Morning Briefings

Regarding St. Patrick: Catholic saints are holy people and human people who lived extraordinary lives. Each saint the church honors responded to God’s invitation to use his or her unique gifts. God calls each one of us to be a saint.

–
AmericanCatholic.org

Farewell to a titan: Carl Karcher, who parlayed a modest hot dog stand into a multimillion-dollar fast-food enterprise, died Friday. He was 90. ‘I interviewed Carl regularly in the mid-1980s. Everyone who met him received two things: a coupon for a free Carl’s Jr. hamburger and a copy of the prayer of St. Francis of Assisi,’ according to

– The Orange County Register’s
Jan Norman

I used to envision God as the Great Problem Solver, the one who would fix everything if I just prayed hard enough, used the correct prayers, and prayed in precisely the right way. But when God couldn’t fix things (which seemed more frequent than I would have liked), I would turn to St. Jude. I figured that if it was beyond the capacity of God to do something, then surely it must be a lost cause, and it was time to call on St. Jude.

– James Martin
My Life with the Saints

Jesus repeats Martha’s name with deep affection as he chides her. She will have remembered the message; stop fussing. Because she learned the lesson, it is Martha, not Mary, who has a place in the calendar of saints (on July 29). It is sometimes the things we are told in public reproof that touch us deepest and bring us close to God.

–
Sacred Space