Who is your favorite saint? How does his or her life inspire you? - Daily Reflections August 8,2014

TAKING UP OUR CROSSES   The image of taking up one’s cross and following in the footsteps of Jesus is a very strong one in the Gospel. Embracing death for the sake of the Gospel was relatively prevalent in the first few centuries of the life of the Church. The number of men and women who were martyred in those centuries is enormous. The depth of faith of the Church, as measured by the commitment of its members, was great.        Even though death for the sake of the Gospel is not necessarily everyone’s call, the saints have discovered many ways to embrace the call of taking up their crosses over the centuries since. Today, we celebrate one of them, Dominic de Guzman, who, with St. Francis of Assisi, founded mendicant friar congregations that witnessed to the gift of poverty as part of the call to follow Jesus. They shunned the wealth and luxury of the Church of their day and returned to the roots of poverty and simplicity in order to discover a new and powerful way of proclaiming the Gospel.        Dominic was appalled at the way heresies were causing men and women to leave the Church in droves. The bishops and priests were powerless to stop them as their lives no longer reflected the simplicity of that of Jesus and the Gospel. He decided to embrace the call to poverty and so began a movement and order of preachers whose lives reflected more fully the truths of the Gospel. It was not an easy task, but his congregation was very influential in stemming the rise of many heresies of their time.        Francis’ way of life was probably even simpler than Dominic’s, thus witnessing to the truth that joy is not found in human possessions or earthly powers and pleasures, but in living the Gospel as simply as possible. It was a watershed moment in the life of the Church and one that was to shape Her spirituality up to the present day. People are still inspired by these two simple saints who simply took up their crosses and followed in the footsteps of Jesus as best they could. Fr. Steve Tynan, MGL   REFLECTION QUESTIONS: Who is your favorite saint? How does his or her life inspire you?   Jesus, You lived a simple life in obedience to Your Father’s will. Help me to cut away all the unnecessary things in my life so that I can focus on the few that matter and so make my witness to Christ all the more obvious and powerful.