If you can stand any more holy coincidences from this past extraordinary month, I’ve got a few more for you:
On Tuesday as I was getting ready for work, I glanced at my calendar to see if there was any saint this week to whom I could pray for the conclave. I saw St. Anselm for April 21, sent up a quick prayer, and promptly thought no more about it. Today at Mass, Father mentioned that St. Anselm was a Benedictine. After glancing through his online biography, I note that he was also a theological writer (indeed, eventually, a Doctor of the Church) and a counselor to Popes Gregory VII and Urban II.
Hmmm.
Then it occurred to me that our new Pope will be installed this Sunday, April 24, the fifth Sunday of Easter. For the fifth Sunday of Easter, the Gospel reading will be on Christ’s declaration that he is the Way, the Truth, and the Life; something that Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger firmly upheld in the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith’s document Dominus Iesus. But if April 24 hadn’t been an Easter Sunday, would there have been a saint’s memorial that day?
Yes. Please meet St. Fidelis of Sigmaringen, born in Germany, martyred in Switzerland while preaching to the Calvinists and Zwinglians, canonized by Pope Benedict XIV. According to the Patron Saints Index linked above, among the symbols used to represent him are "a club set with spikes; … a whirlbat; heretics; … [and] Saint Joseph of Leonissa." He’s commonly pictured "trampling on ‘Heresy’; with an angel carrying a palm of martyrdom; [and] the Morning Star."
Lastly, here’s the money quote attributed to St. Fidelis:
"Woe to me if I should prove myself but a halfhearted soldier in the service of my thorn-crowned Captain."
“Woe to me if I should prove myself but a halfhearted soldier in the service of my thorn-crowned Captain.”
Wow, that is seriously way too cool.
Here is my little Godincidence story.
My mother, an orthodox Roman Catholic (and convert from the Lutheran faith), was deeply devoted to the Rosary and also to John Paul II. She died on October 16, 2000, the anniversary of his election. Two years later JPII announced the Year of the Rosary, of course on October 16, the anniversary of both his papacy and her death. My sisters and I joked that Mom must have convinced him to do so.
When the conclave began I “knew” that Cardinal Ratzinger would be elected, and I “knew” it would be April 19 — my mother’s birthday. I sent emails to my sisters on the 18th with my feelings. The afternoon of April 19 every one of my sisters emailed, wondering how I could have “known.”
I just figured that my mom wanted a gift for her birthday, and the Holy Spirit complied — and gave a gift to the whole world.
God is good!
Ruthann
GODINCIDENCE
In light of all the evidence
Amassed through all my days
Convince me that coincidence
Accounts for awesome ways
That God has used in guiding me
To pathways He has planned
Although at times I cannot see
His firm but loving hand
Oft times only in retrospect
Do we at all perceive
Some subtle skeins that intersect
In God’s great interweave
Entangled by my finite mind
I sometimes stand bemused
Or run in circles far behind
Exhausted and confused
Yet even then God somehow takes
My faithless stubborn will
Then breaks and moulds until He makes
Some thing of beauty still
In His Divine Economy
Once His design is seen
Remoulded vessel’s symmetry
Exceeds what might have been
‘Twould take more faith to disbelieve
Than to embrace the fact
That God rewards those who believe
Inviting Him to act
The simple truth and consequence
To some may sound absurd
But I believe GODINCIDENCE
Deserves to be a word
© Duane W. Udd
16th Jan. 1998