Scandal about Scandal

We've heard back from our previous poster, ripe for further discussion. Unfortunately, the message cut off before it was finished, so I hope we hear from her even further. Here's what we have so far:

Hi sister, I am the one that wrote the question. I suppose I didn't go into details as I was afraid of being a tattle-tale. And much of what you said is eerily on my mind as we transition through this time. I also want to stress that perhaps conservative was not the right word. Just a way of saying a priest who upholds and defends the faith, even if it goes against popular thought. I meant conservative in the sense of being willing to uphold the faith, even in times of trial. Willing to say those unpopular things, because that is what people need to hear, but love all sinners anyway. The priest I mentioned, other than running off a beloved associate pastor and offending some other congregation members with gossip, addressed the sex scandal facing the church that one Sunday. He stood on the pulpit and said he could not teach us the Catholic faith, specifically saying, "I cannot teach the Eucharist." He then proceeded to apologize. "We are sorry for abusing you."

There was more to the message, but it got cut off somehow.

Yes, conservative doesn't seem like the right word to me, either. Upholding the faith is not very conservative, as our faith is not very conservative. I'm not sure why we would call someone who upholds the faith conservative. I worry what the word you might have for those who don't defend the faith might be.

That said, I think what the priest said from the pulpit merits some thinking.  What he said, at least the way you've related it, doesn't make sense to me. I can't think what he was trying to say.

I have a guess though.  Perhaps what he was attempting to say, in what seems to be a very clumsy way, was that he, as part of the clergy, felt culpable for the actions of his brothers, and was apologizing on their behalf.

The sex scandal in the Catholic Church is a massively complex issue for the members of the clergy and I believe it is precisely why it went on the way it did. Part of the awful truth is that the Church thought it was doing the right thing by being forgiving to those fellows and just moving them somewhere. That simple fact is so mind boggling under the circumstances that it causes people's heads to explode. So trying to address it is equally and always explosive, pretty much no matter what you try to say about it.

So why did he bring up the Eucharist? Because the worst part of all of it is a priest and his own state of grace as a minister of the sacrament. We can't go to Communion in a state of sin.  Can the priest administer the Body of Christ in a state of sin?
"The celebration of the Eucharist, however, cannot be the starting point for communion; it presupposes that communion already exists, a communion which it seeks to consolidate and bring to perfection. The sacrament is an expression of this bond of communion both in its invisible dimension, which, in Christ and through the working of the Holy Spirit, unites us to the Father and among ourselves, and in its visible dimension, which entails communion in the teaching of the apostles, in the sacraments and in the Church's hierarchical order." -- Pope John Paul II

So we're all in this together. And perhaps your priest was trying his best to come to grips with a mind boggling list of heinous sins and talk about his own struggle to understand any of it, let alone his place in it. And he was doing so in within the theology as he understands it.

I don't know. I wasn't there.

But we must be very careful in our criticisms of the clergy because they have to face things and understand things that we never have to face or understand, always maintaining a state of grace, which is simply not possible.

St. Francis of Assisi was once told about a wayward priest. This priest was spreading heresy.  What was St. Francis' response? He ran over to where the priest lived and threw himself at the man's feet.

"I don't know whether these hands are stained as the other man says they are. [But] I do know that even if they are, that in no way lessens the power and effectiveness of the sacraments of God... That is why I kiss these hands out of respect for what they perform and out of respect for Him who gave His authority to them." 

Our job as the "not clergy" is to follow the example of St. Francis by spreading the faith, not by pointing out the sins of the bishops and priests, but to live the faith so joyfully that is becomes irresistible.

When in Rome

I can't believe I am about to be on top of a feast day two feast days in a row! And school starts next week. Sometimes we are more efficient when we are busy.  That or the angels and saints are prodding me to get their messages out.

Today is the feast day of one of my favorite saints, St. Monica. This is my favorite rendering of St. Monica, as I imagine that someone who lived a life of worry might have looked like this by the end of it. But St. Monica actually wasn't a sad person. She was patient and steadfast. And unstoppable.
Her parents married their Christian daughter off to a pagan with a hot temper. He wasn't the worst fellow but he did yell at her and tease her about her Christian fasting and charity work. Her mother in law was nasty to her and lived with them.

But Monica soldiered on and they both converted. Her husband was baptized a week before his death. Monica's super famous son, Augustine was 17 when his father died. Augustine was a wild child, even by today's standards and Monica followed him everywhere, much to his chagrine. He finally snuck out of town to Rome. She followed him there, not an easy thing to do back in those days, all on her own. When she finally arrived in Rome, she found he had gone to Milan. So off she went. We all know how Augustine turned out. He is once of the greatest saints and scholars the Church has ever know.

Thanks mom!  Her story is pertinent to today's question from a reader:
 A year ago we got a new priest at our parish. Over the year he has done numerous things to cause resentment in some of our congregation. I won't go into details, but I walked out of mass crying after his last "homily" wondering what he was doing being a Catholic priest. I wrote our Archbishop about some of the things he said and hoped that it would bring to light the need our area has for a conservative priest. I have never done anything like that before. I mean, we don't need a Latin priest, we at least need a priest who isn't so wishy washy on Catholic teaching. One that will uphold the faith, not denounce it from the pulpit. The churches in our area are fairly liberal as well. Lots of hand holding and drums. So what is a Catholic to do in this situation? It makes me ache that I can either go to a mass that feels more like a '60's sit-in or go to a mass where the priest says he can't defend or teach.

I wish you had gone into details, because it's actually impossible to address your question without them.

I think it was a good idea to write to the Archbishop about your concerns. He can tell you if the priest is way off base or not. I can't take your word for it, quite.  I'm not saying you're wrong. I just have no way of knowing if you're right.

Because Jesus was not, by any means, a conservative person. His message was and remains a radical departure from normal human emotions and reactions.  "Turn the other cheek?" Seriously? Who does that? "Take no shoes, take no purse?"  He must mean that kind of symbolically, right?  He must have just meant, "travel light".

But when we read everything He said, we come to understand, often with a rather sinking feeling, that He was dead serious.  I've known people who have turned away from the Church because they just feel they can't possibly live up to what Jesus asked of them.

So I'd like to know more about what the priest is saying up there.  Maybe he's just giving everyone that sinking feeling.

This is a 60's sit in. No bongos. Just cheek turning.

As far as going to a Mass that feels like a 60's sit in, take a tip from St. Monica.  When she moved from her home to Rome and then to Milan, she felt completely at sea because the customs of all three places were differently. She was accustomed to fasting on Saturday. They didn't fast on Saturday in Milan.

I don't know why she couldn't just fast on her own on Saturday. Fasting is not exactly something you do with other people. I would understand it better if she was used to going to a Rosary circle on Saturday and the people of Milan did that on Tuesdays.

Maybe Monica understood the power of all manner of prayer when it is done with others, even if there are bongos involved.

She also went to the Archbishop, St. Ambrose, to ask how to proceed. This was his famous reply:
“When I am here, I do not fast on Saturday, but I fast when I am in Rome; do the same and always follow the custom and discipline of the Church as it is observed in the particular locality in which you find yourself.”

Yes, it was St. Ambrose who gave us the line, "When in Rome do as the Romans do."  He didn't say it quite that way, much the way Humphrey Bogart actually never said, "Play it again, Sam." Nonetheless, that famous quote is from St. Ambrose to help St. Monica with exactly the type of problem you are having.

I think St. Ambrose is trying to help you now.

That's the Queen of Heaven, Just Ignore Her

Hallelujah! I am actually going to be on top of things today and point out to you all that today is the feast day of the Queenship of Mary!

Perhaps this information will upset some people, specifically, the separated brethren, who would like Mary to go sit down, as far as I can tell.  In as much as I vehemently disagree with that sentiment, I do understand why they feel that way. They don't want anyone between themselves and Jesus. I know this because I've had many conversations, while trying to explain Mary's place in our hearts, that ended with, "Well, I just pray to Jesus."

It doesn't matter if I patiently point out that they ask other people to pray for them.  Do they believe that Mary lives on in Heaven? Yes, they do. Then why not ask Mary, of all people, to pray for you, just like you'd ask me to pray for you?  Then comes the previously mentioned conversation ender. I usually mention that it doesn't make sense, in that case, to ask anyone to pray for them, ever.

So today I have a question for the separated brethren. I know you're reading, because I hear from you all the time and I welcome you. Here's the question: Where did you get this idea that we should ignore Mary?

As far as I can tell, the whole notion of dumping the saints as people to ask for intercession came from Martin Luther. I actually understand where he is coming from:
"Furthermore, how will you endure [the Romanists'] terrible idolatries? It was not enough that they venerated the saints and praised God in them, but they actually made them into gods. They put that noble child, the mother Mary, right into the place of Christ. They fashioned Christ into a judge and thus devised a tyrant for anguished consciences, so that all comfort and confidence was transferred from Christ to Mary, and then everyone turned from Christ to his particular saint. Can anyone deny this? Is it not true?"

It actually is not technically true, but I know why he feels that way.  We love our patron saints! If there are people out there praying to saints, that is a problem and that is the issue to which Luther refers. The truth is, we are not to pray "to" the saints, even though we refer to these prayers as such.

The biggest offender springs to mind: St. Anthony.  Technically we may be asking for his intercession to ask Jesus to help us find our keys, but it sure doesn't sound that way when we say, "Holy Tony, come around, something's lost that must be found."  I think if we are honest with ourselves, we somehow believe that St. Anthony will not bother Jesus with finding our keys. Anthony will just find them for us on his own.

So of course the separated brethren are confused. We are confusing.

But so are you, separated brethren, because Martin Luther, who started this particular ball rolling, believed almost everything we believe about Mary, including that she is the reigning Queen of Heaven. He believed that she was immaculately conceived (the Immaculate Conception, which means that Mary was born without original sin on her soul), that she was perpetually a virgin (even though a lot of modern Lutherans don't). He didn't seem to believe in the Assumption.

So how did Mary get pushed into the background? We can argue that St. Rose of Lima might not be the best example to follow when she made herself a hat of glass and spikes. But there is no argument to be found that Mary was not the perfect example of love, obedience, humility, strength and a life of grace. How does one on the one hand acknowledge that Mary is indeed the Queen of Heaven and on the other hand say, "Oh, her? Yes, she is the Queen here. Just ignore her."

Any ideas?

We Want YOU

Hello sister..I wondering if there are any congregation to become a nun that accept someone above the age of 30.

I bet there are a lot. Have you called around?

You mean some religious orders don't accept people over 30? What's the reasoning behind that?

The reason was that we used to be an army. We needed young strong people who would dedicate themselves to a life in Christ, to get into stage coaches and row boats and open schools and hospitals all over the world. We needed young women to take care of the army of old women who had given their lives that way.  It was a hard life behind convent walls even in the days before nuns hit the bricks outside of them.

Yes, we preferred virgins. Everyone was marrying Christ, after all.  But some women still got in after a life of husband and family. St. Rita springs to mind. They didn't want her, but she was persistent. She's not an isolated case by any means.

But there is no doubt that it was harder for a previously married older woman to get into a convent. Ask St. Rita. Even after the angels flew her over the convent wall the other nuns put her to the test. They were as relentless as Rita had been in her bid to get in.

Enter St. Jane Frances de Chantel, a pal of our patron saint of the stressed out, St. Francis de Sales. I feel bad that I didn't get to this a question a couple of days ago when it was actually her feast day (August 18th). I am nothing if not consistent. I always miss telling everyone about saints on the pertinent day. Ask St. Agnes.

Jane was a wealthy girl. She was pretty and vivacious and married a baron when she was 21 years old. She had a very happy life with her husband. They had 6 children, although only 3 of them lived. Jane busied herself with her husband, family, a lot of charity work and daily Mass at the castle.

But after seven years of marriage, her husband died and Jane was inconsolable. She sank into a deep depression, curled up in a ball at the castle. Her father in law threatened to take her children if she didn't snap out of it and come and live with him. So she did. Unfortunately, he had a nasty disposition and his housekeeper was like that women in "Rebecca" who hates Joan Fontaine for no reason other than the fact that she isn't Rebecca.  Jane was nice to them anyhow.

A few years later she met St. Francis de Sales, who convinced her to relax a little. You can relax a little and still be holy.  Jane, meanwhile, decided that she'd like to become a nun. I'm not sure that Francis de Sales didn't simply skip mentioning to her that that would be very hard to do for a 32 year old widow and mother of three. He did tell her to skip trying to become a nun, which she did.

"Wait!", you're saying through the internets, "I know for a fact that St. Jane Frances de Chantel was a nun!"

Yes, indeedy.  Three years later, cagey old relaxed St. Francis de Sales told Jane about an idea he had to start an order of nuns just for older women to join. He wanted to open a place where age or health or other considerations would be swept aside.  These women would not stay behind the convent walls, but be free to roam the community doing spiritual and corporal works of mercy.

They called themselves the Visitation nuns. St. Francis thought that the way Mary behave during the Visitation (where the angel Gabriel told Mary what direction her life was about to take if she agreed).  Meek and humble and ready to serve.  A good motto.

So isn't that lovely? They started an order to serve the community and everyone lived happily every after.

Not so much.  Women running around the community, een if they were nuns, was not acceptable. The women wound up being cloistered after all. (Nuns serving outside the convent walls is much more modern that you think. St. Vincent de Paul was finally able to break that barrier.)  There were only three women in the first convent. The community was under attack because of their desire to not be cloistered.

Then St. Francis de Sales died. Jane's son died. A plague ravaged France. Her son in law and daughter in law died.  And Jane went through depression, and spiritual bleakness and illness.

Being a saint is not for light weights.

The Visitation nuns, however, are still with us! The perfect place for you to begin your search. I applaud you. We are not an army any more.

Yes, we are.  But we are a much smaller army. See your local recruiter today!

All the Better to Eat You With

"Angels certainly seem to do a lot better with their free will than we do. Once the Lucifer situation was settled, it seems no other angel has had so much as an unkind thought." I must correct you Sister. There are many more Angels that have left heaven, and the church knows this too. First, The Church teaches ( even the earliest Apostles taught this ) that we are to ask the name of any angel we meet with. ( This must mean that then the Church can compare notes. :) Second, There are many scripture reference to more then one angel gone bad ( The Church has said "It is written that no angel tormenting men and women is a heavenly Angel".)

I'm not confused, but it appears I have confused you.

The War in Heaven wasn't just Satan, nee Lucifer.  It was Lucifer and his minions. They lost the war and God booted them out of Heaven. They have spent the rest of their time making everyone on earth miserable to the best of their ability. They all had free will.

But angels aren't still falling out of Heaven, randomly, from time to time. Angels falling out of Heaven is over and done with.

We hope.  They do have free will.

It's an interesting point you bring up that we must ask the name of any angel we meet.  The reason for that is the same reason we are not allowed to attend seances and dabble in the occult, even if it seems rather harmless to try and ask dear old sweet Aunt Mildred where she kept the safe deposit box or just reminisce with her.  She may sound like dear sweet old Aunt Mildred at the seance, but she could actually be nasty old Aunt Bealzebub.  The devil is tricky.

Like the wolf at the end of Red Riding Hood. But not that obvious.

I'm not sure what good it would do to ask the angel his name.  If the devil is going to pose as an angel, I'm sure he is not beyond lying about his name.  I think the point was that we must be on guard when it comes to the supernatural.

It is written that no angel tormenting men and women is a heavenly Angel. That is why the Church demands two miracles for canonization. Precisely because no good comes from the devil.

This is also why the Church is so very careful about private revelations, like Mary sightings. It would just be a real feather in Satan's hat to have everyone believing that Mary appeared on the side of a tree and then show everyone to be so foolish as to believe that Mary appeared on the side of a tree.

That glob of chocolate still makes me sad.

They Don't Call Them Angels for Nothing

Sister, this has been on my mind a long while. I think we all taught something like this: "God created the angels. They loved and adored him perfectly. However, God didn't give them free will so he created humans with the gift of free will so that they could choose to love and adore Him. Somewhere along the lines the angel Lucifer's pride got in the way and he became the devil..." How can the devil make the choice to not adore Christ when he has no free will? It's just something that has always confused me.

I should think it would.  Poor little thing. Where were you taught that? One of two things has taken place. Either the person teaching you was inebriated or otherwise incapacitated or you were behind the door when the angel info was discussed.

You weren't behind the door the whole time.  Whoever was teaching you got out this much:  "God created the angels. They loved and adored Him perfectly."  At that point, perhaps you were distracted, as I often was while sitting at my desk as a child.  I used to daydream about martyrdom and working for the OSS to thwart the Nazis and becoming a famous ballerina. I had wide ranging interests.

In any case, you've gone awry. God did give the angels free will. And then Lucifer went awry.

You don't have to take my word for it. For all you know, I am inebriated or otherwise incapacitated. Here is what the Catechism of the Catholic Church says about angels and free will:
 

311 Angels and men, as intelligent and free creatures, have to journey toward their ultimate destinies by their free choice and preferential love. They can therefore go astray. Indeed, they have sinned. Thus has moral evil, incommensurably more harmful than physical evil, entered the world. God is in no way, directly or indirectly, the cause of moral evil. He permits it, however, because he respects the freedom of his creatures and, mysteriously, knows how to derive good from it.

We don't know why God created us, but the general thinking is that God is just so loving that He just had to share His love with even more creatures.

Angels certainly seem to do a lot better with their free will than we do.  Once the Lucifer situation was settled, it seems no other angel has had so much as an unkind thought.

Imagine it! Every one of us has a guardian angel by our sides from the moment we are born until we leave this earthly coil.  We can whine all we want about how difficult it is not to sin and all the while, our guardian angels have to stand by and experience everything we experience. Well...not everything. They don't have to eat or exercise or not exercise. But still.

At the least, I should think they spend a lot of time just wanting to throw up their hands and have the angel equivalent of a double martini. Sit around at the angel saloon and grouse about all the ridiculous neenering and blather they have to sit through on an hourly basis.

"And then, she went off on her sister because her sister is so 'controlling' and picked about everything she did for her mother."

"Wait...isn't the sister the one who spends pretty much every waking minute looking after the mother?"

"Yes."

"Maybe her sister has a better idea of what needs to be done for the mother."

"Ya think?"

"Cheers."

But they don't. Clearly, the "will" part of their free will is stronger than ours. Except for that one time.

Transfixed by the Transfiguration

Hello Sister,  I have seen a couple of transfiguration pictures of our Lord and it has some people or crowd at the bottom, I'm guessing they are from purgatory or somewhere because they look sad. What is the significance of them?

Timely question. The Feast of the Transfiguration was yesterday.   I am almost always a day off in discussing feast days. Every year I plan to give the single ladies a heads up for the eve of the Feast of St. Agnes, so that they can eat an egg before bedtime, and every year I come up short.

The Transfiguration is a turning point in the Gospels for several reasons. Peter has just announced that he believes Jesus is the Christ. Jesus then takes Peter, James and John onto to a mountain top (we don't know exactly where) where Jesus is "Transfigured".  Moses and Elijah appear, Jesus emanates light and the voice of God says, "This is my Beloved Son with Whom I am well pleased. Listen to Him."

So there are two important things: Peter's announcement and the voice of God confirming what Peter was thinking.

The Transfiguration is also an event mentioned in all four Gospels and is described pretty much the same way in three of them.  That is significant. Whenever I encounter people who insist that everything in the Bible should be taken as literal truth, I ask them how many angels were at the tomb after Jesus rose from the dead and strolled away.  The answer depends on which Gospel you are reading. The answer is one, three or none.  How do you reconcile that with a literal interpretation? They look really confused and then they go back to sleep. 

Cognitive dissonance.

It is also a significant event because it gives us a glimpse of Heaven that we hadn't had before. Heaven is a place for the living and God is God for the living. It was nice of Moses and Elijah to join the party and point that out.

Most depictions of the Transfiguration just have Jesus with Moses and Elijah and James, Peter and John in various of poses of shock and awe.  I have no way of knowing what's going on in your picture without seeing it.

But there is this famous rendition, painted by Raphael right before his death. In fact, he died before he finished it and a pupil of his put on the final brush strokes. Raphael has a lot more busy stuff going on. For one thing, up on the mountain top, way over in the corner, there are two other saints,  St. Felicissimus and St. Agapitus.  Raphael popped them in there because they share their feast day with the feast of the Transfiguration. 

Then of course we have Jesus, Moses, Elijah, Peter, James and John up there.

But down below something's going on. Is this your picture? They don't look happy.  But they are not souls in Purgatory. They are the disciples, muddling on without Jesus while Jesus is on the mountain, trying in vain to cure a young boy. Right after the Transfiguration, Jesus handles that for them. This episode does follow the Transfiguration in the Gospel of Matthew.

Without seeing your picture, I can't be sure who your people are. But I would be willing to go out on a limb and say they are not souls in Purgatory.  The Transfiguration is about the direct connection of God and living man on earth through Jesus.  The event is, however, about our suffering on earth and our salvation in the love and light of God above. So if anything, I would guess that the unhappy people simply represent you and me and our travails.

How often we forget that God is RIGHT THERE is we just lift our eyes.

Undesirable

 Sister, I was wondering if you could shed some light on a particular subject. Being a young woman, of course I find the opposite sex very desirable and attractive. To someone who is currently living a chaste life, what does one do with the desires that one has? I know it is not a sin to desire certain things as a female, but since I'm chaste, where is the line drawn? I could just be over-thinking this subject too. I thought perhaps you may have some interesting insight given that you are both a woman AND a religious:)

No, I can't.

I'd like to leave it at that, but I can't do that either.

News flash: religious don't run around talking to each other on this topic. With the exception of our confessors, yammering about our 'desires' is dangerous territory. It can be just another way to wallow in those desires.

It's a conundrum that people often carp about the clergy and religious giving out marriage and sex advice when the clergy and religious are not involved in either. The truth is the opposite. The clergy and religious deal with these issues more than other people do. Way more. Just differently.

We are married, for one thing, to a demanding spouse. And we don't just remain chaste until the right man comes along. We remain chaste forever.

But we don't run around talking about it.

And I'm old.  There's that.

The best I can do is at least address where "the line" is.  Let's start with a list of things you can't do:
1.Think about sex too much.
2. Have sex with anyone to who you are not currently married.
3. Look at pornography.

We've already encountered one of those lines. For example: "But Sister, how do I tell the difference between art and pornography?" If what you are looking at makes you think about sex too much, it is pornography, even if it isn't pornography, it is pornography for you..

5. Use filthy language. Using filthy language may cause you or the person you are talking with to think about sex too much.


6. Wear clothing that causes other people to sin. When you cause other people to sin, that is a sin you have committed, as you are responsible for the other person's sin.

The Church in Her wisdom understands that you actually can't help but think about sex.  Sex will pop into your mind at all hours of the day and night.  That's not a sin. That's your brain at work.

But once those thought pop in there, it's your job to pop them right back out again. Say a rosary, take a cold shower, kneel on dried peas.  What do you think hair shirts were for?

If any of those things cause you tho think about sex even more because you are a sexual deviant who enjoys pain, don't do those things. Stick to the rosary.

What does one do with the desire one has? Fill your time and your head with the Spiritual and Corporal works of mercy. You're supposed to do that anyhow. Step it up.

If you have any time left over, become a long distance runner. Take up archery. Play ping pong. You have four years til the next Olympics.

Bunkum

Oldest portrait of St. Francis, painted during his lifetime.

Are the stories about St. Francis bunkum, or was he just misled? I wonder why he would bother to preach to the animals if they are soulless.

I am delighted to add the work "bunkum" to my vocabulary.  There are quite a number of saintly stories to which it can be applied. St. Guinefort, who turned out to be a dog, springs to mind.

Let's get a few things straight about animals. You can tell that none of us (with the possible exception of vegans and I believe even vegans would put the dog down when the time came) believe that animals have immortal souls.

Let's take an mammal that does have an immortal soul and treat it like animal. Your Aunt Louise. We will keep Aunt Louise in a cage. We will take her eggs and have them for breakfast.  We will raise the children of Aunt Louise and then slaughter them and eat them, happily roasting their flesh on the grill during summer parties.  We will make coats and shoes from their skins.  We will make shawls with their hair. If we can't afford to fix Aunt Louise's health problem, we'll take her behind the barn and shoot her. Or maybe, if she's too old to walk, we'll have a doctor give her an injection.  If she's small enough, we might just flush her carcass down the toilet.

We do all of these things and many more to animals, precisely because we do not believe they have immortal souls.

On top of that, animals can't pray or do penance.  They can't sin, but their 'goodness' is not a choice. It's instinctive behavior and/or training.

That said, St. Francis did actually preach to animals. It's not bunkum.  Did he preach to animals in order than they better themselves and get to Heaven? No.  The stories of St. Francis in regard to animals (bees crawling to him to be fed, conversations with wolves) are...bunkum-ish. They are  just legends.

And before I have to listen to everyone screech, "But Sister! He called them Brother Bird and such and told them to praise God!", please keep in mind that he also said the same thing to "Brother Sun".  Is the sun going to Heaven?

St. Francis may have called the hen "Sister Chicken", but he also had her for dinner.

Let's step back a moment and examine St. Francis' love of animals and nature in its proper context.
"If you have men who will exclude any of God's creatures from the shelter of compassion and pity, you will have men who deal likewise with their fellow men." St. Francis of Assisi.
This about sums it up. There was actually a wolf who had eaten some sheep. St. Francis asked that the people to understand that the wolf was God's creature and that it ate the sheep because it was hungry.  It's the kind of compassion and understanding that God asks of us.

St. Francis was not a particularly educated person. He had a simple childlike nature and he believed that since we are all from God, we are all kin. But he included in this all manner of animate and inanimate objects. His love of creatures rose from a deep and abiding sense of God in all of His Creation.

Over on catholic culture .org they display the blessing of the animals. One line is: And animals share in Christ's redemption of all creation. Might animals then, be included in the new earth? If they just die and are gone, what is being redeemed? Or what is meant by redeemed here?

You've taken that line a bit out of context. The whole blessing mentions that God often uses animals to get His message across. (Think Jonah in the whale.)  What is being redeemed here? You are. We hope.

Here is what we say when we bless the animal:

 "N.(name of animal, i.e. "Smokey", not cat/dog) may you be blessed in the Name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. May you and N. (the name of the guardian) enjoy life together and find joy with the God who created you."

Yes, we bless animals. We also bless rosaries and cars.  We hope that through your animal, just as Francis thought, we would come to see God through His creation and feel God's love for us by all He has given us.

We bless animals. We don't baptize them. That should tell you something.

You Can't Make This Up

Here are two responses from prior posts that have a lot in common.

On animals in Heaven:
I personally don't believe that animals don't have immortal souls. I know that's problematic because I'm an omnivore, and if one does, don't they all? I'm not saying I've got the logic completely down. I'm just saying that my dog shows me God's love for me because he loves me no matter how crappy I am. There's something eternal to that, and I like to think it's God manifesting in some way to remind me how dear I am to Him. If I'm wrong, and I make it to the right side of the gates, I'm betting that'll no longer be a concern. And given the amount of other things I could be wrong about, I think it's a forgivable one.

And this one, a response to all the hand holding and arm raising and wording and what gets sung and what doesn't  at Mass:

@NC SUE, you said "If we're striving for unity, should we allow such petty things to separate us for the others in the congregation?" My answer is YES, YES, YES!!! In the military groups of soldiers are formed into UNITS. UNITS wear the same uniforms with the same patches and everyone ahderes to the same rules of conduct and follows the same orders hence the name UNIT. Holding hands during the Our Father and clapping during Mass are not found anywhere in the GIRM. Neither one is part of the Mass and therefore both are abuses of the Mass, it's just that simple. It's no different than if 2 soldiers in a unit decided to start holding hands in formation of if I decided to start responding with ALLELUJA when receiving communion instead of saying AMEN. UNITY means ONE, if all are ONE that means ALL are are following the same guidelines. If parishes all over the world introduce their own unique innovations and twists on the mass pretty soon there is no unity. 

Believe it or not, these two responses have a lot in common.  What do we believe? 

I personally don't believe that animals don't have immortal souls. I know that's problematic because I'm an omnivore, and if one does, don't they all? I'm not saying I've got the logic completely down. 

Yes, there is a name for that: Cognitive Dissonance.  That means you have two thoughts in your head, you believe them both, and they contradict each other utterly.  YOU CAN'T EAT SOMETHING THAT HAS AN IMMORTAL SOUL.  You can't cut off it's skin and make shoes and purses, lock one  in  a cage and steal its unborn baby, or make pate out of its liver.  If your dog has an immortal soul, so does a chicken and eating its eggs would be a mortal sin.

What you personally believe is not relevant. And your thinking is nonsensical. Another good reason to pay attention to what the Church says is true.

And here is where the two questions meet: what you personally believe is not relevant to this discussion. What the church teaches is. The church teaches that animals do not have immortal souls. That's why you're wearing some of them on your feet. When we start wearing each other on our feet, we'll talk.

So responder two is 100% correct. It's why we have a ritual called a Mass. We are indeed a unit. In fact, we are called The Church Militant. We are soldiers for good.

Which is also why we can't lose sight of the Big Picture. It isn't good to get our knickers in such a big twist over what someone else is doing, as long as that something isn't murder or unkindness.

While I fully agree with our second reader, I caution against the anger and judgment that seems to arise out of these discussions. Suddenly we have sinning at Mass, not because someone held hands when they shouldn't have, but because someone is grinding their teeth about it.

You know, nuns have two favorite mottos.  "Offer it up!" and "Mind Your Own Garden".  Both would be useful at Mass.

Half Nelson

My last post on Blessed Soon to Be Saint Kateri prompted several people to also pipe up with their hopes for the future canonization of another local hero, Father Nelson Baker. I have heard that name floating around in the saintly ether, but I must admit I didn't know beans about him.  There are a zillion saints and would-be saints. I can't keep up with them all.

Now is as good a time as any to bring us up to speed on Father Baker, who is on the bottom rung of the sainthood ladder, having been pronounced "Servant of God" by that wonderful Servant of God, Pope John Paul II.  That means Father Baker's cause for sainthood is on the move.

Nelson's dad was a Lutheran and his mom was a devout Catholic. It always helps a person to have a devout Catholic in the family, doesn't it?  Nelson worked in his dad's grocery store. His dad was a tremendously good businessman and taught Nelson how to be one as well. Nelson opened a dry goods store with a partner.

He was terrific at it. 

But something was missing. He took a little trip and came back to announce that he was going to become a priest. 

He was terrific at that, too.

Not only was he a wonderful compassionate man who took care of tiny babies, orphans, old people and care givers with his own personal attention and care, he managed to do all of that because he was a terrific fundraiser. Better even that Mother Frances Cabrini, which is really saying something. Good old Frances could squeeze coconut juice out of a rock.

He was a terrific fundraiser because of his experience as a successful business man.

Here he had a simple model for making sure his orphanage was funded. He went to the Post Office and asked them for a list of all the Catholic women for miles around. He sent them all a letter and asked them to join the "Our Lady of Victory" association.  (Our Lady of Victory is one of the 1000 names for Mary, based on a 16th war against the Muslims in Europe.  Praying the Rosary won that war and the Pope gave Mary yet another name. Our Lady of Victory is also the name of the Parish in which Father Nelson landed.) He asked everyone to join for one year at a time by paying dues and told them how the money would be used.  The cost $.25. 

This was at the turn of the century. I wonder how much $.25 bought back then. A lot.  At least 50 pieces of candy when I was a girl in the 50's. 

I suppose he had some Bingo going, too.  Doesn't everyone?

But my favorite thing about Father Nelson....he was a Civil War vet.  He didn't become a priest until after he served in the Union Army, worked in his dad's store and ran his own successful business.

Father Baker is going to need two miracles for move all the way to canonization. One to be beatified and one to be canonized.  That's your job.  If you need a miracle, ask for his intercession. And if you receive a miracle, let the Father Baker advocates know!

Miracles rules:
1. Spontaneous.
2. Unexplained.

Winning the lottery, as miraculous as it may seem, would not be a miracle. There is an explanation: you bought a ticket and you won.

I explain it with this true story. There was a man here in Santa Monica, CA who was sitting around his house one afternoon when he had the inexplicable urge to walk his dog. It was not time to walk the dog. He simply felt compelled to do so. Out he went.

While he was gone, his house exploded due to a gas leak. 

Miracle? No.  If, however, he had left his house walking the dog and he was blind when he left the house and came back and seen that the house was blown to splinters, that would be a miracle.

Drums Along the Mohawk

Before this week swallows me whole, I just want to ask: Why didn't someone tell me? What rock have I been under? I feel like someone who has just returned from a gala party only to look into the mirror and see spinach stuck in my teeth from the appetizers I chomped the moment I arrived. "Why didn't someone tell me I had spinach on my teeth all night?  I was talking to the Monsignor!"

Yes, that happened once.

Now I know to always bring a sidekick for spinach checks.

So I just read, what is apparently old news, that Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha is being canonized this fall! Why didn't someone bring this to my attention? This is thrilling news.

Poor little Kateri has been languishing around with her one miracle for decades, or so I thought, patiently awaiting her second on her road to the golden wall of names behind the pearly gates.

Unbeknownst to me (like a lot of things, some of them green) Kateri actually does not have a first miracle. I'm sure this must not be the first time this has occurred during the canonization process for saints, but it is the first time I've heard of it. Pope John Paul II, who canonized more people than any Pope in history, waved off her first miracle like a plane that was about to miss the deck of an aircraft carrier.

Perhaps that wasn't a good analogy.

In any case, she didn't have any miracles going on when she made up way up the canonizing ladder to "Blessed".

Now she has a doozy of a miracle. I think it's worth two miracles.

In 2006, a 6 year old boy cut his lip during a basketball game. Overnight, his lip swelled and before you could figure out how to pronounce "Tekakwitha",  he developed a flesh eating bacterium.

What is scarier than a flesh eating bacteria? Not much. Zombies, maybe, but they don't exist.

 The horrible bacterium destroyed his lips, cheeks and forehead and the doctors said the little boy was not going to live.  The parish priest asked the congregation to pray for the intercession of Kateri. He chose her because of her facial scars  and because she was a Native American. The little boy is half Lummi Indian.

I say, "is" half Lummi because as the prayers poured in from around the world, a representative from the Society of the Blessed Kateri placed a Kateri medal on the boy's pillow. The infection stopped the next day and the little boy recovered.

Instantaneous and, a definitive miracle.

I think it's worth two miracles, not only was the boy cured, it throws open the doors of Heaven for all of us when we think of the patron saint of Native Americans. Fabulous!

I also think that St. Kateri will be a good patron saint for the near sighted. Kateri survived small pox which left her scarred and sight impaired. "Tekakwitha" means "she who bumps into things".

Some Comments and a LIttle Can of Worms

Of course, I can do a whole post on comments about people misbehaving in various ways at Mass. Maybe tomorrow. Or never.

No, I'll post a few. The varying points of view make my head spin.  Which is probably a good thing, because I have a head cold.  My head is spinning anyhow. Maybe the centrifugal force will clear my sinuses.

Meanwhile,  here are a couple of recent thoughts from our guests.

O.P.T.C.J. Oh Sister, how glad I am to have found your site. May I please ask one favor? Would you consider adding the "gadget" to allow subscription via email?

I did that for you! It's in the sidebar there someplace. Just scroll down until you see it.

You may remember a few posts back a reader looking for the patron saints of headaches. She wrote and interesting follow up to let us know what's happened since.

Thanks for the tips, everybody. I go to the neurologist on Monday, and we'll see what s/he says. Meanwhile, my friend Ray's experimental brain surgery for cluster headaches...failed. He posted this the other day: "Time to face the reality that the physical world is never going to go my way anymore, and I have been reading much about how some of the great saints handled extreme pain and debilitating illnesses. I intend to stay around this beautiful little Earth as long as I can, but the spiritual realm will now be my focus. I cannot help myself physically, but if I can help others through my journeys into faith, pain and love, I will endeavor to be the best debilitated person for God and for others that I can be." It made me cry.

Way to go, Ray!  Time to switch patron saints for Ray. St. Bernadette steps up to the plate.  You may recall that when Our Lady showed Bernadette the healing spring, Our Lady expressly told Bernadette that the spring was  not for her.  That must have been a blow. Bernadette lived a life of pain, too.  She is the patron saint for chronic illness.

Chronic sounds better than 'acute', doesn't it? It isn't. Acute refers to a temporary problem. Chronic refers to one that isn't going anywhere.

So....one last new one. A question that I've already answered but that will no doubt cause a big uproar again:

When my mother spoke to our priest about the guilt she felt for putting our family dog down, he told her it was not a sin because dogs have no souls. Do Catholics believe this? Will there be no dogs in heaven?

Yes! Thank you, Father!  The difference between animals and people is that animals do not have immortal souls. If they did, you wouldn't be able to have them for dinner or put them out of their misery.

The question of whether or not there will be dogs in Heaven remains a mystery. Some very learned people think that, because we love our animals so much, we will be able to see them again behind the Pearly Gates where they are permanently safe from the vehicles that put them there.

I personally think this is nonsense.  Because your dog DOES NOT have an immortal soul, if your dog is in heaven, it's just some kind of hologram dog, because your dog's soul did not live on as yours will.  If you think about it, it is drastically unfair that your dog gets to go to heaven because he had a bowl with a name on it. If he gets to go, then every slimy creature and insect and badger and skunk that every lived...EVER...should also get to go. And the idea that that would happen seems extremely silly to this old nun. And I actually love dogs.

Living with God for eternity isn't enough for you? You have to have Mr. Poofy and his little dog bed for eternal happiness? Please.

That's Gratitude for Ya

We've had quite a lot of comments piling up on previous posts. Tomorrow I'll put some of them up so we can wake up the sleeping dogs and stir up controversy.

Be It Ever So Humble

Meanwhile a reader is not doing so hot:
I'm currently waiting to sign a lease for an apartment. I've been praying more than usual because things are pretty tough right now. I've been waiting since February, it is now July. Not only has my patience been tested so has my faith. As a Catholic and having been born raised and even blessed with going to Catholic schools, I'm wondering if there is a patron saint to restore faith? I feel as though I've hit rock bottom and I'm trying to keep it together for my son. Thank you in advance. 

Yes, of course there is! But before we get to that, can we pause for a moment and think about all the wonderful things you said?

You have a son.  You live somewhere that is not a box in an alley or a car or a shelter. Someone sacrificed to send to Catholic school, we we know there are at least a handful of people who love you.  In fact, everyone in the Catholic Church loves you.

We're not the "Church Suffering" (that's the Poor Souls in Purgatory).  We're the Church Militant. It's our job to live up to the commands Jesus gave us.

Here's one: "Consider the lilies, they neither toil nor spin.

I'm not so sure you need a patron saint for lost faith as a saint to help you find your gratitude.  I suggest St. Therese the Little Flower.  She is a Doctor of the Church, so she can do double duty on finding your faith, as well.

St. Therese desperately wanted to be a missionary but she was too sickly for that. She never went anywhere but the cloister.  She decided to do everything as though she was doing it for Jesus, Himself.  She washed the floors as though He would be walking on them, for example.

I've always thought of her as a bit like Pollyanna. You remember her? She was always playing "the Glad game."  Let's face it, it was a little irritating. Pollyanna's dad was a missionary.  She so wanted a doll, but instead of a doll, someone sent crutches. Pollyanna was glad she didn't have to use them.

Yeah, right.

No, really, she was. That's why everyone loved her.  Everything worked out fine for her. We think. She fell out of a tree and was paralyzed.  But she had a rich aunt to take care of her and send her to the best doctors. I think. I'm a little fuzzy on the ending. It someone has a happy ending even though she falls out of a tree. For one thing, her crabby aunt feels terrible about pushing her away and finally realizes how much she loves the child.  That's something to be glad about.

I suggest you play this game: every day, think of five things for which you are grateful.  No repeats. I didn't make this game up and neither did Pollyanna. Oprah made it up.  Good for her.

We're grateful.

The Patron Saint of the Fourth of July

Since it's the Fourth of July, I thought I'd let you know, we have a patron saint for that. Yes, there is a patron saint for fireworks, St. Barbara. 

I always think of Rapunzel when I think of St. Barbara, but apparently a lot of people think of a lot of things when they think of her, including fireworks.

Her story right quick: A holy girl with a crazy father who was trying to keep the boys away from her. He kept her locked in a tower during his absence. There were two windows in the tower and since Barbara was actually a holy girl who really just prayed in there, she had a third window cut into the tower as a symbol of the Holy Spirit. When her father came home he was instantly convinced that she had the third window installed to let the boys in. I don't know why the other two windows weren't enough for the boys. Maybe the new one was considerably lower.

Rhoda gets hers.

In any case, he dragged Barbara out of the tower and killed her.

Where do the fireworks come in? The second he killed her, he was struck down by lightening. Like that little girl at the end of "The Bad Seed".

So, while I'm thinking about Rapunzel, other people are thinking about barbiturates (named after her because they were invented on her feast day), fires, firemen, storms and sailors (because her tower reminds people of a light house).  Because of the lightening and fireworks, she became associated with artillery men and bombers and explosives and people who work with explosives and because of the sailors, the Navy. And because of her sudden death, she is the patron of receiving Last Rites and sudden death and explosions and storms at sea that can spring up out of nowhere and kill everyone on board ship.  Which is why the city of Santa Barbara is named for her, because of a Spanish sea captain who nearly sunk off the shore of California in a sudden storm, but was saved by invoking her intercession.

While you're enjoying the nighttime displays, sparklers, bottle rockets and burning snakes, give a quick salute to St. Barbara while you still have all your fingers.

A Holiday Gift for You!

So last year there were no fireworks. Due to the sad economy, whoever pays for the fireworks over the harbor decided not to spring for it. We thought it was a poor decision, as the previous year drew the biggest crowd we have ever seen.  We love walking down to the pier and watching the fireworks. Someone had the bright idea of syncing the whole thing up with music via the radio, so the cars parked there crank up the sound and we have a patriotic extravaganza.  We sing along. Kate Smith smiles down from Heaven. If she's there. We hope she's there.

If she's in Purgatory, then we could have offered up our sufferings of missing out on the only fireworks around for Kate Smith.

How many of you even know who Kate Smith is any more?  She famously belted out "God Bless America".  When I think of that song, I think of Kate Smith. She looked like a refrigerator dolled up in a dress.

I digress.

This year the fireworks are back! We are thrilled. I can't tell you how much fun it is to see so many people walking in the same direction, lined up along the bike path, standing along the waterfront, camped out on blankets in Chase Park.  If you walk far enough you can see the boat out in the water where the fireworks are coming from.

And the weather has been clear. Some years we have a cloud cover and the fireworks shoot up into the clouds.  You can't see them AT ALL.  It just looks like colorful lighting.  It's a sad thing.  Very sad for whoever paid for them.

So we're tickled pink about this year's festivities.

Here's something else I'm tickled pink about: you can listen to St. Hildegarde!  You can download her tunes! Can you believe it? Is technology more wonderful than not? You can purchase the whole album or you can download one tune at a time. And you can have a listen first.

Fireworks for me. St. Hildgarde for you.  Happy holiday.

Hmmmm......rather make everyone say "Merry Christmas" instead of "Happy Holiday" we need to come up with another name for days when we celebrate and take a break that are not religious.  I never understand when people are mad about saying Happy Holidays during the Christmas season, as the word "holiday" actually means "Holy Day".  It's like "Good Bye", which is just old English for "God Be with You".

The Fourth of July is not a holiday, other than that we try to make each day holy.

Happy Fourth.  And Good bye!

Blessed Sacrament and Blessed Eva

I love it when the questions are super easy to answer, especially in the summer!:

I have a question, and I'm hoping wildly that this isn't disrespectful or wrong. I'm in the process of becoming Catholic and OH, I am wrong so often these days.
As I said, I'm becoming Catholic - finished RCIA and am waiting and praying for my husband's first marriage to be declared null so I can finally come home. During the RCIA process, one of the events that changed my thinking from "Oh, I suppose I can do this Catholic thing to make my husband happy" to "Oh please. Only say the word and my soul shall be healed. Please may I come home?" was a miscarriage. I lost my fifth child at four months gestation, and it all but broke me. I am still so very sad.
The day we found out she'd died, my husband and I went to the Adoration Chapel, a place I'd always felt very uncomfortable in. That day I was just so shocked and sad. I knelt and prayed and wept and shook. And then I looked up and realized that Jesus was there. Not like "I feel Him here," he WAS THERE, because he said he would be. Not because I deserved it or asked Him the right way, because He promised. It totally spun my thinking around on the Real Presence.
I told a friend about that, and she said, "You know what that was? That was your daughter, praying for you, and taking you by the hand into the Truth."
So this leads to my question. We named our daughter Eva. And since losing her has made this whole process of conversion so much more real and personal to me, I want to take Eva as my patron saint. From what I can tell, there was a Saint Eva, from the third century, who was a mother with four children, no less. But really, I mean it in gratitude for the life of my little one and what her loss has taught me about what really matters. Do you think that would be okay?
Thank you for what you do here. I'm a little scared of you, but much more grateful for your insight.

On come on. I'm not that scary. Unless you're under the age of 7.  Then I'm terrifying.  Even if I'm smiling. Perhaps, then even more so.

Welcome to the Church!

Now to your question. You can have anyone you want as a patron saint.  Oh, wait...did you mean you want to take your daughter as your patron saint?  That would be okay, I guess. We know she's in Heaven, which is the definition of a saint.

However, when we look to find a patron saint, we look for someone to help us through our struggles. That's why we first make sure a person had heroic virtue--virtue above and beyond the call of duty--for the cause of a saint. We generally don't call on the non canonized as patron saints.

Your St. Eva from the third century was a martyr, but I'm not sure the children who died with her were her children. She died with a rather large group of people, five of whom were children...four children and a toddler.  But that's okay. Martyrs go straight to Heaven and are automatically saints. (The only time we argue over the sainthood of a martyr is when we're not sure if the person's demise was in fact a maytyr's death.  Such is the case with St. Theresa Benedicta of the Cross, better known as Edith Stein.  She was both Jewish and then a nun, so there was considerable argument over whether her death at the hands of the Nazis made for a martyr's death, since she might have been murdered because she was Jewish, as opposed to being murdered because she refused to renounce Christ.  She was canonized, so the controversy has been resolved.)

So, that St. Eva from the third century is fine. But....this will tickle you!  There is another Eva, not a saint yet. Blessed Eva.  That means she is worthy of our veneration and has one proven miracle. She's waiting for another before she makes it to 'saint'.  Here's the part that you'll appreciate: she was instrumental in making the Feast of Corpus Christi and feast day!


The Feast of Corpus Christi is the day the whole Church celebrates the fact that the Blessed Sacrament is the True Presence.  Blessed Eva didn't start the ball rolling. Her superior, St. Julianna did that. St. Julianna had a vision of the moon with one dark spot on it, a symbolic depiction of the one missing feast day in the Church calendar.  She had this vision for twenty years but never told anyone about it, except for Blessed Eva.  St. Julianna didn't know what the vision meant for the longest time, and when she finally came to understand its meaning, she still didn't tell anyone about it because she didn't think there was anything she could do about it.  When she finally told her confessor, he took the information to the Bishop and the Bishop made the feast day happen, but just locally.

It wasn't until St.  had died that Blessed Eva took up the gauntlet and worked tirelessly until the Pope made the Feast of Corpus Christi a feast day for the universal Church.

How's that for a kind of perfect patron saint for you?  I hope it tickles you as much as it tickles me!

What a Headache

Dear Sister: I've been struck lately by severe headaches--the kind that are only gotten rid of by going to the emergency room and getting hooked up to IV painkillers. Coincidentally (literally--he went to the hospital in Cleveland at the same time I went to the hospital in DC) a friend of mine across the country is undergoing experimental brain surgery for his own crippling cluster headaches. I thought we could both use the intercession of a saint at this point, and found two names mentioned as patron saints for migraine suffers: St. Teresa of Avilla and St. Gemma Gelgani. Which has raised two questions in my mind: 1. Which one is it? St. Teresa or St. Gemma? And, more existentially, 2. Does it matter? I don't mean does praying for a saint's intercession work, because I know what you'll say about that. I mean, if I pray for the wrong saint's help, won't the saint I pray to still give me the hand up I need? Isn't that kind of part of their job definition? Or is it less effective if I invoke...I dunno...St. Joseph of Arimathea, who doesn't have any particular history with head or headaches than the headache sufferers official patron saint?

Thanks!

P.S. A third, half-facetious, half-serious question: 3. Will praying to the proper saint help us pay for our treatments? Insurance won't pay his $100,000 bill because the surgery is too experimental, and my own insurance has told me it won't pay for prescription refills in a timely manner.

Oh, you poor thing.  What a terrible hardship.

At the risk of giving you a headache, there is a third patron saint for headaches, St. Stephen, the first martyr.  He was killed by having rocks thrown at his head, so I think he's a very good choice.

There are several saints for specific problems in many cases. St. Francis of Assisi, because he preached to birds and squirrels and "Brother Wolf" is the patron saint of animals and animal lovers, but  so is St. Martin de Porres, because he was an amateur veterinarian. St. Rock is the patron saint of dogs and dog lovers and St. Gertrude is the patron saint of cats and cat lovers.  

St. Christopher is the patron saint of travelers, but so is St. Joseph.

So let's back this truck up a second an take a look at what the deal is with patron saints in the first place.  The idea of having a patron saint for something is that in some way the saint had to deal with the same problems that you have. St. Martha had that unfortunate incident where the disciples descended on her house and her sister wouldn't help her get dinner on the table for them all. That's why shes is the patron saint of cooks and waitresses. Sometimes the patronage is rather a leap.  A really big leap.  Like St. Blaise.  He is the patron saint of sore throats because he once blessed the throat of a young lad who was choking on a fishbone. So that makes perfect sense. But he is also the patron saint of knitters, because he was tortured with wool combers.  He never knitted a thing.  That's a bit of a....an extrapolation.

I can't figure out why St. Teresa of Avila would be the patron saint of headaches. I do not believe that she was a headache sufferer.  Perhaps one of our dear readers would know.  I suspect that she is the patron saint of headaches because she was one.  St. Teresa was put into the convent by her very strict father because she was a rebellious teenager. At that time, the nuns in the convent were often other rich girls who wore their veils as a fashion accessory and brought their jewelry, not for the convent to use to buy food, but to wear.

Teresa didn't take to nunness right away. And even when she did begin to embrace the religious life, she was still a bit of a "how do you solve a problem like Maria" type.  She didn't care much for praying, for one thing. Ironic, since what made her a Doctor of the Church eventually was what she had to say about prayer, among other things.

Even after all of her sighing and eye rolling about prayer, Teresa began having mystical experiences including visions and ecstasies and levitation.  She changed her mind about prayer.  And the convent. She didn't leave, she called for reform and founded the Discalced Carmelites.  She was not popular and faced the prospect of the Spanish Inquisition twice. That would be headache inducing, I suppose.

Meanwhile, St. Gemma spent most of her life really sick in bed. She did have debilitating headaches, but then, she had debilitating everything. She had a really miserable time of it.

Your dilemma is simply to pick the saint to which you feel the most connected, for whatever reason.  So no, it doesn't even matter if the saint has that patronage assigned to them.  Why do we pray for intercession at all?  We are asking the saints to pray for us, just the way we ask each other for prayers. The saints, however are right there in Heaven.  They have got to be just the best at praying. It absolutely astounds me that there are people who think that asking for saintly intercession is some kind of time waster.  I hope they don't go around asking other people to pray for them either, but that kind of logical consistency seems to escape them.

St. Joseph of Arimathea seems like a very good choice to help with the financial end of things! He did after all, swoop in and take care of business when everyone else was too stunned and impoverished to figure out what to do with Jesus' body.  The Infant of Prague is also a good choice.

Oh wait! there's here's another idea for the headache patron! You could go with St. Joseph! He has his own aspirin.