Melanie Rigney's Blog, page 31

Wednesday’s Woman: Blessed Veronica Antal

The Basics: Born December 7, 1935, in Romania; died August 24, 1958, in Romania; beatified September 22, 2018; feast day, August 24. Laywoman and martyr.

The Story: What would you do if you felt called to serve the Lord in a particular way–but couldn’t, for reasons out of your control? That’s the situation in which Romania’s first beatified woman found herself. Veronica believed she was built to become a religious sister. However, the communist government had closed all the convents. So, Vero...

All in the Family

Note: On Tuesdays and some Sundays, you can find me at Your Daily Tripod, owned by my friend TonyD. A longer version of the post below appears there.

He said to them in reply, “My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and act on it.” (Luke 8:21, NABRE)

If you came from a loving, generous, considerate family with minimal drama, you may find Jesus’s comment hard. Why the seeming indifference about seeing Mary and his cousins and other relatives? They want to see him but can’...

Wednesday’s Woman: Blessed Maria Vincenza Poloni

The Basics: Born January 26, 1802, in Italy; died November 11, 1855, in Italy; beatified September 21, 2008; feast day, November 11. Woman religious.

The Story: Maria Vincenza (born Luigia) was good at waiting.

She was the youngest of twelve children, but only three survived to adulthood. When she was twenty, her father, who ran a grocery-drugstore, died. That meant the young woman spent the next thirteen years at home, looking after her mother, helping to care for her brothers’ children, and...

The Greatest Spiritual Gifts

Note: On Tuesdays and some Sundays, you can find me at Your Daily Tripod, owned by my friend TonyD. A longer version of the post below appears there.

“I am the most inept of creatures, but the Lord sometimes uses very weak instruments for His works; so let it be His will.”

I recently ran across this quote from Blessed Maria Vincenza Poloni, a nineteenth-century Italian sister. She was co-founder of a Veronese community of women religious who continue to do good works today in Latin America an...

Follow Me

Note: On Tuesdays and some Sundays, you can find me at Your Daily Tripod, owned by my friend TonyD. A longer version of the post below appears there.

Our rich history is full of martyrs who gave their earthly lives for the Lord. Already this month, we’ve celebrated the deaths of 190 martyrs of the French Revolution; Emilias and Jeremiah of Cordoba; Felix and Regula of Zurich; and more.

Denying ourselves, taking up our crosses, and following, however,

By Superhero Scramble, LLC [CC BY-SA 3.0 (...

Wednesday’s Woman: Blessed Alphonse Marie Eppinger

The Basics: Born September 9, 1814, in France; died July 31, 1867, in France; beatified September 9, 2018; feast day, July 31. Woman religious.

The Story: There’s a school of thought that we need to suffer if we are to be true daughters and sons of the Lord. However, that’s not the way Alphonse Marie (born Elisabeth) Eppinger saw it. She knew from personal experience; she had her own health challenges when she was very young, and it’s likely that informed her life. Rather than invite sufferin...

The Lord Takes Delight in… Us

Note: On Tuesdays and some Sundays, you can find me at Your Daily Tripod, owned by my friend TonyD. A longer version of the post below appears there.

Our world is troubled. Whether it’s more troubled than it was seventeen years ago today, or 170 years ago, or 1,700 years ago depends on perspective. Seventeen ago, the United States was under attack. In 1848, revolutionary waves rolled across more than fifty European countries. In 318, controversy raged about the persons of the Holy Trinity.

An...

Wednesday’s Woman: Blessed Anna Kolesarova

The Basics: Born July 11, 1928, in the Slovak Republic; died November 22, 1944, in the Slovak Republic; beatified September 1, 2018; feast day, November 20. Martyr.

The Story: Sometimes, it’s not as much about what happens when we say yes to the Lord as much as happens afterward.

By Ville Miettinen (originally posted to Flickr as Košice) [CC BY 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/...)], via Wikimedia Commons

Sixteen-year-old Anna; her father and brother; and the neighbors were hiding...

Of Iced Mochas, Demons, and Battle

Note: On Tuesdays and some Sundays, you can find me at Your Daily Tripod, owned by my friend TonyD. A longer version of the post below appears there.

Among human beings, who knows what pertains to a person except the spirit of the person that is within? Similarly, no one knows what pertains to God except the Spirit of God. (1 Corinthians 2:11, NABRE)

Earlier this year, I went five months without an iced venti decaf skinny mocha, a drink I had been indulging in as many as three times a day.

I’...

On the Nightstand: Finding God in Ordinary Time

I’ve always had a thing for Ordinary Time–in theory. For Catholics, it’s the time outside the major liturgical seasons such as Lent, Easter, Advent, and so on, the the time when weeks are numbered (ordinal). It would seem that outside of those busy seasons, there’s more time for God. Except, of course, there’s always an excuse for not making that happen, right? That’s why I’m really excited about my study plan for September, Christine Eberle‘s Finding God in Ordinary Time. I found out about C...