saints + virtue Archives - Equipping Catholic Families

Lent: Saints & Virtue: HOLY WEEK

April 4, 2020 by Monica McConkey Leave a Comment

April 5-11

Quick Bio: St. Rita knew from an early age that she wanted to be a nun, but out of obedience to her parents, she accepted an arranged marriage at the age of 12.

St. Rita’s husband was unfaithful, abusive and domineering. During their 18 years of marriage, St. Rita prayed fervently for her husband and he experienced a conversion. Due to the rivalry between some aristocratic families, St. Rita’s husband was murdered, his mutilated body dumped on the family’s doorstep. Their enraged teenaged sons vowed a vendetta.

Filed Under: Catholic Resources, Holy Week, Lent, prayer, Reflection, Saints Tagged With: Lent, prayer, reflection, Saints, saints + virtue

Lent: Saints & Virtue: Week SIX

March 28, 2020 by Monica McConkey Leave a Comment

Week Six: March 29-April 4

Quick Bio: St.Gianna was born in 1922. She grew up in Italy and was a pediatrician. Chronic illness prevented her from joining her brother on missionary work in Brazil. She had hoped to work in gynecology, treating poor women. She married Pietro in 1955 and they had their first three children between 1956-1959. Near the end of her pregnancy with her fourth child, she developed a fibroma in her uterus. Doctors recommended abortion, but St. Gianna insisted that they remove only the tumor even though there was great risk to her own life. A week after the baby was born, St. Gianna died from complications in childbirth resulting in infection.

Filed Under: Catholic Resources, Lent, prayer, Saints Tagged With: Lent, Saints, saints + virtue

Lent: Saints & Virtue: Week FIVE

March 21, 2020 by Monica McConkey Leave a Comment

March 22-28

Quick Bio: St. Teresa was born in 1910. She received first calling in 1928, and second calling in 1946 (a call within a call). She founded the order of The Missionaries of Charity in 1948. She received the message from God “I thirst”. St. Teresa spent her life serving the dying and the poor, taking to heart “whatsoever you did to the least of my brothers you did to me” Mt 25:25-40.

Filed Under: Catholic Resources, Lent, prayer, Reflection, Saints Tagged With: Lent, prayer, Saints, saints + virtue

Lent: Saints & Virtue: Week FOUR

March 14, 2020 by Monica McConkey Leave a Comment

March 15-21

Quick Bio: St. Faustina was born in 1905 in a small rural village in Poland. She first heard the voice of Jesus in her heart when she was only seven years old. She entered the convent of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy at the age of 20. She was known for her holiness and for performing the daily chores at the convent with cheerfulness. She received mystical revelations, visions, locutions and prophecies, all focused on the Mercy of Jesus. She recorded her spiritual experiences in her Diary and it has become a spiritual classic. She suffered from tuberculosis and offered all of her prayers, works and sufferings in union with the Suffering of Jesus, for the mercy of sinners. She died at the age of 33.

Filed Under: Catholic Resources, Lent, prayer, Saints Tagged With: Lent, prayer, Saints, saints + virtue

Lent: Saints & Virtue: Week THREE

March 7, 2020 by Monica McConkey Leave a Comment

Week TWO: March 8-14

Quick Bio: St.Thérèse was born in 1873 and “from the age of three, …began to refuse nothing of what God asked of [her]”. Her mother passed away when St. Therese was only four years old. St.Thérèse entered the convent at the age of fifteen (requesting permission from the Pope). Four of her sisters also became nuns. St.Thérèse died at the age of twenty four.