While there is life, there is hope

The rich treasury of the Catholic saints and blesseds often seems to me to be inexhaustible.  I don’t know how many there are, I expect someone in the Vatican keeps a record.  Today’s feast is of the Italian Blessed Elisabeth Canori Mora (1774-1825), married to a most unpleasant man; they lost two of their four children in infancy.  Like our St Teresa, she enjoyed many mystical experiences and she made notes about them.  She caught my attention especially because she was a member of a lay Secular Order – in her case not of the Carmelites but of the Trinitarians (hitherto an Order unknown to me).  After making her miserable for many years, her husband repented when she was on her deathbed and then became a Trinitarian himself, and later a priest.  I think such conversions are wonderful and so inspiring, if you know someone who is making people around him or her miserable.  While there is life, there is always hope of change by the grace of the Holy Spirit.

Intercessions:

Marie, Bernard (and wife Angela), Agnes – cancer

Siena, Elara – sick children

Rosemarie – very seriously ill

Wojtek – massive heart attack leaving him incapacitated

RIP Anthony Kirke, husband of Judith Kirke OCDS (distributors of the Carmelite Diary)

RIP Roswitha Watson OCDS (former President of St Therese Community, Oxford)