Thirty Days with Married Saints E-Book

Caitlin Lasnoski

• Herausgeber: anna ruggieri
• Kategorie: Religion und Spiritualität
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2021

Beschreibung

30 Days with the Married Saints will help you to pray with a variety of holy married men and women of the Church—from well-known couples like Mary and Joseph to lesser-known couples like Luigi and Maria Beltrame Quattrocchi (the first couple to be beatified together). Each day contains vivid portraits of heroically virtuous married saints as well as prayers, moving reflections, questions, and practical suggestions to enrich your marriage and inspire you and your spouse on your journey of sanctity.

Leseprobe

Praise for 30 Days with Married Saints

“One of the keys to a good Catholic marriage is praying together as a couple, and in their new book, Thirty Days with Married Saints, Kent and Caitlin Lasnoski have given us an incredible way to do just that. Filled with holy and devout married men and women, beautiful prayers, and intriguing discussion questions, this book is sure to bring joy and hope to married couples striving to grow closer to each other and to God.”

— Karen and Tommy Tighe, authors of Catholic Funny Fill-ins

“What a timely gift this book is! In it we are presented with heroes of the faith to learn from and to reflect upon. We hope it will strengthen many couples in their marriages and in their faith. Thank you Lasnoskis!”

— Kari Colella, Executive Director, Annunciation Ministries; and Stephen Colella, Cabinet Secretary of Parish Life, Archdiocese of Miami

“Married saints? Yes—it’s possible! Thirty Days with Married Saints is an invitation from Kent and Caitlin Lasnoski to you and your spouse to be encouraged and inspired, together. In our ordinary lives, God can do extraordinary work in us and through us. Let’s follow their lead! Highly recommended.”

— Kimberly Hahn, author, Chosen and Cherished: Biblical Wisdom for Your Marriage

“Kent and Caitlin’s book probes deep into the daily choices of married saints to reveal more of the lessons they have to teach us. Even with saints who are very familiar, Kent and Caitlin highlight new aspects, applicable to our daily lives. The Lasnoskis recount not only the dramatic acts that made these saints famous, but also the hidden heroism of daily life. As a couple, we always find that reflecting on a devotional work together enriches our relationship. These meditations on married saints’ lives offer couples a practical way to enrich their spiritual bond.”

— Drs. John Mortensen, President, Aquinas Institute; and Beth Mortensen, Professor of Theology, Aquinas Institute

THIRTY DAYS WITH MARRIED SAINTS

A CATHOLIC COUPLES’ DEVOTIONAL

BY KENT AND CAITLIN LASNOSKI

FOREWORD BY JACKIE FRANCOIS ANGEL AND BOBBY ANGEL

Library of Congress Control Number: 2019954621

CIP data is available.

ISBN 10:0-8198-7556-2

ISBN 13: 978-0-8198-7556-3

Scripture texts in this work are taken from the New American Bible, Revised Edition © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Washington, D.C., and are used by permission of the copyright owner.

All excerpts from the English translation of the Catechism of the Catholic Church for use in the United States of America, copyright © 1994, United States Catholic Conference, Inc. — Libreria Editrice Vaticana. Used with permission.

Excerpts from papal and magisterium texts copyright © Libreria Editrice Vaticana. All rights reserved. Used with permission.

Franz Jägerstätter, Letters and Writings from Prison, ed. Erna Putz, trans. Robert A Krieg (Maryknoll, New York: Orbis Books, 2009). Reprinted with permission.

Cover design by Ryan McQuade

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

“P” and PAULINE are registered trademarks of the Daughters of St. Paul.

Copyright © 2021, Kent and Caitlin Lasnoski

Published by Pauline Books & Media, 50 Saint Pauls Avenue, Boston, MA 02130-3491

Printed in the U.S.A.

www.pauline.org

Pauline Books & Media is the publishing house of the Daughters of St. Paul, an international congregation of women religious serving the Church with the communications media.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9              26 25 24 23 22 21

This book is dedicated to the holy married saints whose lives shine light on our own marital path; to our parents and grandparents whose witness of faithful love inspires us; to all married couples fervently seeking after the Lord as they journey together toward heaven; and to our children, for whom we pray and hope to make visible the love of Christ for his bride the Church.

Contents

Foreword

Introduction

About the Authors

All the Married Saints

Day 1: Married Saints: A Brief History

The Holy Family

Day 2: Joseph, a Just Man Who Listened to God

Day 3: Mary, Mother of Grace

Day 4: Extraordinary Family, Ordinary Problems

Blessed Luigi and Maria Corsini Beltrame Quattrocchi

Day 5: The Beginning of a Journey

Day 6: Taking up the Cross

Day 7: Together with Christ

Saint Isidore and Blessed Maria de la Cabeza

Day 8: Faithful Workers of God

Day 9: Spousal Trust

Saint Gianna Beretta Molla

Day 10: Surprising Sanctity

Day 11: Living the Works of Mercy

Day 12: Abandonment to God’s Will

Blessed Franz Jägerstätter

Day 13: A Man of Conversion

Day 14: Principle in the Face of Peril

Day 15: Faithful Love in Letters

Saints Henry II and Cunegund: Royal Married Saints

Day 16: Christ Enthroned

Blessed Gisela and Saint Stephen of Hungary

Day 17: Evangelism by Example

Saint Elizabeth of Portugal

Day 18: A Royal Peacemaker

Blessed Frédéric Ozanam

Day 19: Faith in Action

Day 20: Voice of a Prophet

Day 21: Marriage for the Other

Saint Monica

Day 22: A Steadfast Support

Day 23: Praying for Loved Ones

Day 24: The Beauty of Truth

Saints Basil the Elder and Emmelia

Day 25: Forming a Holy Family

Day 26: The Power of Friendship in Christ

Saints Louis and Zélie Martin

Day 27: An Unchosen Adventure

Day 28: Holy Examples

Day 29: Long-Suffering Trust

Conclusion

Day 30: Make Love Your Aim

Notes

Foreword

God cares about your love story.

Marriage is a great adventure and a noble responsibility for those of us called by God to live this vocation. Natural marriage is the union between a man and a woman who give their lives to each other until death do them part. For the Christian, however, marriage also has a supernatural dimension. Christian married love is a sacrament, a visible sign of God’s love for his beloved, the Church, the people of God. Within your marriage, therefore, God is calling you to mirror his love on earth and to encourage one another to holiness to the point where you are both transformed and actually become saints.

Unfortunately, we don’t often hear about the married saints. Many of us think that only priests, nuns, and monks are saints, or we are rightly intimidated by the saintly life of the Holy Family: Mary, Joseph, and the God-man—Jesus himself. How could we possibly live up to that? Take heart. Drawing upon the humanly lived experiences of many of the married saints, including Mary and Joseph, this book will help you to see how your marriage can lead you to heaven.

The Second Vatican Council emphasized that everyone in the Church shares a universal call to holiness, which means that all of us are called to sanctity. What that looks like will vary radically depending on our personality, temperament, culture, and state in life. Some are called to teach, others to preach, and still others to serve. Through your marriage, you and your spouse can help bring healing to the world by the manner in which you love one another, encourage each other to holiness, and radiate that love to the world.

In the pages ahead, Cait and Kent Lasnoski pour out their love for the Lord and remind us of the beautiful dignity of the married vocation. In this book, you’ll find great inspiration in the lives of the saintly men and women who have gone before us. These married saints, some of whom lived centuries ago and others much more recently, gave themselves to the Lord and bore much fruit for his kingdom. Their examples can convince you of the real possibility of glorifying God through the ups and downs of your married life. What’s more, this book can help you to establish a regular prayer routine with your spouse and to start putting the lessons of the saints into action.

Through every victory and season of struggle in your marriage, know that these women and men are interceding for you.

This book will bless you. Pass it on to others.

Live your marital love boldly!

JACKIE AND BOBBY ANGEL

Introduction

Take a moment to imagine you and your spouse in the not-too-distant future. You both have a bird’s-eye view of a crowd of people, all of whom are edging forward to catch a glimpse of something. The sun shines brightly and the air is hot and heavy, but you are surrounded by a coolness. Below, tens of thousands of people cram together, but you don’t feel constrained. You have been standing for hours without fatigue. In front of you towers a many-pillared basilica with a marble dome. Embracing the people as if they were the arms of God, two covered walkways curve around the square.

From a window in a building high above the crowd, a man dressed in white emerges. As he raises his arms, a hush falls over the crowded square. The man makes the Sign of the Cross and then begins to speak: “When the Son of man comes, will he find faith on earth?” (Lk 18:8). He pauses for a moment and then continues:

Dear brothers and sisters! Dear families! Today we have gathered for the beatification of a married couple . . . With this solemn ecclesial act, we intend to highlight an example of a positive reply to Christ’s question. [This couple lived in] a century in which faith in Christ was harshly tried, and [yet] gave a positive reply. Even in those difficult years, this [couple], kept the lamp of the faith burning—a lumen Christi—and passed it on [to their children]. . . . This couple lived married love and service to life in the light of the Gospel and with great human intensity. Drawing on the word of God and the witness of the saints, the blessed couple lived an ordinary life in an extraordinary way. Among the joys and anxieties of a normal family, they knew how to live an extraordinarily rich spiritual life.1

As you may have already guessed, you are imagining the beatification ceremony for you and your spouse. The words above were taken from a homily Pope John Paul II gave at the beatification Mass for the first couple ever beatified together, Luigi and Maria Beltrame Quattrocchi. One day, God willing, such a homily might be given for you! You may think this possibility highly unrealistic and perhaps it’s true that you and your spouse may never be officially canonized. But that does not mean that you cannot become saints.

In the early Church, the word “saints” referred to all Christians whether living or asleep in Christ. As Christians, we are chosen, set apart by God the Father in the Spirit as members of Christ’s own Body. The indwelling of the Holy Spirit in us through Baptism makes us sharers in God’s own life. Baptism sets us apart as God himself is holy and set apart. The Christian is in this world but not of this world—and in this sense, every Christian is a saint! Over time, the Church began using the term “saint” to refer to people who were officially recognized for holiness and known to be enjoying perfect union with God in heaven—the heroes, pioneers, or exemplars of the faith. Often in these early years people were declared saints by popular acclaim. They were martyrs, miracle workers, cathedral builders, founders of religious orders, defenders of important doctrines, or mystics who experienced visions, revelations, or deep union with God. As time went on, the Church prudently centralized the process of canonizing saints and extended the possibility to a greater diversity of expressions of holiness.

Canonization is more accessible to the ordinary person today. Men and women are now generally canonized when they have lived a holy life of heroic virtue and miracles are confirmed through their intercession after their death. A modern canonized saint does not necessarily have to perform miracles while alive, write the next Summa Theologiae, or found a monastic order. Instead, canonized saints heroically live ordinary lives as they strive to follow God’s will. Of course, unless you and your spouse end up having a large impact on your local and universal church, official canonization is probably unlikely. Nevertheless, your marriage can be radically holy. A holy marriage simply involves cooperation with God’s grace in life’s everyday moments. Put this way, you and your spouse really can pursue great holiness in your marriage. And who knows, one day there really could be a beatification ceremony for both of you. With God’s grace, anything is possible!

We hope that the vivid portraits of heroically virtuous spouses in this devotional’s thirty days of reflections will inspire you and your spouse in this journey of sanctity. As you will discover, these married couples did not live picture-perfect lives. They all faced the weariness and trying times that come with every marriage. Many bravely bore the crosses of infertility, deaths of children, disease, false accusations, imprisonments, or unfaithful spouses. What characterizes them most is not merely their long-suffering in the face of evil but their joy in the good, true, and beautiful. The married saints passionately loved their spouses, delighted in their children, opened their homes to strangers, gave generously to others, and lived an intense piety. They also managed to find joy amid their day’s equivalents of dirty diapers, dishes, laundry, cubicles, traffic, and office meetings. They were the salt and light of the world and the presence of the risen Christ to those who met them (see Mt 5:13–16). Now from heaven these married saints continually intercede for the faithful’s intentions, including for your marriage. Through their example and prayers, may the married saints lead us to Christ!

About the Authors

Before setting sail, you deserve to know the couple that steers the ship. We are Cait and Kent, and we have been married fourteen years. We are blessed to be raising and educating eight children. Kent is the author of Vocation to Virtue: Christian Marriage as a Consecrated Life and has written several articles on the theology of marriage and holiness. For the last twelve years, we have designed and run marriage preparation and enrichment programs. We readily admit, however, that academic learning and professional experience does not necessarily lead to a good marriage or holy children. Though we understand our marriage to be like a bank that God uses to guide the stream of our lives toward union with him, we do not presume that our banks are strong enough to guide you to heaven. For this reason, we thought it would be safer (and, frankly, more exciting) to leave such a high aim to the proven example of the married saints. We hope the beautiful brushstrokes of the married saints’ lives will inspire you and your spouse to entrust the palette and canvas of your marriage evermore to God. May your marriage, with the help of God’s grace, become the beautiful masterpiece that he has in mind for you and your spouse.

Let’s imitate the married saints.

Let’s be heroic in virtue.

Let’s be saints!

All the Married Saints

DAY 1

Married Saints: A Brief History

Opening Prayer

A Litany of Married Saints

Lord, have mercy. Lord, have mercy.

Christ, have mercy. Christ, have mercy.

Lord, have mercy. Lord, have mercy.

Holy Mary, spouse of Saint Joseph,

pray for us.

Saint Joseph, husband of Mary,

pray for us.

Holy Mary, Mother of God,

pray for us.

Holy Family of Bethlehem,

pray for us.

Holy Innocents,

pray for us.

Holy Family of Egypt,

pray for us.

Holy Family of Nazareth,

pray for us.

Sorrowful Mother, in our pain,

pray for us.

Saints Elizabeth and Zecharia, models of fidelity,

pray for us.

Saints Anna and Joachim, grandparents of Jesus,

pray for us.

Blessed Luigi and Maria Beltrame Quattrocchi, example of Christian marriage,

pray for us.

Saints Isidore and Maria, protectors of farmingfamilies,

pray for us.

Saint Gianna Beretta Molla, patroness of mothers and the unborn,

pray for us.

Saint Margaret of Scotland, patroness of large families,

pray for us.

Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton, model of hope,

pray for us.

Saint Elizabeth of Hungary, patroness of those who suffer the loss of a child,

pray for us.

Saint Monica, who rejoiced in answered prayers,

pray for us.

Saints Louis and Zélie Martin, exemplars of holy parents,

pray for us.

All you holy married saints,

pray for us.

All you defenders of the family,

pray for us.