On Pointe

Our neighborhood is 'beginning to look a lot like Christmas'. Sister St. Aloysius is studying Christmas cookie recipes. She has been invited to one of those 'cookie swaps'. She'd be interested in hearing from our readers if they have any interesting recipes as long as they don't involve candy thermometers, double boilers or pressure cookers. She believes baking should be fun. I would think a science project in the kitchen would be fun for her, but that is not the case.

Meanwhile our readers are keeping us on our patron saint matching toes.

Dear Sister Mary Martha;

My Family & I are in the process of moving. It is a huge chore and very stressful. Although I have seen many blessings during this transition, I have seen many evils as well. My husband has had power tools stolen right off our back porch and these are things he needs for work. We are in sort of a desperate situation, as our move is not by choice, but due to the economy and loosing our home. I would like to know if there is a saint we can use for protection of our property & family? I would have e-mailed this to you but did not find a link on your sight.
BTW- I love you blog and look forward to each update on my Kindle. It's nice to know that someone is following our little convent on Kindle! That's rather a nice Christmas present just thinking about that!

We are sorry for your troubles. I would recommend St. Joseph, first and foremost, to insure a roof over your head. He literally does that. Did you ever hear the story of Blessed Brother Andre of Montreal? He was just a little receptionist at the rectory. He spent his days mooning over the land across the street. He dreamed of building a church there. The land was not for sale, but Blessed Brother Andre kept praying for the intercession of St. Joseph and one day, lo and behold, the land fell into his hands.


A giant oratory was built. I do mean giant. If you visit there you come around a corner and suddenly, there it is. You actually feel as though you've arrived at the top of Jack's beanstalk and any minute you'll have to go running out of there with a magic chicken and a talking harp.

The whole giant shebang was built but there was not enough money to put the roof on. Quite a dilemma this far into this gigantic project. Blessed Brother Andre was nonplussed. He told them to just put the statue of St. Joseph out there with no roof and he would get one, pronto, as he would not want to stand around in the wind and rain. And guess what happened?

So at least, you'll have a roof over your head.

As to the thieves, that is a job for St. Dismas. We call him St. Dismas. He actually doesn't have a name. Well...he had a name. We just don't have any idea what it actually was.

St. Dismas was whom a playwright would call "Thief No. 2", there on Calvary. Thief No. 1 asked Jesus why He didn't save them all if He was God and all. Thief No. 2 told Thief No. 1 to zip it in the presence of the Lord. Jesus told Thief No. 2 that he would be in heaven later that day.

So we know Thief No. 2 is a saint because he is in heaven. Everyone in heaven is a saint. I'm not sure who along the way named him St. Dismas.

You know, the Wise Men never had names either. They got name because of Passion Plays.

Passion Plays were the only entertainment going for quite some time and were giant daylong extravaganzas. The New Testament only says "Wise men from the East". It doesn't even say there are three.

Here is what I think happened and it's all about directing a play on stage, something I have done many times with second graders. At first the Passion plays had a whole boat load of guys on camels portraying the Wise Men from the East. That had to have been a giant mess, what with all those live camels. So they cut some Wise Men. Five is a crowd on stage, but given that they were on camels, three is plenty.

So now we have three actors playing three wise men, no doubt asking "What's my motivation? Where am I from? Are the three of us friends?" and on and on. Some harried director probably just threw his hands in the air and said, "Fine. You're Balthazar, you're Melchior, and you're Caspar. Happy now?"

What was I talking about? Oh, yes! St. Dismas. As difficult as all this is for you, St. Dismas is the perfect example of how you must proceed. Take into account that Jesus was also have a very difficult time when He met up with St. Dismas. Jesus forgave St. Dismas, the thief.

And please, don't leave anything out on the porch anymore.

New question. I have two older brothers. My father passed away and left my husband and I his home. My oldest brother is suing me for 1/3 the value of the house. Is there a saint for lawsuits?

Again, I think you should have a word with St. Joseph. The official patron saint against unfair lawsuits is none other than Jolly Old St. Nick. How's that for irony?


Another saint you might consider is St. Helena, the mother of St. Constantine. Her life was pretty unpleasant until someone (her ex-husband) died. Then things got a lot better for her.

Perhaps you could also have a word with St. Andrew. He got along very well with his brother, St. Peter. I think following the Lord was actually his idea in the first place. Maybe he could help out with this case of sibling rivalry.