In Their Own Words

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Last week I had a chance to talk to Father Thomas Czeck, OFM Conv. after his final presentation of the three-day parish mission at Saint Mary Catholic Church in West Haven. He had focused his talks on the Eucharist, and among the materials he provided was a prayer by Saint Francis of Assisi. I hadn’t come across that prayer before, and it resonated with me, so I thanked Fr. Thomas for including it. He told me that whenever he talks about saints he tries to find something they had written so the audience can get a sense of the person’s thought processes.

I appreciate this approach, not least because my introduction to saints was through hagiographies, which sugar-coated the lives of these men and women to the point that I had no interest in trying to emulate them because even as a child I knew I couldn’t live up to that ideal. Back then I wanted to be like St. Francis because he tamed a wolf and birds would alight on his shoulders; I knew nothing of the man who said without false modesty, “I have been all things unholy. If God can work through me, he can work through anyone.”

My ignorance of the real lives of saints continued up until about 10 years ago, when I started reading more comprehensive biographies of them, starting with St. Augustine’s autobiography, Confessions, which gives a good sense of the saint’s very human struggles. One of the quotes that particularly appealed to me is this, so similar to my own prayer: “The house of my soul is narrow; enlarge it, that you may enter in. It is in ruins! Repair it!”

Since then, I’ve been on the lookout for quotes from saints that reveal their human side. One that I particularly appreciate is, surprisingly enough, from Thomas Aquinas.

Now, anyone who has studied Catholic theology has been confronted with Aquinas’ Summa Theologica, a massive work in which he dissects questions of faith, first describing all the objections to them, then answering those objections with such precision that each word has its meaning parsed in every possible way.

That kind of formidable intellect made me shun Aquinas, but that opinion changed when I stumbled across these words of his: “Sorrow can be lessened by good sleep, a bath and a glass of wine.”

It’s not just that single quote that made me feel more friendly toward the Angelic Doctor; he also wrote some catechetical instructions on the Lord’s Prayer that are simple enough for most adults to follow, and his Lenten meditations are accessible to the average Catholic as well.

The saint whose works I’ve read the most is Teresa of Avila; her books have helped tremendously to deepen my prayer life. One of the things I appreciate about her is that she writes in a conversational way, like this: “From silly devotions and sour-faced saints, good Lord, deliver us.”

Although Teresa has many wonderful things to say about prayer and developing a relationship with God, my favorite quote from her is, unfortunately, something she probably never said but rather is taken from a hagiographical account. The story varies, but the most popular is that she fell in the mud, looked up to heaven, and said, “If this is how you treat your friends, no wonder you have so few of them!”

Why do I like this quote? Because it shows Teresa’s humanity as well as her faith. From her other works it’s obvious that she knew God, loved him, but also understood she could never approach the Almighty except with humility. Despite this holy fear, she nevertheless saw him as a friend to whom she could express her exasperation.

“What a great favor God does to those he puts in the company of good people,” Teresa said, and now that I know the saints were people like me and not paragons, I seek out their company through their own words in hopes that I can learn how to imitate their virtue, without being intimidated by it.

Marie Mischel is editor of the Intermountain Catholic. Reach her at marie@icatholic.org.