St. Frumentius of Ethiopia

ETHIOPIA!? ... cool ^ -^

St. Frumentius

St. Frumentius was on a ship traveling on the Red Sea with his brother St. Aedius when they were the only two to survive a SHIPWRECK on the ETHIOPIAN shore! They were brought to the King as objects of "curiosity" and soon St. Aedius was made Royal cup bearer (??) and St. Frumentius was made Secretary. Even after the King died the two stayed on the team to serve the Queen. The Queen allowed them to introduce Christianity to the country and open trade to the West. St. Frumentius convinced St. Anthanasius to send missionaries from Alexandria to Ethiopia, was made Bishop of Ethiopia, converted many and set the strong foothold of the faith in the country. 

K so more like.. thoughts.. from this =D:

1) check out how God works... Shipwrecked on the Ethiopian shore! Coincidence? I think not. That was God working through their lives and now the two men are the "Apostles of Ethiopia"! 

Makes us think when God will unexpectedly gear us towards His plan for us... or maybe he already is O_o. Ugh.. I've been thinking about this a lot lately and frankly... my head hurts when I think about it so, NEXT!

2) Reading about this holy guy reminded me that I'm supposed to be converting people too. As always, I started off doing really well after Fisher's Of Men but lately, I've been so selfish and have only been thinking of deepening my own conversion. I need to pick up that Bible, review my F.O.M. notes, pray for my cause and get to work!!

St. Ignatius of Antioch

I'm gonna keep this short cuz im DEAD tired...

St. Ignatius of Antioch

St. Ignatius was a great martyr who served as a bishop and then wanted to die for Christ. His wish was granted: he was peresecuted and taken to the amphitheater in Rome. He was thrown in and lions immediately DEVOURED him! He died gloriously saying "May i become agreeable bread to the Lord"

Living it out:

BRAVERY

today I was courageous in my faith. There are times in my day where I'm usually like "Okay, I could say this (which is what I WANT to say) but there's a time to share Christ and a time not too... I don't want to offend this person, or push too hard..." Well today I totally erased that from my mind. Got laughed at a few times.. but WHO CARES!? It felt really awesome and I encourage you all to do it (if you're not already). 

that's all.. i'm going to sleep now =)

btw yesteray's saint was St. Gerard Majella who is the patron saint of Expectant Mothers (funny.. he's a guy)... well I couldn't think of a characteristic to live out so I just prayed for expectant mothers a lot that day and whenever I saw one I'd pray for them.. it was fun and heart warming ^ -^

St. Teresa of Avila

St. Teresa of Avila (of Jesus)

-Born: 1515 in Spain

-Her family: Her dad was really, really pious- strict kinda guy. Her mother was apparently a real girly girl who loved to read romance novel kinda things. Of course she would do it without her husband knowing because he wouldn't allow it! Teresa was one of 10 and her mother passed away when she was 15

-Childhood: She was courageous even as a child. Apparently at the age of 7 her and her brother decided to leave home and go into Moorish territory to be beheaded for Christ! But they got caught by their uncle who brought them home (haha). Not only was she courageous but she was a very outgoing, affectionate, and adaptable person as well.

-Teenage years: (I love this part) It seems that St. Teresa became quite the social butterfly in her teenage years. She was boy-crazy, vain, loved to gossip and picked up her mother's love for romance! In fact, her boy-craziness got to such an extreme in her pious father's eyes that he sent her to a convent!!! (haha)

-In the convent and beyond: After learning things from the nuns and doing some reading of scripture and other religious works Teresa, who had dreamed of getting married, began to wonder if the religious life was for her. Well (obviously) she stayed at the convent and became a Carmelite nun. Right after she became "installed" as a nun she wholeheartedly gave herself to prayer and penance. She had always been ill and got sick a lot and after a few years of continous illness her prayer life became kind of mediocre.

She had a hard time with meditation and this struggle apparently lasted her some 18 years. She was being held back by her desire to be appreciated by others which left her when she received a vision of "the sorely wounded Christ".

After this she began to see many visions and had a very "vivid experience of God's presence within her". Some of her friends and confessors said it was the devil and a few supported her. She became close friends with Jesus. !

On one of the sites I was looking at, it said that at one point she was too attached to her friends and God told her not to really converse with anybody anymore, but just to converse with angels and Himself. After this God became her #1 homie. One day, she was complaining about the way no one supported her (with her visions and all kinds of spiritual gifts they thought was from the devil..) and Jesus told her "Teresa, that's how I treat my friends." and she said "No wonder you have so few friends" (!!!!!!) lol. But since they were so few in number she felt they should be GOOD friends. So she was set to reform the convent which she did. 

There's a lot to this lady. But the main thing is that she is one of two women to be Doctors of the Church. Her teachings on prayer are the church's teachings on prayer. The whole idea of prayer being a conversation is hers.. i think.. or at least it came THROUGH her... anyways!

it goes something like this:

"For mental prayer in my opinion is nothing else than an intimate sharing between friends; it means taking time frequently to be alone with him who we know loves us. The important thing is not to think much but to love much and so do that which best stirs you to love. Love is not great delight but desire to please God in everything."

So anyways.. wow I actually WROTE, like from my MEMORY most of this so I feel tired already lol...

Living it out:

k first of all: HAPPY FEAST DAY TO ME AND ALL OTHER TERESA'S! yayyy haha

I tried to be close buds with Jesus today. I thought of Him a lot more and spoke to Him a lot more. And when I was in my STATS class (haha) I was thinking: "If you have a best friend wouldn't you want to take them around and introduce them to all your other friends? So if Jesus is your best friend..." So i had this kind of Epiphany today.. it was pretty cool! =)

Today I also read from the book of Sirach. It seemed appropriate because that book has some great stuff on Friendship.

OK, I remember making mental notes to myself a lot today but I don't remember half of them =/

Um, At Mass, we had a different priest today and he decided to give a homily which lead to another Epiphany haha. He said that it's not enough, or that you shouldn't think you're good to go if you just go to Mass, confession, tithe, and do all that stuff IF you don't love your neighbor. He said it in a way that made me realize that if we do that, we become just like those bad High Priests that Jesus encountered during his time here. So LOVE LOVE LOVE! Amen! =)

I really can't remember much else, if I do I'll just edit this post ^ -^

-Theresa

St. Alphonsa (Part 1)

The Newly Cannonized

St. Alphonsa

K.. because I did St. Callistus yesterday and there wasn't much info on the rest of today's saints, i decided to try St. Alphonsa's life.

Honestly the only stuff I knew about her was from that Serial (tv show) they made about her life on Asianet (I think). Anyways my parents watch it and what I got from there was that St. Alphonsa was:

-Super Obedient

-Very compassionate

-Helped out others even if she got in trouble for it

I don't know why, but I didn't even think about looking up her life online. But today, when I came home I thought of looking her up and I found out there's more to her! But we'll leave that for some other time because I haven't had the chance to live it out.

So living out St. Alphonsa (part 1)

1) I tried to be humbly obedient to my parents.. wow.. that was an enlightening experience...

I never realized how much I raise my voice at my mother. Like you know, Indian parents... sometimes you have to repeat things or they don't fully understand something.. and I just got fed up, SO EASILY. And after I would raise my voice my angel would tell me "Tut tut, St. Alphonsa wouldn't do that!" So I'd try to calm down and stuff.

Being obedient is so hard =/... I still have to put away my clothes haha.. determined to do it before I sleep at least...

2) Compassion - I don't feel like I lived this aspect out as much as I could have. It honestly slipped my mind today. There we're some instances where I would normally laugh at a friend or make a sarcastic remark about them that I reminded myself not to.. learned to bite my tongue a bit haha. 

Overall, I'm kinda glad I found out more about St. Alphonsa because it gives me an excuse to redo the experience ^ -^.

I'll be honest - I could've done better...

St. Callistus I

K.. St. Callistus' feast day is actually tomorrow but I couldn't find a saint that was 1)livable and 2)that they had enough info on so I just picked one from tomorrow

but since I recently found out there's MORE THAN ONE saint of the day... do not fear! For tomorrow there will still be another saint! I'm also thinking of living out St. Alphonsa's life whenever this happens again...

so St. Callistus

St. Callistus' only Biography was apparently written by someone who he was always at odds with so a lot of it talks of the bad things he's done in his life. But I guess what's relevant in this case is that:

He was a slave once and apparently an ex-convict? And through some crazy events he became a priest and theologian. He began to guide the new pope Zephyrinus who was not such a great theologian. 

He, himself, became Pope and during his Papacy he accepted slaves (I think Equality had not found it's way to the Church yet) and sinners who committed sins of adultery, murder, and fornication. The "enemy" that wrote his biography mainly was enraged at him because of this (The early Church had been very rough on those who commited such sins). Well his "Enemy", Hippolytus was enraged by the mercy that Callistus showed to these repentant sinners, allowing them back into communion of the Church after they had performed public penance. 

So point of story is that Pope Callistus was one merciful man who let's us understand that the Church embraces both sinners and saint alike!

With this is mind:

Today, I learned not to judge others. If I found myself judging someone, the Lord would immediately show me other possibilities of that person's life and how unfair I was being. It made me think of some words I heard at Fisher's Of Men. We we're told never to assume anything about a person's relationship with Christ or their faith but to share with everyone in the same way. I think I'm getting off track but my point is that I began trying to treat "sinners and saints alike". Well... that sounds like I'm assuming huh? OH, YOU GET THE POINT!

today was HARD .. my head hurts.. haha

St. Pelagia

Above is St. Pelagia and her great beauty attracting all the men.. I guess this was before her conversion...

Pelagia, was an actress of Antioch, equally celebrated for her beauty, her wealth and the disorder of her life.  One day she went to hear Bishop St. Nossus preach and was so touched she asked him to baptize her. She gave all her wealth to him to use for the poor and left the town in men's clothing and became a hermitess. She became known as "the beardless monk" until her sex was discovered at her death.

Well 1st off- WOW! What a strong woman! The beardless monk!? This lady had so much wealth as an actress but that wasn't enough. She's a rolemodel to all. Leave your things behind and follow Christ! I think it also goes to show how much the heart the truly knows what it needs, what you soul is always searching for. After one preaching from the bishop she turned 180, because she found truth, the truth that her soul was longing for. And MAN how courageous!

2nd- No offense... but what's with all the hermits being cannonized aroud the same time!? Yesterdays saint (which I skipped) was a hermit too! THATS 3 IN A ROW! Living it out is not too easy =/

so Living it out:

hmmm I thought hard about this one - 

Theresa: "Should I go to school dressed like a man?" 

Mimi: "You're a nut!"

okkaayyy... that's out.. ummm 

Theresa: "live the life of a hermit?"

Theresa's Conscience: "Don't commit to something you know you can't do"

Well then!!!.... I guess it'll be a day of prayer then

Which is actually pretty good cuz lately I've been spending more time in prayer because of all these amazing eremitcal saints haha. You guys rock!

This is intense prayerlife conditioning for Theresa lol

Well that's all for today... I'm dead tired and my writting today took on a weird format (did you notice?)

St. Bruno

Alright! So I know I didnt get to blog yesterday (ayyy.. already inconsistent! lol) So i've decided to use yesterday's saint today because when I went to Mass it was the feast day of Our Lady of the Rosary. So I'm in the process of saying a Rosary.. but anyways..

St. Bruno (feast day Oct. 6)

(below from Catholic.org)

Bruno was born in Cologne, Germany and was of the prominent Hartenfaust family. He studied theology in a school in Reihms where he later taught, became head of the school, and was later appointed chancellor of Reihms. Years after, the people of Rheims wanted to make Bruno archbishop, but he decided to pursue an eremitical life. St. Bruno is one of the 6 men who started the Carthusian order. They lived a life of poverty, manual work, prayer, and transcribing manuscripts. As fame of the Carthusian order spread, St. Bruno was brought to Rome (against his wishes haha) by Pope Urban II (whom he had taught as a teacher in Reihms!) as Papal Adviser in the reformation of the clergy. Bruno persuaded Urban to allow him to resume his eremitical state, declined the Pope's offer of the archbishopric of Reggio, became a close friend of Count Robert of Sicily, and remained there until his death on October 6. He was never formally canonized because of the Carthusians' aversion to public honors but Pope Leo X granted the Carthusians permission to celebrate his feast in 1514, and his name was placed on the Roman calendar in 1623.


Living it out:
i basically went to my mom and said ASSIGN ME SOMETHING... so I washed tons of dishes and helped with some other stuff around the house... that was my manual labor haha. As for poverty- I learned just how hard that was. I left home thinking even if I get hungry I won't run to that vending machine for a rip-off snack. But its was like 2 o'clock and I couldnt take it anymore. Sacrificing the use of an mp3 player and other luxuries was a little easier (except the phone and the laptop.. heh..) And lastly-- prayer. I actually coincidently ended up praying a lot (more than usual) yesterday... but that should still count right? Maybe God's helping me out ^ -^.

A side note: I went for Confession followed by Mass today at the Basilica of Our Lady de San Juan del Valle and had the most awesome experience. First off I truly realized the healing effect of the sacrament of Reconiciliaton. I really felt like God had given me the grace to not commit certain sins anymore! Okay so, I had a hard time confessing one of my sins but eventually I found a way around it. Then Mass started and though it was mostly in spanish I could participate in like 80% of it. When it got close to the time we sing the "Holy, Holy" song I had a kind of vision sorta thing... well first I felt something touching my back and i was thinking what it could be. It felt like a person! So when I was thinking I had this "vision" that it was my guardian angel, lovingly hugging me from behind. She was so happy with me, proud of me, because I confessed my horrid sin. And then we sang the Holy Holy together =) "With all the Angels and Saints"

Yayyy Happy Day ^ -^

St. Faustina

St. Faustina born in Poland in 1905. At about the age of twenty, she entered the Congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy who kind of specialized in helping out and educating of "troubled young women".
Later he recieved a message from the Lord that she was to become the apostle and secretary of His mercy. Also, a model of how to be merciful to others. Her whole life should be lived for others and she was to encourage others to trust in Him.
Her strong devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary and the Sacraments of the Eucharist and Reconciliation enabled her to bear all her sufferings as an OFFERING to God for the Church and those in special need.

ok the above info was all from http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=510
i admit some of it is copy and paste =/

As for me living it out and what I've learned from it:
1) I've always hear you should offer up your sufferings for others. But I always thought "Sufferings? Me?.. aren't those like.. really really big sufferings like deaths and sicknesses or Stigmata...I've never had any real SUFFERING"
~So I was wondering how I'll live out this amazing woman's life when I realized that even the things I don't like doing, things that really make me FEEL like I'm suffering (relatively [is that the right word?]) might be good enough ex: Studying
haha so before I started I offered up my unpleasant study period for all students who have a hard time studying and focusing in general, those that say "oh the what the heck" and go party instead. I use this idea in different things like when I got angry or felt impatient. It helped me calm down too ^ -^
hey man, I tried... lol
2) What a good project this is. It was always in my mind that I should be like this so it made me be more conscious of the way I live my life. From when I wrote my first post to now I've almost constantly been thinking about God's Mercy and how I should live my life for others =)

yayy! that's all for today! tomorrow I believe is St. Bruno (the hermit) O_O lol.. we'll see how that goes.. haha

-Theresa

What IS my project? O_o

My project will require me to

*drum roll*

Look up the life of the "Saint of the Day" (http://www.catholic.org/saints/sofd.php) and try to live out some of their personality.
Hard? Yes. Especially for someone as distracted, forgetful and lazy as me. But this blog will help because I enjoy blogging (I kept one a few years ago... that was about daily nonsense though, haha). So hopefully when faced with the faults of my personality my mind or my Guardian Angel will tell me someting like this:

Angel: "Theresa, aren't you forgetting to live your life like St.___?"
Me: "Ohh... Eh... maybe later... I want to but *insert lame excuse here*"
Angel: "Hmm.. okay... but then you won't have anything to blog about. Tonight you can just stare at your blog wishing you had something worthy of writting in there.."
Me: "OH FINE"
Angel: "VICTORY!!"

=).. so today..*next post*