SAINT LUCY, PATRON SAINT OF THE BLIND - DECEMBER 13 - HOW TO GET TO KNOW THE SAINTS

 

Saint Lucy

Patroness of the Blind

Feast day December 13

This article is a personal account of some of what has been involved in getting to know my favorite saints, many of whom are my ancestors and holy cousins, aunts and uncles of one degree or another. 

I was initially guided on this road by extensive reading of the contemplative practices of the mystics of the Catholic Church, such as Saint Teresa of Avila, St. John of the Cross, Jane de Chantal, Francis de Sales, Thomas Merton, and others of that ilk.

My ancestors range from Saint Olga of Kyiv, my 34th great grandmother, and the patron saint of converts, to Saint Margaret of Scotland, an English Plantagenet princess married to King Malcolm of Scotland, who is my 29th great grandmother and the patron saint of large families. There are something like 2 dozen of my relatives in heaven who are saints of the Catholic Church (as well as the Orthodox, in many cases.)

There are also a number of saints I consider my friends. It is quite a crowd!

Part of the reason that I am so fond of the saints is that I have no close family. My natal family was very small. Most have died. There are a very small number of remaining people, who have been cruel toward me, one of whom conspired with others to write me out of my father's will after he got dementia, then came back for a second bite of the apple in a stunningly cynical legal move that was calculated to push me into a corner and prevent me from claiming the inheritance my father had continually promised me throughout his life. 

The only people who loved me were my father and my grandmother, and they are long gone. In response to these circumstances, I have turned to my relatives in Heaven.

"Though my father and mother forsake me,

the Lord will receive me." Psalm 27:10

I also enjoy the company of many sainted friends that I have grown to love. The initial attraction sometimes has to do with the saint having been a hermit for at least part of their time on earth, and I look to them for guidance and example in how to lead that life. It warms me to understand how many of them there are! It's an extreme type of spiritual life, but yet there are many Catholics throughout history who have gone into the isolated, quiet places to pray in secret to the Lord in Heaven who rewards us in secret.

Later, some of these hermits attract other spiritual aspirants, and a community forms. Sometimes, the religious authorities, recognizing their holiness, would make them a bishop or the abbess of their own convent, and these people move from the hermit state to the cenobitic life. But there is something about spending some time in the hermit life that is an incredible help to the establishment of the spiritual aspirant in their relationship with the Divine.

As a side note to readers: even if you can only spend a dedicated weekend, or a week or two in a solitary setting, especially at a retreat center, monastery or convent, it will feed your spiritual appetites in a way that will stay with you forever. I promise. These experiences build upon one another. You will look back upon them with gratitude. And this is the perfect atmosphere in which to begin your contemplative journey with the saints.

Saint Lucy is one of my sainted friends in heaven upon whom I lay the task of interceding for me with the Lord so that I do not lose any more of my vision than I already have. I am functionally blind in my left eye and struggling to retain the vision in my right eye. At the present time, I have to get monthly injections into my right eye. After the 3-month period of getting these shots, the retina specialists will take photographs of the inside of my eye to determine if the shots have been able to stop the leakage of blood into my eyes by the invading blood vessels due to macular degeneration.

In celebration of the feast day of Saint Lucy, the patron saint of blindness, I am hereby giving an accounting of my personal experiences of the contemplative life, in connection with the establishment and maintenance of relationships with my favorite saints, of whom Lucy is one!

In the many years in which I have been disabled, I have accumulated a host of saints around me. This isn't a turn of phrase or mystical fancy. When you call upon anyone in the vast Heavenly Court, they respond to you in direct proportion to how much and how often you call upon them, in conjunction with the general state of grace in which you live.

Keep in mind that the deeper types of contemplative prayer will not typically include words or visuals. The consolations and atmosphere are different, but communing with the saints is a lovely phase that sets the stage for the mind before it enters into communion with the Holy Spirit.

Saint Lucy's feast day presents a very good opportunity for me to talk a bit about how I have made friends with the saints in Heaven.

In order to start the process of getting to know a saint, especially an obscure one, the first thing I typically do is some preliminary reading about the saint and get to know her a bit. The internet is a wonderful resource. A simple Google search for articles about the saint, as well as a trip through YouTube to check for educational videos, are both good resources. (Just check to make sure that the provider of the information is legitimately Catholic and not some cosmic poo-poo person who is selling crystal healings, "reiki sessions" or something like that!)

I usually find a prayer or two about that saint that has an official imprimatur, then I will light some candles and incense at my shrine, dim the other lights in the house, turn off the phone, use the sacramentals I have on hand, such as holy water, and begin.

Recently, I have started using some of Father Chad Ripperger's prayers from  his book of "Deliverance Prayers for the Laity." First, I will pray a version of his Invocation to the Entire Heavenly Court in order to sweep the decks of any lingering malevolent spirits, calling upon the entire heavenly court.

If you do not have the time to recite this entire prayer, then I recommend you pray any St. Michael prayer that you typically pray, something which is very easy to find on the internet and in many standard prayer books that you may have around the house.

Also, the short prayer to your Guardian Angel can be used at this juncture, instead of or in addition to the Invocation to the Entire Heavenly Court.

Invocation to the Entire Heavenly Court

O glorious queen of Heaven and earth, 

Virgin most powerful, thou who has the

power to crush the head of the ancient

serpent with thy heel, come and exercise

this power flowing from the grace of 

thine Immaculate Conception. 

Shield us under the mantle of thy purity

and love, draw us into the sweet abode

of thy heart, and annihilate and render

impotent the forces bent on destroying

us. Come most Sovereign Mistress of the

Holy Angels and Mistress of the Most

Holy Rosary, thou who from the very

beginning hast received from God the

power and the mission to crush the head

of Satan.

I humbly beseech thee, send forth thy

holy legions, that under thy command and

by thy power they may pursue the evil

spirits, encounter them on every side,

resist their bold attacks, and drive them

far from us, harming no one on the way, 

binding them immobile to the foot of the

cross, to be judged and sentenced by 

Jesus Christ, thy son, to be disposed of

by Him as He wills.

St. Joseph, patron of the Universal Church,

come to our aid in this great battle against

the forces of darkness, repel the attacks of

the Devil, and free me from whatever 

stronghold the enemy has upon my soul.

St. Michael, summon the entire Heavenly

court to engage their forces in this fierce

battle against the powers of Hell. Come, O

prince of Heaven, with thy mighty sword,

and thrust into Hell Satan and all the other 

evil spirits.

O Guardian Angels, guide and protect me/us.

Amen

You might also like to take advantage of one of the perimeter prayers which is very good protection when preparing your shrine for each period of meditation upon the saint, in which case I would recommend using the perimeter prayer as you are preparing the shrine, then begin with the Invocation to the Entire Heavenly Court.

Small book of St. Padre Pio's

prayers that I use almost daily

After the Invocation, I would then pray one of Saint Padre Pio's prayers to all the saints, as follows:

A Daily Prayer to the Saints

Dear beloved saint(s) ____(name)____

You are my friend(s) in Heaven.

You guide me, you help me, you are

there for me in my earthly journey.

As I live my life today, help me in my

daily activities and direct me spiritually,

so I can know and understand God's

plan for me.

Give me the grace and strength to assist

those in need. Help me to care for those

who need care.

Seek the Lord's blessings for me, so that

I may experience God's love and goodness

as you did, despite all the challenges and

obstacles in daily life.

Ask God to grant me the courage and

determination to always do what is right

for me, my family, and those closest to

me. Please hear my petitions and inter-

cede for my special intentions before our

Loving Lord.

_________(state your request_______

Amen.

This prayers is one for which I have made room in my daily schedule of prayers, in order that I may always keep in  mind my heavenly friends.

When making a special appeal to a particular saint, as we are discussing here, it also has a place in that cycle of prayers. At this point, after clearing away all negative attentions, gaining the assistance of the entire Heavenly Court, and addressing all the saints with Padre Pio's beautiful prayer, I would then pray the prayer to the specific saint with whom I am developing a relationship at the moment.

In today's case, it is Saint Lucy, whose prayer is as follows:

PRAYER TO SAINT LUCY:

Saint Lucy, you did not hide your light

under a basket, but let it shine for the whole 

world, for all the centuries to see. We may 

not suffer torture in our lives the way you 

did, but we are still called to let the light of 

our Christianity illumine our daily lives.

Please help us to have the courage to bring 

our Christianity into our work, our recreation, 

our relationships, our conversation - every 

corner of our day.

Amen

I then proceed with contemplation, by closing my eyes and meditating upon the day's saint. In the initial stages of appealing to any saint, there will be a very gradual movement toward one another. It can even take years before you are in regular communion with that saint, depending upon the state of your soul, how much time you put into this, and whether you are in a state of grace.

You know, the saints are simply people who lived on earth at one time and whose lives of faith were so exemplary that it has been determined that they are definitely in Heaven.  When asking for the saint's help in the form of intercessory prayers on your behalf, you are seeking them out in Heaven, where the entire Heavenly Court is spending all its time singing the praises of the Lord.

(Side note: Whenever I think of Heaven, I can almost hear the Heavenly Court singing the Lord's praises in the sweetest of notes! Can you imagine? What a blissful idea!)

You need to get the saints attention so that she may dedicate some of her prayers to your welfare, when she is joining in the prayers of the Heavenly Court.

I find that, in addition to the beauty of the words that you employ in your prayers, it helps to visualize Heaven as well.

IMAGINE HEAVEN

Reaching for Heaven

by Zulmaury Saavedra

at Unsplash

You might imagine, as I do, that you are walking upon the dazzling pavement of a heavily trafficked street paved with golden shimmering bricks or a glittering plaza, in a very big celestial city, with a crowd of sparkling beings gently moving about or swaying in place, their forms gracefully moving - with all of them lifting their voices to sweet celestial music and using beautiful gestures meant to glorify the Lord and participate in His beauty while the splendor of the Lord shines in and through everything. All the Saints are gathered around  the Lord who is at the center of it all, flanked by his Blessed Mother and the angels, and it is gorgeous. Personally, I hear bells throughout, but that's just me.

Obviously, the English language, and our own imaginations, cannot come anywhere near the glory of what goes on in Heaven, but we have to work with images and situations that are familiar to us until the door is opened for us and we experience a more closely representational vision of the Heavenly abode.

I may imagine that I enter Heaven and begin to walk its Heavenly illuminated streets, and then I see a shining person on the other side of the street or the plaza, walking on that other side, perhaps traveling in the opposite direction from me and I just see the back of their head.

Everyone and everything is full of light, and all their spiritual forms expand in time to the music they offer the Lord. In one way or another, they are all communicating with the Lord. Angels are flying in the sky. Saints are walking the illuminated structures. Everything is radiating a dazzling light!

This is the imagery that appeals to me, but you will find your own way through that supernatural place.

In the beginning, you may only have a fuzzy impression of what the saint looks like. It helps to call upon the iconography. Saint Lucy, for instance, today's special saint, is often represented holding a small plate or bowl containing her eyes that were plucked out of her head during her lifetime. [It is a gruesome image, I know, but she lived during the time of Diocletian, whom you may have heard of. He was a brutal man who was responsible for the torture and terrible deaths of many Christians of his era. He was emperor from 284 to 305 C.E.] One of the stories claims that Lucy plucked out her own eyes because a suitor became enamored of their beauty. Another tale claims that it was done to her in the middle of some torturous act.]

In order for you to get the attention of any particular holy person, you have to call upon her intently so that the saint, angel or even our Blessed Mother will hear you. This is how it is in the beginning of this spiritual practice when one has yet to make an intimate friendship with the saints by consistent, regular attention to them.

After the initial prayers, and you feel you have made contact with the saint, you will want to spend some time just communing with her in that holy place.

THE RELATIONSHIP GROWS

After the first introductions, the saints will start to listen for your call, knowing it will come. Then they will themselves draw closer, until finally they are living in your heart and you are in communion with them all the time. Once you have established a practice of communicating with them, your attachment to them, and they to you, can be instantaneous, in my experience.

Eventually, I have been on such intimate terms with the saints that I feel their presence within me throughout the day and can conjure up a conversation or companionship in a moment. 

This is especially true for the saints who are my actual ancestors, who I believe have been praying for me my entire life. I believe that they watched the birth and growth of all their various grandchildren, praying for them through the trials and tribulations of their lives, interceding for them with the Lord.

Saint Eahlswitha,

Wife of Saint King Alfred the Great

My 33rd Great Grandparents

Sometimes, in the quiet of a late evening, you will want to go to them in Heaven. At other times, during the day, when faced with the problems of life, you may need them right here in the earthly plane, in order to inspire and encourage you in whatever you face in your worldly life.

I will OFTEN ask myself, "what would this saint do if they were faced with a similar circumstance?" I find it very helpful to posit this question because I will often receive an answer fairly quickly.

GUARDIAN ANGELS

This process works well for your Guardian Angel also because this special angel, who has been tasked with caring for you since your birth, will actually feel thrilled that you are giving them some attention. Every time you call upon your Guardian Angel, you are allowing it to fulfill its entire purpose. Created solely to keep its eyes on you and help you, it can grow to feel cold and lonely despairing of ever truly pleasing God, if you don't give it any opportunity to help you.

Like all angels, each Guardian Angel is its own species of spiritual being. There is no other spiritual being made exactly like any one of these angels who is yours and yours alone. I have read some accounts in which it is claimed that your Guardian Angel looks exactly like the person for whom they were created.

So, if you are meditating on finding a saint in Heaven in order to obtain her intercession for your needs, and you come across an angel that looks exactly like you, don't be surprised.

Painting of cherubs by 

William-Adolphe Bouguereau

I would just say that it is probably a good idea to make sure that you first have a good relationship with your Guardian Angels before you start running around the spiritual realm, giving all sorts of attention to one saint or another, while ignoring your poor Guardian Angel and making it sad.

In fact, it will be much easier getting it to help you than some old saint, since you are your Guardian Angel's only job and responding to you is part of its duty.

I say "it" when I refer to angels because, in fact, they have no gender. While they sometimes come to earth and appear to us in some form that does, at times, appear to be human of a specific gender,  they have never been earthly beings. There is no marriage among angels and no angel babies being birthed. God creates angels out of His very holy will, so there is no necessity for them to be either male or female. On the other hand, God can do whatever he wishes, and if it really IS true that at least some of the Guardian Angels look like their charges, then it is possible that they appear to be either male or female without actually having a specific gender, per se. It's one of those mysteries.

While your Guardian Angel is a celestial being, the saints were and continue to be real people who have moved from the worldly to the heavenly realm.

DON'T ASK YOUR DEAD GRANNY TO PRAY FOR YOU.

Many people like to believe that everyone who has died is certainly in Heaven, but in the Catholic faith this is not strictly true. If a person does not die in a state of grace and has a lot of sins to clear up, they cannot enter Heaven. I believe this is why Jesus told us to "be ye perfect as thy Father in Heaven is perfect."

Many of our relatives will be in purgatory for some time, in order to clean up whatever sins were on their soul when they died. They need our attention also, and the best thing we can do for them is to pray for them to the Lord, make reparations for the sins left on their souls, and otherwise offer sacrifices for them, such as dedicating a period of fasting to them. Appealing to the saints and to the Guardian Angels of our loved ones who have died is also a very good idea. Their intercessory prayers can be helpful to your deceased relative.

It occurs to me that, at least for the devout among us, the pain of finding oneself in purgatory instead of Heaven might be so horrifying and painful that this moment alone might be enough to burn up our sins in an instant, sending us to Heaven quickly thereafter. I, for one, imagine I would go flying into Heaven singing prayers of gratitude for having escaped Hell and being let into Heaven at all.

When I see the Guardian Angels of the souls in purgatory, I imagine them downcast and sad, no longer able to help their charges except by praying to The Lord that they be released from purgatory.

The saints are deceased humans whom The Church has assured us are living in Heaven because of the unique spiritual character of their lives on earth. We can feel confident that these souls are able to intercede for us because we know they are in Heaven, while those in purgatory can not.

Purgatory is not Hell. It is a stopping place. It is not a gruesome and permanent place of torment, like Hell, but neither is it Heaven. The souls in purgatory cannot help us. They cannot even help themselves, except through the suffering of purgatory which purifies their souls. I have a strong suspicion that simply being unable to enter Heaven would be an awful suffering. I think I would yearn for Heaven so strongly that not being able to go there immediately would itself be an immense pain. 

When the soul has been purified sufficiently through suffering, the prayers of the faithful on earth, the intercession of the saints, and the grace of God, they are allowed to enter Heaven. It is pointless to ask your deceased Granny to help you out of a jam. We don't know, for certain, if Granny is in Heaven or not. She MAY be. We just don't know. But we DO know that the Saints are in Heaven, so it is best to save our appeals for those we know are in Heaven: the saints, the angels, our Blessed Mother, Jesus, and God the Father.

One thing we should remember is that the saints are humans. Our relationships with them are real relationships with real people who are living in Heaven. They have not been transformed into magical beings, nor are they angels, which many people incorrectly assume they have become. Angels are a different species. In fact, each angel is completely unique and is its OWN species entirely different from all others, but that is a different story entirely.

When building a relationship with the saints you are building a real relationship with a real person. It does not happen by magic, nor is it typically an instantaneous, effortless thing. If it does appear to be magical and instantaneous, you either have a remarkable imagination, or there is a demon chasing you and trying to trick you by appealing to your ego. 

I would take care to be sure and pray all the deliverance prayers at your disposal and clear the perimeter of your prayer space. Call in Saint Michael and your Guardian Angel to watch over you while you pray, and you should be alright. It's also a good idea to play Gregorian Chant in your home regularly.

If your experience is anything like mine, the more saints and angels you get to know in this way, the more you will be aware of the presence of a growing family of saints and angels who are with you all the time. In this way, the kingdom of Heaven is within you. The holy ones are with you. This is what I experience and what I hope for you as well.

DON'T MAKE IT MORE DIFFICULT THAN IT HAS TO BE!

In order for this to happen, I believe you should be in a state of grace in your life, committed to living as sinless a life as what is possible for you. God is all good. Heaven is a place of purity, peace and perfection. Evil and sin are incompatible with deliberate sin. Accessing the Heavenly realm does not seem possible if one is in a sinful state.

So, if you are deliberately sinning and assuming that God will be alright with it, becoming familiar with the saints will be more difficult. Confession and reception of the Blessed Sacrament, use of all the sacramentals such as holy water and blessed salt, helps provide a fertile ground for the growth of divine relationship between you and the Holy Ones. That is my belief and experience.

Those of us under either private or formal vows will typically promise "poverty, chastity and obedience." Americans often have trouble following ANY of these vows, and that is exactly what makes our spiritual lives more difficult than they have to be.

With regard to poverty, many of us have no problem with that. We have no extra money and, in fact, do not have enough for what we consider to be our needs. If we DO find ourselves with excess belongings that do not have a place in our working lives or our state of life, there is usually no problem getting rid of these. Giving to the poor is something I have found very easy to do. We are surrounded with poor people, even those who are so poor they do not have even a home to live in! It's shameful, really, but that is a topic for another blog.

Chastity is the virtue that most Americans ignore completely. Because of this phase of modernism, American Catholics have changed the rules for themselves. I can tell you confidently, however, that anyone having sex outside a valid marriage is going to have problems with their prayer life. Tell yourself whatever you like. God did not change the rules. People did. And when people change God's rules, trouble ensues. It is just a fact.

Even the Hindus with whom I studied before getting baptized had very strong teachings about the necessity for the control of the sexual expression. Their reasoning is different, but the result is the same.

If you want to make progress in your spiritual life, get your physical life in order in this area, and I guarantee you that you will experience tremendous relief. The flood gates will open and the difficulties will lessen.

Likewise with regard to obedience. For lay people, obedience means first of all obedience to the rules of the Catholic faith. Get familiar with the Catechism. It's a huge book, I know, but the YouTube classes "Catechism in a Year" is a great place to start. There are also classes you can take at your parish.

Once again, the more in line is your behavior with the principles of The Faith, in all areas, the easier and more satisfying your prayer life is going to be.

ATMOSPHERE HELPS

In fact, whatever we can do to inspire ourselves in our surroundings, such as tending to an appealing and beautiful domestic Shrine and altar in our homes, can also be quite helpful to get us centered and concentrated on our spiritual practices, such as this one. 

Father Chad Ripperger, well known Catholic exorcist, tells us that Gregorian Chant chases away Satan and his demons. It hurts their ears to hear these holy sounds! In gathering the holy saints to yourself, you do not want to gain the attention of the fallen saints, so keep that in mind as well.

One day I will make a blog post about home shrines and the various items that can help you maintain your spiritual atmosphere and attitude.

Finally, I will add that getting to know the saints and developing relationships with them has been particularly beneficial for all phases of my life and my spiritual practices, especially since I discovered I am descended from some of these people. This is particularly helpful for me, since I do not have any living close family. The saints in Heaven, the angels, and our Blessed Mother and our Loving Lord have literally become my day-to-day family and they can become part of your intimate family also!

I hope this post is helpful to all of you. If you have any questions, feel free to write a comment or contact me on Facebook.

In the meantime -

God bless us all!

Silver Rose

OUR LADY OF THE ANGELS AND THE PORTIUNCULA - August 2, 2022

 

Assumption of Mary into Heaven

Today's feast observance that I am interested to learn also has a strong link to the subject of HERMITS because this little building, the Portiuncula in which Saint Francis lived, prayed and died, was said to have been built by the hermits of The Valley of Josaphat, also called "The Valley of Decision" sometime during the reign of Pope Liberius (352-366.) This fact was only known to us after about 1645, at least in the written record available to us at the current time, so who really knows?

Notice that the story talks about a group of hermits? Very few hermits are actually completely alone, and if they are alone, it is for a short time because other hermits typically join them at whatever location the original hermit can be found. Being a hermit does not mean that one is a misanthrope. It means that the person takes himself/herself out of the typical toing and froing of life to dedicate themselves to thoughts of and prayers to God more than anything else. I do miss that companionship of other hermits, but God has made me strong enough to endure this isolation.                                                                                                                                          

Sometime after the year 516, Benedict of Nursia was the owner/keeper of the Portiuncula. At that time, it was called Our Lady of the Valley of Josaphat or of the Angels - referring to Mary's assumption into Heaven being accompanied by angels. 

There is another tradition that says that the singing of angels has often been heard there, where the little run-down building was hidden among the oak trees of a small forest.

At some point after St. Francis renounced his fortune, he restored this little chapel. He built a hut nearby and was joined by some who followed him in his way of life, and this is where he founded the Franciscans, so this feast day and this little building are incredibly important to the Franciscan order. It was given to him in 1211 and on Palm Sunday of that year, he received Clare of Assisi, and the Poor Clares were formed. Some very poor and temporary little huts were built for the nuns, and their institution was surrounded by a hedge. The friars met in the little church during Pentecost every year.

Death and Ascension of Saint Francis of Assisi

Giotto de Bondone

Evidently, when he sensed he was dying, he had his friars takes him to the Portiuncula so he could die there at sunset on Saturday, October 3, 1226.

Various buildings were erected near and around this little chapel, but eventually they were all torn down in favor of this beautiful Basilica of Our Lady of the Angels which now houses the Portiuncula.

The darling little powerhouse of a church inside of the Basilica, is exquisitely decorated on the outside by various religious artists over the years.

I am in favor of the church maintaining beautiful reminders of its history and its saints. I love it that a grand and gorgeous basilica was built around this little church with the powerful history. Personally, I believe it is a mark of our great love for Our Lord that we exalt him in the most exquisite manner whenever we can. There are plenty of protestants who find fault with this tendency to beautify our churches, our altars and reminders of our history. But the atmosphere that emanates from an object that has been subjected to the proximity of a holy person such as Saint Francis can thereafter help other pilgrims to feel more of a closeness to the Lord who is all beauty Himself. Raising these things to the heights of artistic expression is one manner of showing the ultimate respect and love for the creator who enabled us to participate in His creative power in this way.

THE INDULGENCE

Whether or not the indulgence granted for this feast day was initiated by Saint Francis himself is under question in a couple of the pages I read, but the indulgence has been confirmed several times, officially, over the years, so the typical requirements, when met, will merit a full indulgence. Catholics will know what I am talking about. Anyone else who has a question about the indulgence, can check these sources:

WIKIPEDIA RE: Portiuncula Indulgence

OUR LADY OF THE ANGELS -Portiuncula Indulgence

If you would like to learn more about today's feast of Our Lady of the Angels and the Portiuncula, then here are a few links you can check out:

WIKIPEDIA

VIATOR

COMMUNIO

OUR LADY OF THE ANGELS PROVINCE - Franciscan Friars Conventual

CAPDOX - Capuchin Franciscan Friars Australia

BOOK OF HEAVEN

CHARIOT OF FIRE

CORRIDORS BLOG

ROMAN CATHOLIC SAINTS

I hope you enjoy this beautiful feast day and that you are able to avail yourself of the opportunity to earn an indulgence. Even if you doubt the efficacy, give it a try anyway. It couldn't hurt, right?  And if you could pray for me while you are in church, I would be so very grateful.

May we all be blessed!

Silver Rose

P.S. All of the blog posts I write are independently researched and written by me and all of them are protected by legal copyright, so please just enjoy them here and leave them here where you found them and do not copy any of it to any other place for any purpose.

(c) Copyright 2022, Silver S. Parnell

All rights reserved.

SAINT PETER OF MOUNT ATHOS, TRINITY SUNDAY - JUNE 12TH

 

Saint Peter of Athos is today's saint. Unlike most of the ones I write about, he is not related to me, but he was a hermit and is said to be the first monastic on the island of Mount Athos that is now famously covered with monasteries.  For more than 1,000 years, the Monks of Mount Athos have been chanting the prayers of the Orthodox faith without ceasing.

I am always curious about hermits because, so far, all of them are intentional hermits and not accidental ones like me. I look to them for encouragement, example, and inspiration.

Once I found myself unable to work and somewhat isolated, about 20 years ago, I did choose to dedicate my life to God, but being a hermit was nothing I had ever aspired to do prior to finding myself in the position of being unable to work due to physical pain and disability. Over time, I have realized that my solitary condition is the only real ascetic practice that I have, other than offering up the chronic, constant pain I have suffered for the last 20 years. It's interesting how these things work out. God has a way of organizing it into an organic flow of its own. I have accepted God's will, as it has been revealed by circumstance.

Today was also Trinity Sunday. I won't even try to begin to explain the Trinity, the central concept of the Catholic faith. It is not a simple aspect of our theology, and I am too tired to even look for a good quote. 

I rarely experience a day when I do not feel ill. The pain is marginally addressed with medication but causes other issues, including chronic insomnia. I can't seem to sleep more than 4 hours at a time, for one thing, and I have days when I am dragging myself through my activities. Today was one of those days. I had overdone things yesterday when I had tried to clean my house and do some laundry. The kitchen is a particular problem, since standing in one spot, to do dishes for instance, causes quite a bit of pain. So, the kitchen is almost always in a bad state. It is a constant struggle.

As I have mentioned before, I was approved for caregiver services 2 years ago but have been unable to actually avail myself of those services. There are no caregivers available and the agencies usually ask me to provide someone MYSELF in order to run them through the agency. Only the people who have relatives willing to do this job end up having their needs met. The rest of us go without. (I have previously told you about a handful of people I was offered who caused more problems than they solved - middle-aged drug addicts who had never had a job in their lives before showing up at my door because they had to show a paycheck to the judge to get their kids back who tried to bully me into letting them do their own shopping on my time, people who wanted to lay on my couch and eat my food, and a couple disabled individuals who thought they could sit around and get paid for keeping me company. That sort of thing.) 

I have not just sat around and waited for someone to show up. I got creative and advertised for a caregiver many times through various websites, and I did find quite a few people who said they wanted to do the job, but when they learned that I wanted them to register with an agency to get paid, they each said the same thing, i.e., that Medicaid does not pay enough and that they wanted me to pay them cash, under the table, or they would not take the job. So, there ARE people available to do the work but they won't do it at the pay that the government allows.

I have called every single approved agency on the Medicaid list MORE than once and their situation is such that they don't even have a waiting list. They just tell me they can't help me - except for the one agency that promised me a caregiver, then when I got switched over to them, they claimed that the three days it took to get it done was "too long" and that they had given the caregiver to someone else. They offered to give me someone who refuses to get a Covid shot, which seems ludicrous. I declined to risk my life just to get my dishes done. They offered me a woman who, when she showed up,  told me she intended to spend the day watching movies on Netflix on her phone or sitting and reading because she has gout and can not stand on her feet. (She refused to stay and even TRY to do the job and kept telling me that her last client did not "make" her work and that she only kept her company and brought her a sandwich when she asked for food. THAT poor woman ended up going into a nursing home because she wasn't getting the care she needed.)

I have called Medicaid have a dozen times and they just ended up telling me they can't do anything about it and to call the Department of Aging and Long Term Services who, in turn, told me to call Medicaid. Finally I called the Governor's office four times and emailed them once but never received a phone call back from them, despite assurances that I would. I sent an email to the President of the United States asking him if there wasn't something HE could so, since he was coming to our state - but I got crickets, of course. He has bigger fish to fry, obviously, but I wanted to do everything I could to advocate for myself before I gave up entirely.

Occasionally a friend will come by to do my dishes, and I am grateful I have this help. But meals happen every day and it isn't long before the dishes pile up after I have a few bad days.

Today was Sunday, a day when I typically ease up on my diet, as it is a "feast" day, and I was really hungry, so I decided to get a rare pizza from Pizza Hut.  As usual, it was a disappointing experience.

It is much too expensive to have them deliver the pizza, which always arrives cold ANYWAY, so I arranged for a "contact free" pick up. I was to notify them when I got there, and they were to bring the food out to my car, just a few steps outside their front door.

Arriving at the restaurant 5 minutes after the pizza was supposed to be ready, I called the Pizza Hut number and a woman said she would "tell them" and that someone would come out with the pizza. No one came out, of course. I did see one employee outside, loitering with a homeless looking girl and polishing the hood of a car that was parked out there.

A van pulled up and a driver went in and back out again and drove away. Another van with a Texas license plate drove up and parked behind me so I could not leave if I wanted to. They went in and came out with a pizza and some Pepsi. Ten minutes went by. I saw an employee go in and out several times.

When I'd been there 20 minutes, I call again and the woman said, "well, you should have called when you arrived."

"I DID call," I told her, annoyed about the whole thing. The rude woman on the phone said she notified them that I was waiting but I may just have to go into the store. It was supposed to be "contactless pickup" and they were supposed to bring it out to my car. 

So, I hobbled into the store, with my purse and my cane. The diffident and unapologetic girl behind the counter said that she had gotten no notice at all! My pizza was ready - sitting there, in the warming oven. I hobbled back out with it, juggling pizza, chicken wings, cane and purse. No tip was paid to these people and I told them I would not be back. I had given them many many chances over the years, but their food and their service is uniformly bad, and it would be crazy for me to give them any more chances.

By the time I got home, the pizza was cold, so I put it in the toaster oven. Half of it was just plain old bread. It was the worst pizza I have ever had.

I think it is time to revert to eating raw fruits and vegetables and maybe some canned beans and rice or baked yams, with nuts and seeds to supplement.  It will be healthy and perhaps I will lose some weight. That way, I can avoid too many dishes. If I can get a chair into the kitchen, I won't be faced with having to stand to clean and chop veggies.

I bet Peter of Mount Athos did not eat much. I found myself being curious about the diet of the original hermits. I am betting it was also mostly raw food. In any case, it was frugal, I'm sure.

Today I made a couple pair of earrings from aluminum wire and some other findings I had on hand. I hope to sell them at a local store. I added them to the dozen or so I had made previously. Even hermits have to do some kind of manual labor to support themselves.

My favorite Carmelite nuns, with a monastery in Colorado Springs, Colorado, are part of an ascetic order of nuns that live mostly in silent adoration of the Divine, practicing meditation, chanting the holy office and immersed in mental prayer. But they have to bring in money to support themselves also, so they have a website where they sell special hand-made rosaries, religious medals, books, and all sorts of things. (By the way, you can find them at: SISTERS OF CARMEL) I highly recommend them.

I remember reading about the monks of Mount Athos when I was a nun in the Hindu convent. Mount Athos is extremely important to the mystical heart of the Orthodox Christian world. Like most monasteries, there are no females allowed on Mount Athos EXCEPT for cats which keep the mice and rats under control!

Photo from an article on a blog devoted to Greece

"The Only Female Allowed on Mount Athos"

GREECE HIGH DEFINITION BLOG

I was surprised and delighted at the number of cats that swarm about the monasteries.

If you would like to read and see more of it, The Guardian also did a wonderful picture essay about it, which you can see HERE - "The Holy Mountain: Monks of Mount Athos

In addition to the monks of the monasteries that live there, the hills are dotted with tiny little hermit "cells" where the hermits live with the bones of the hermits that lived there before them. The bones are kept in a silver box. I'm not sure what the point is of that but it probably assists the monk in keeping his mind on the reality of human life and death. The little hermit cells look fairly dirty and unkempt. I am not sure what the older hermits eat, because some of them can no longer even get out of their cells because it would mean climbing the rocky hills and ledges where their cells are perched. One of them has lived in his cell for 64 years but can no longer come out because he can't handle the rocky climb. I am assuming that the monks of the monastery must leave him some kind of food to eat or they lift it up to him with an arrangement of pullies and baskets. When comparing my situation with his, I live like a queen, so I try to keep this all in perspective.

CBS NEWS did a report about the health of the monks of Mount Athos. The monks there live very long lives with "shockingly low" rates of cancer, heart disease, and other illnesses that plague modern man. Alzheimer's is almost "unheard of." This really IS surprising.

READ THE CBS REPORT HERE

Their remarkable health is attributed to their diet of simple meals eaten at regular intervals in what is known as "the Mediterranean Diet" which is the diet that every one of my doctors has recommended I use! How wonderful that the diet for my good health is the same as the simple diet of ascetic monastics that I am trying to emulate!

I am pretty sure they don't have a Pizza Hut on Mount Athos. They also do not have any women or children (obviously.) They pray and meditate, do a lot of physical work, and eat a wholesome Mediterranean diet that includes lots of fresh fruits and vegetables, olive oil, nuts and seeds.

In addition to the nuts and seeds, there are some supplements that the doctors recommend.  All of these things are on my wish list on Amazon. They have my address and can mail to me directly.

CLICK HERE TO SEE MY WISH LIST

I hope and pray that you all have a wonderful week. I will be working to try to make a little extra money with my art projects but I will not forget to pray for all of you, as I hope that you also pray for me.

God bless us all!

Silver Rose