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Tuesday, July 12, 2011

As Reliable as the Weatherman

Sister,
I am going to be entering university in the fall as a meteorology student. Could you please tell me who the patron saint of meteorology and weather is? Also, because some meteorologists work at news stations, do you know who the patron saint of news is? 
Thank you,
A loyal reader of your blog


Goodness! A loyal reader! How lovely.


There are several weather saints. St. Swithin, for rain, springs to mind. For rain, as in Pro rain. St. Swithin loved rain. He loved the sound of rain on the roof.


But for you and your meteorology interests, I have to recommend St. Scholastica.  She was the beloved twin sister of St. Benedict. St. Benedict is such a big deal saint, having pretty much invented the Monastic Rule. His sister was a nun. They were both major smarty-pantses.



She had a group of nuns, and he had the largest monastery in the world. Every so often the twins would get together in a house just outside St. Benedict's monastery (because she couldn't go in) and spend hours in prayer and discussion.  On one such occasion, as the hour grew late, St. Benedict said he'd better get going. She was having a fabulous time discussing things with him and begged him to stay longer. He refused.


St. Scholastica bowed her head for a moment and a giant wild storm suddenly rose up.  St. Benedict said to her, "What did you do!?"  And she replied, "I asked you to stay and you wouldn't listen, so I asked God if you could stay and He did listen.  Try to leave now."  I'm sure she also smirked and chuckled, because, who wouldn't after that?


St. Benedict was forced to stay overnight. Three days later he saw the soul of his sister rise to Heaven in the form of a white dove.




There's a weather related saint for you!


The three official patron saints of journalists are St. Francis de Sales, St. Maximillian Kolbe, and St. Paul. St. Francis de Sales was very learned, a Doctor of the Church and spread the Gospel as thoroughly as he could.  St. Maximillian Kolbe actually was a journalist, of a sort, because he realized the the newly popular radio could be used for the good of the Church. I believe he had a radio show.  And St. Paul, well, who spread more news than him? Even now, he's still at it.  So I'd go with St. Max or St. Paul for your news station.

3 comments:

slimsdotter said...

Sister, if you ever get caught up wtih our questions (Joke) I have another project for you. I'd like to learn about the saints that are named in some Masses- Linus, Cletus, Clement, Sixtus... maybe you could do them in order and have a book?!

Also I wanted to comment about the New Evangelization I have been hearing about. I have only been received into the church since this Easter Vigil, but if New Evangelization means internet you are right on target. The Holy Spirit brought your blog and EWTN into my world about the same time, and you helped educate me in the faith. I found other blogs through people commenting and linking on yours, and found a mentor at the blog Pewspective. I was convinced to enter the church by "internet people",a few books, and the grace of God. Thank you for your work on this blog. I have come from the protestant churches, and have no catholic relatives at all, either on my side or my husband's.

Anonymous said...

slimsdotter, welcome home!

Anonymous said...

Hello, I am 54 years old and consider myself fairly awake and generally fairly intelligent. For the last few years I see the sky full of "lines" of clouds which gradually expand into cloud-like formations except that they are structured differently. These lines are coming from high-flying jets and as you know cannot be contrails as true contrails dissipate fairly rapidy. In addition, on a few occasions I have witnessed a prism effect on those clouds. Do you know what is going on?