On Gratitude for God's Grace (IV)

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On Gratitude for God's Grace (IV)

Set yourself always in the lowest place, (Luke 14:10) and you shall be
awarded the highest; for the highest cannot stand without the lowest.
The Saints stand highest in God's eyes who are lowest in their own;
and the more glorious they are, the more humble is their spirit.
Filled with truth and heavenly glory, they have no desire for
vainglory. Grounded and established in God, they cannot be proud. They
ascribe all goodness to God; they seek no glory from one another, but
the glory, which comes from God alone (John 5:44). They desire above
all things, and strive always, that God be praised in themselves and
in all His Saints.
--Thomas à Kempis --Imitation of Christ Bk 2 Ch 10

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March 12th – St. Serafina
(13th Century)

San Gimignano in Tuscany is one of the best preserved cities of
medieval Italy. It is so ancient in its atmosphere that move director
Franco Zeffirelli chose it as the locale for his movie “Romeo and
Juliet.” A particular feature is the little city’s “skyscrapers.” Each
of the wealthy families tried to outdo the other by building a higher
tower. The towers still bear witness to the vanity and worldliness of
its citizens in the Middle Ages.

At the same time, San Gimignano boasts of a local patron saint who was
the epitome of humility and unworldliness. St. Serafina, better known
as St. Fina, was a victim of heavy sickness and poverty, but bore it
with heroic fortitude for the love of God. (A good reminder that one
of the best ways to observe Lent is to offer up to God our daily
trials and sufferings!)

Fina’s family had been prosperous, but had seen their prosperity go
with the wind. A pretty girl was Serafina, but more important, a
devout one. Though her food was skimpy, she always shared it with
those more destitute than herself. Uninterested in the ways of the
world, she mostly stayed at home, working and praying.

While Fina was still young, her father died. Around the same time, she
herself was stricken simultaneously by a number of diseases, which
deprived her of her good looks and paralyzed her body. For six years
she lay on a plank in one position, utterly dependent on others to
turn or move her. Her mother had to go out to work each day, so the
daughter was alone and helpless for hours on end. But Fina accepted
this trial with great patience. She looked upon the plank as her
cross, and kept repeating to Christ, “It is not my wounds but Yours, O
Christ, that hurt me.”

When her mother died suddenly, the poor young invalid was even more
disabled. Only one devoted friend named Beldia tried to assist her.
Some others would have volunteered but could not stand the odor of the
sores that covered her body.

Somebody told Fina one day about Pope St. Gregory the Great. This
wonderful 6th century churchman, despite his great activity as pope,
had constantly suffered a host of physical ailments. Fina turned to
him in prayer, asking that he who was so patient in pain would
intercede with God to give her, too, the gift of patience.

Eight days before her death, when she lay alone and in deep suffering,
St. Gregory himself appeared to her. He brought welcome news. “Dear
child,” he said, “on my festival God will give you rest.” The prophecy
came true. Fina died on the feast of Pope St. Gregory, March 12, 1253.
The neighbors declared that, when her body was removed from the rotted
plank on which she had lain for so long, the plank was found to be
covered with white violets!

All San Gimignano, the boastful plutocrats as well as the grimiest
paupers, turned out for her funeral. In life they may have avoided her
like the plague, but they all recognized her as a model of
steadfastness and a true saint. Many miracles attended her passing. It
was even said that the dead woman’s arm stretched out and touched and
healed the injured arm of her devoted friend Beldia. Ever since, the
people of San Gimignano have called the local white violets, which
blossom around her feast day, “Saint Fina’s flowers.” Eventually, the
great painter Ghirlandajo decorated her shrine chapel in the cathedral
with lovely paintings of the city’s patient little saint.

Today there are many sick people whose afflictions reduce them to
immobility and who suffer, as did St. Serafina, both pain and
loneliness. May God grant these sufferers, too, the gift of
penitential patience. And may he give us the Lenten charity to serve
their needs.
–Father Robert F. McNamara


:Saint Quote:
"Light and recollection come to the mind by way of reading the
Scriptures. The words are those of the Holy Spirit, and they provide
guidance to the readers. Let your reading be a preliminary to action,
since you are a doer (cf. James 1:22)."
--St. John Climacus.

Bible Quote:
14 The wise store up knowledge,
but the mouth of a fool is imminent ruin. ( Proverbs 10:14)


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Supplication to Our Lady
to obtain the Favour of her Patronage till Death.


The more exalted she is, the greater her clemency
and sweetness towards penitent sinners."--St. Gregory.

Sweet Mother! turn those gentle eyes
Of pity down on me;
Oh! hear thy suppliant's tearful cries,
My humble prayer do not despise,
Star of the pathless sea!

In dark temptation's dreary hour,
To thee, bright Queen, we flee;
Oh! then exert a mother's power,
When storms are rough and tempests lower;
Star of the raging sea!

Through all my joys and cares, sweet Maid,
May I still look on thee,
Who bore the Price our ransom paid,
And ne'er the suppliant's cry hath stayed;
Star of the azure sea!

And when my last expiring sigh,
My soul from earth shall free,
Do thou, bright Queen of Saints, stand by,
And bear it up to God on high,
Star of the boundless sea!