Sunday, January 16, 2011

Saints who eat bon-bons?

I would guess that most of you who read my blog at least know who Mother Angelica is, the sister who started ETWN.

She is hilarious.

In my extra time that I have found at home without internet, I have been reading snippets in the book "Mother Angelica's Little Book of Life Lessons and Everyday Spirituality." It is delightful.

She has some amazing insights that have really spoken to me, about suffering, the cross, and the holiness of everyday life. She speaks with her characteristic dry wit throughout, and some of her entries are more humorous in theme. I wanted to share this one in particular with you, because it literally made me laugh out loud. My favorite part is the very beginning. If you have seen Mother Angelica, you can just hear her saying this.


flickr/by carabou


"I like to sit in bed, eating bon-bons, and reading the mortified lives of the saints. When I was a young novice, I used to flip through those biographies looking for someone like me.

I need nine hours of sleep a day. The medication I take requires me to eat seven times a day. I like air conditioning and comfortable chairs. I went through all of the lives of the saints and I couldn't find one like me.

But then I came to the conclusion that the saints weren't the problem, it was their biographers. I've often said that I wish every biographer of every saint, who did not depict the truth, would go to purgatory for forty years, because they have made the saints unreal. You'd swear these people were holy when they were conceived, after reading one of these accounts. But it's not true. The saints would be the first to tell you: they struggled like you do. They ate, and drank, and slept, and were frustrated, and victims of injustice. They were like you! Can you imagine emptying heaven now and putting all the saints in a big arena? They would look just like you do now: fat and skinny, young and old. They had their faults and eccentricities. They bugged people. It takes a saint to live with one. Every Christian is supposed to bug someone. That's what the saints did."

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