the devil is in the details, but let’s face it— God is in the details, and in his mercy and wisdom, he placed St. Therese there for us to learn from and imitate in our own ways

She had to reconcile her great desire to be a saint with the enormous legacies of the saints that came before her, especially Joan of Arc and St. Teresa of Avila

(She, along with St. Joan, are the patron saints of France. I’m sure that’s something St. Therese never dreamed of)

And she had the realization that God would not have given her a desire that she was incapable of, and that there must be a way for someone “as small as her” to become a great saint

Which lead her to meditate on Mathew 18:4 (Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven)

And she was like “oh, okay. This desire planted into my heart is an invitation to become a little child, because the Lord wants to be the one to carry me to Heaven” 

(I am heavily paraphrasing so that you guys won’t be spoiled for Story of a Soul. Go read it!!!)

All of this is to say that her writings and her life reflect a simple but profound theology 

The Little Way is one of total dependence on the providence of God, of total surrender and self-mortification— the emptying of the cup of one’s self little by little, so that the Lord can fill it with his graces and abundance, and ultimately, with His own divine self 

The Little Way is one of the smallest acts of radical love, because the only person who needs to see it is God 

The Little Way is St. Therese going out of her way to nurse the nuns that she didn’t get along well with 

The Little Way is St. Therese is doing her best to hold cheerful conversations with a particularly surly nun 

The Little Way is St. Therese relishing being splashed with dirty laundry water as a sign of the smallest of suffering that only God would see

I called this particular post her “atomic habits,” because she believed that small acts can lead to holiness when done with great love for our Lord 

Small acts of love and self mortification were the things that she sought for while in the Carmel 

St. Therese elucidated in her signature sincere and effervescent style the enduring idea that there is no suffering too small, no act of love too small, to offer the Lord— because what he wants is souls, what he wants is us

That’s not to say that her interior life was always rich 

She suffered so much from months of aridity that she grew an affection for atheists, even going so far to say, and I quote:

[God] allowed my soul to be overwhelmed with darkness, and the thought of Heaven, which had consoled me from my earliest childhood, now became a subject of conflict and torture. This trial did not last merely for days or weeks; I have been suffering for months, and I still await deliverance. I wish I could express what I feel, but it is beyond me. One must have passed through this dark tunnel to understand its blackness ... When I sing of the happiness of Heaven and the eternal possession of God, I do not feel any joy therein, for I sing only of what I wish to believe. Sometimes, I confess, a little ray of sunshine illumines my dark night, and I enjoy peace for an instant, but later, the remembrance of this ray of light, instead of consoling me, makes the blackness thicker still.

It’s thought that St. Therese experienced this interior anguish up until the end of her battle with tuberculosis, with her final words being: “My God, I love you!” 

To summarize everything, reading St. Therese is a study not only of radical love, but also radical humility 

From a spoiled child to a martyr of the Carmel, St. Therese lived an inner life that very few of her own sisters in the convent were aware of 

Her life is also a testimony to God's perfect timing; St. Therese wanted to be a missionary in Hanoi, but was prevented from doing so when she contracted tuberculosis. She was later named a patron saint to missionaries.

St. Therese's Little Way informed the spirituality of many of the saints and intellectuals that came after her: St. Josemaria, St. John Paul II, Mother Teresa, St. Teresa of the Andes, Blessed Cecilia Eusepi, Hans Urs von Balthasar, and Dorothy Day

On her feast day, let’s take the time to reflect on what small things we can do today for the Lord; what small sufferings we can offer him with great love and humility 

God would never inspire me with desires which cannot be realized; so in spite of my littleness, I can hope to be a saint. — St. Thérèse of Lisieux

St. Therese of Lisieux, pray for us.

[daughterofmaryam]

Can artists STOP dressing up like religious figures just to be provocative? They are disrespecting all christians and yes, I am referring to Chappell Roan singing dressed up as a nun or Joan of Arc.

Stop it. Nuns and Joan d'Arc aren't your LGBT+ icons. They are religious women the first and a beloved saint the second.

[idylls-of-the-divine-romance]

Okay the Catholics get a win for this one. Because on this episode of "Am I going to convert to Catholicism" I actually prayed to a saint for the first time.

I was kind of going through it (kind of relapsed into my katabasis arc ig) and my relationship with God was struggling because of it. I was mad. Like really mad, because I felt abandoned by him. And so I couldn't pray. I didn't want to hear from them. Because why the heck would you leave me to begin with??? There was all this pent up negative feelings I had towards them and I didn't feel like I could go directly to God.

But, @patron-saint-of-lesbeans recomended reaching out to Mary and asking for intercession on my behalf.

Now, I'm not some radical protestant or anything, and i was completely okay with people praying to the saints, but for me personally I didn't think it was something i'd ever do.

But I did.

And now I think I get it.

Sometimes I can't approach the Throne of Grace because the throne doesn't feel particularly gracious. Sometimes I can't approach Mercy because they don't feel particularly merciful. Sometimes I can't approach God because God doesn't feel particularly loving.

But I can approach Mary, who is full of Grace, who is the Mother of Mercy, the Mother of God, and she can help lead me to the Prince of Peace.

So just... thank you. Thank you Rj, thank you Mary, and thank you God.

[xdivinedecay]

Patron Saints for your problems

If you see a problem you're experiencing down below, pray to the associated saint for intercession to aid you. ♥

Insomnia — St. Peter Damian Headaches — St. Teresa of Avila Illness — St. Raphael the Archangel Chronic illness — St. Lidwina Burnout — St. Thomas Aquinas Animal wellness — St. Francis of Assisi Studying / academia — St. Joseph of Cupertino Housing insecurity — St. Benedict Joseph Labre Anxiety / depression — St. Dymphna Desperation / hopelessness — St. Jude Thaddaeus Loneliness — St. Rita of Cascia Gender identity — St. Joan of Arc Fear / insecurity — St. Michael the Archangel Dysfunctional families — St. Eugene de Mazenod Abuse — St. Monica Grief — St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Financial trouble — St. Matthew Lost items — St. Anthony of Padua Travel / motorists — St. Christopher Spiritual oppression — St. Benedict

banner by animatedglittergraphics-n-more ♥

[virgocurator]

La Bête de la Mer / Tapisserie de l’Apocalypse (Tapestry of the Apocalypse)

Medieval tapestry of the Ignatius of Antioch (Christian saint and martyr)

[portraitsofsaints]

Happy Feast Day

All Saints Day

A solemn holy day of the Catholic Church. While many saints have a specific feast day on which we celebrate their lives and work, the vast majority of the saints of Heaven do not. All Holy Saints in Heaven, pray for us!

Blessed are those who wash their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb (Revelation 7:14)

Prints, plaques & holy cards available for purchase. (website)

[agarthanguide]

A fun/fucking terrible thing that happened to us this summer is BED BUGS. They are all gone, now, thank god. But it was an absolutely terrible experience. 0/10 do not recommend.

A thing I did about it was make this icon of Saint Tryphon- the Catholic (and Eastern Orthodox) saint you invoke against locusts and mice and other critters that ought not live in your house.

Working on the icon gave me something to do that wasn't simply sitting on the couch having a panic attack.

Tryphon was a young martyr and unmercenary (a fun bit of vocab that means he did not accept payment for professional work- in this case he was a sort of proto-vet) who lived and died in Iznik, Turkey. I had fun researching Iznik style pottery glazing and using those designs on the frame and background. His attribute is a merlin or sometimes a sparrowhawk.

If you need a Tryphon Icon to protect you from Bed Bugs, dm me and I'll send you the file. It's a nice hour of craft to cut it out and fold it and it's at least as effective as invoking the spirits of the wood framing in your house to reject the bed bugs. At some point all religion is animism (don't quote me on that. Like not to an anthropologist, anyway).

[academic-vampire]

𝙴𝚊𝚜𝚝𝚎𝚛 †

[littleflowerfaith]

Immaculate Heart of Mary pray for us

Sacred Heart of Jesus have mercy on us

[psalmlover]

i am not afraid… i was born to do this. - joan of arc

[henxleo]

Cor Jesu caritatis victima

venite adoremus

[austerity-audacity-asceticism]

If He who was without sin prayed, how much more ought sinners to pray? 

St. Cyprian

[saintejeannedefrance]

Immaculate Heart of Mary,

Pray for us!