First Saturday Parish Rosary at St. Anthony of Padua Church, 3/4/2017

Our Lady, pray for us!

Today I introduced our First Saturday Rosary prayer participants to St. Colette of Corbie. Although my ministry has had custody of a 1st Class Relic of this holy woman for a while, I've never fully appreciated her life until I started to do in-depth research on her for the Saint of the Month blog I posted on March 1st. She's amazing.. and not just for the incredible miracles she worked in her lifetime, but also for her accomplishments in reforming the Poor Clares and her efforts in healing the Church of her time, which was fragmented into three factions, at one point, due to the great Western Schism. St. Colette personally inspires me so I'm definitely a big fan.

With the above being said, I couldn't wait to introduce the people gathered in our Day Chapel to St. Colette and to present to them her relic for public veneration. I wanted them to be inspired by the Saint's example to move forward with whatever personal missions God has been calling them to do in their own lives, whether it be something as simple as cleaning the church once a week or becoming a catechism teacher... or something more challenging such as opening a soup kitchen or starting up a new ministry in our church.

St. Colette of Corbie,
pray for us!

St. Colette, for a while, was held back from fulfilling her own awesome mission from the Lord because she thought herself unworthy and was probably a bit fearful (a positive sign of her humility). But, at the same time, the Lord obviously saw in her a tremendous potential that she didn't recognize, herself. But once the Saint finally gave her assent to God, that was all He needed to accomplish great things through her. The same applies to all of us. If we're being called to fulfill a work for Him, we just need to trust that God isn't making a mistake by choosing us (he never makes mistakes!); say "OK, Lord - I'll do it."; pray (a lot); then move forward. God will open the doors and provide us with all that we need to see the job through.

I saw a few smiles and head-nodding going on among the audience members when I shared my personal takeaways from St. Colette's life so I'm hopeful the message I shared got some wheels turning in some of the peoples' heads. Who knows? Perhaps it means we'll see new "St. Colettes" running around in Hawaii doing lots of good things for our parish church and for the world in general.

Our next First Saturday Rosary for Peace will be offered on Saturday, April 1st (not a joke). The prayer meeting begins at 4:25 in the Day Chapel of St. Anthony of Padua Church, Kailua. Come and be inspired by Our Lady and the Saints!