A saint is just a sinner who keeps trying “Can we be saints?” is a blog written to introduce you to the saints of the Catholic Church in a new way. These won’t be just boring bios. We’ll show you how saints struggled and faced the same kind of problems we do today. You’ll see the intersection of our lives with their lives. We can be saints. We just have to keep trying.
By Renae KranzCancer.Is there a word that strikes greater fear than this one? I know for me, there are few things that terrify me more (except perhaps fire, but that’s a story for another day). We’ve all been touched in some way, whether directly or indirectly, by this disease that sends even the strongest of us cowering in a corner.Now imagine having cancer in the early 1300s. No treatments known. A nearly certain death sentence. That was the news St. Peregrine Laziosi faced midway through his life.This saint’s early life started out a bit rocky as well. Let’s just say he didn’t exactly feel the love early on for the Church that eventually made him a saint.[caption id="attachment_4575" align="alignright" width="263"] Filippo Lippi, Presentation of the Temple, with St. Philip Benizi…
By Renae Kranz Many of us have suffered a deep loss in our lives. All loss is difficult, but some hit us harder than others. Losing a parent, a child or a spouse can change our lives in ways we don’t expect and can send us down paths we never saw coming. Some of those paths are good, some are not so good. That was the case for Saint Jane Frances de Chantal. Her life was impacted by the loss of the people closest to her, to the point of leading her to sainthood. And from what I can gather from her biography, she didn’t know at the time that those painful experiences would lead her to holiness. Born in Dijon, France, January 28, 1572, Jane Frances de Chantal was…
By Renae Kranz [caption id="attachment_4461" align="alignright" width="248"] St. Vincent de Paul[/caption] St. Vincent de Paul is a saint most of us are familiar with because of the society created to help the poor that bears his name: The Society of St. Vincent de Paul. He had a passion for helping the poor and sick in France. But he wasn’t always the great man we’ve heard about. Before his conversion to a deep faith and love of the poor, he was known to have a short temper. And there was something else about this saint that made him very much like us and it might surprise you. We’ll get to that soon enough. Ah, suspense. St. Vincent de Paul was born in Pouy, France, in 1581 to peasant farmers. Although his…
By Renae Kranz It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 19:24) Every time I hear the gospel reading with this verse tucked neatly into it, I squirm a bit in my pew. Don’t misunderstand me. I’m not rich by most people’s standards. My husband and I live in a modest home, drive normal (not new) cars, take normal vacations. We live like a typical middle class American family would. But we all know a typical middle class American family would be considered wealthy compared to most of the rest of the world. So I start to wonder when I hear that verse, “Is it hopeless for me to get to…
By Renae Kranz If you know the story of St. Padre Pio, you might be thinking, “How could he possibly be like the rest of us?” His story is remarkable and strange. He had mystical charisms which allowed him to do things few have been able to do. So again, how could he be like us? Let’s dive into his life to see what connections we can find. Padre Pio was born May 25, 1887, in Pietrelcina in southern Italy as Francesco Forgione. He grew up in a poor family of peasant farmers in a town where saint’s feast days were celebrated regularly. He was deeply affected early in childhood by his family’s involvement in the Church, attending daily Mass, praying the rosary each night, and even abstaining from meat…
By Renae Kranz Have you ever had to wait a long time to get something you really wanted in life? Maybe you’ve waited a long time to meet your ideal spouse, and the wrong people keep sending you off track. Or you can’t seem to land that job you’ve been working toward for years. The road blocks keep popping up. The waiting drags on. Saint Rose Philippine Duchesne faced the same problems. She’s probably not a saint you’ve heard of before, but she overcame road blocks and waiting in her own life. And maybe she can inspire you to face them head on in yours. While growing up in Grenoble, France, in the late 1700s, Rose felt called to enter the religious life early on, but her father objected. She…
