This is a Special Day!

Two-hundred-fifty years ago today, a very obscure young man who has had an incredible impact on the world, died in Italy. That young man was Saint Gerard Majella. Gerard came from a very poor family - his father had died while Gerard was quite young. Gerard was himself rather sickly all his life. He was relatively uneducated, and no one thought he would amount to much. Only through persistence was he eventually allowed to enter a religious order - the Redemptorists. Like so many others, they also thought he was particularly useless. Yet he had a spiritual impact on hundreds of people in his time, and thousands since then.

Of particular note is that he is the patron saint of pregnant women. Couples all over the world pray to him when they want to conceive and for the safe delivery of their babies once they have become pregnant.

He was only 29 years old when he died of tuberculosis and emphysema. Like St. Therese of Lisieux, whom I wrote about a few days ago, St. Gerard's spirituality is very appealing because it is so simple. Here is an excerpt from a small tract titled, An Hour With Saint Gerard Majella, by an author named David Werthmann:

"Saint Gerard's spiritual life did not follow any specific program of development toward a life of perfection as commonly prescribed by spiritual directors. Gerard simply tried always to do what seemed to him to be most perfect. Gerard made his own path and followed it toward God, who was constantly drawing him closer."

You see, I think it's true that God "constantly draws us closer" no matter what path we follow. If it's true that God's love for us is unconditional, then it must also be true that God loves us and desires us no matter who we are or what we do in life. For me that's why these simple styles of spirituality are so attractive. Loving God is not and does not have to be a difficult thing to do.

Over and over I have reflected on what spirituality and holiness mean in our life. The famous 20th-century Trappist monk, Thomas Merton said that the greatest form of holiness is simply to be "very ordinary." I'm convinced that people like St. Gerard Majella would tell us that if he could do it (as frail as he was), then any of us can because growing in virtue does not require great courage. It only requires being who you are. That's who God created you to be, and that's what God wants of you.