Mother Angelica

After being an initial fan of Teresa of Calcutta, I had decided that she was an ambitious lady who had done much but short of saintly.  I might have committed the sin of pride for I have judged her while not even having even done a miniscule fraction of what she had accomplished.  My idea of one who is saintly is not one who is famous or have or had done things that grab the attention of the world, but one who loves deeply and sincerely God, and God's only Son, Jesus and His Mother, and ours, the Virgin Mary and does the best to his or her ability to serve those around him or her.  Even if he or she can save just one soul, that is saintly enough for me -- it does not have to number in the hundreds, or hundreds of thousands.

Mother Angelica is another lady who has done things that have grabbed international attention, at least of those who are Catholic.  I like her.  I love her.  I believe that she was not driven by ambition but by humility and obedience to God.  I accidentally came across a blogger who believes she is an instrument of Satan because she had gotten so much money to build the "temple" in Hanceville, Alabama: The Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament of Our Lady of the Angels Monastery. [1]  I hope this blogger will find that Mother Angelica truly saw a vision of Baby Jesus in Bogatá, Columbia, who asked her to build a temple.  I believe that Mother Angelica saw this vision and it was not "made-up" or from a desire to be powerful and/or famous.

Mother Angelica,

Pray for me. 

With all my love, Al


[1] The Shirne of the Most Blessed Sacrament of Our Lady of the Angels Monestary  
In my opinion, there is nothing wrong with spending millions upon millions of dollars glorifying God, the Father, Christ the Son, and the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, Mother of God.  There is also nothing wrong with millionaire monks and nuns who live in the spirit of poverty, who assist the needy, who love God without reservation, even though they may enjoy the luxuries of life on earth and share them with others [2], for Heaven have even more abundant luxuries waiting for the faithful ones.  I think money is cheap but a lot of people put a lot of weight on it because it buys so much, so much of what our existence simply does not need.  What we do need is a place, a place of awe that reaches up to the heavens, to do God's will "on earth and it is in heaven" and that is to pray to God and to ask others to join in.  To have this place, money needs to be spent.  Money is but a medium of exchange, and when this medium is used in buying things that are not necessary, how cheap is that medium?  In other words, one is using something to gain something not needed, then one has just exchanged something worthless for something equally worthless.  Building a place of worship with money is exchanging something worthless for something worthwhile.  And as a result of that exchange, there is borne a place where our time, our kindness and our love are shared generously with others, if not by deed then by dedicated prayers.  That is rich.  God is rich because those are the things we receive from God - God's time, God's kindness and God's love.  Without God's time to listen to us, God's kindness in caring for us, God's love in forgiving us, then we are already in Satan's Hell.  A person who spends wealth in glorifying God is not under the influence of Satan; the person who is envious of such spending is.
[2] I found this passage (Acts of the Apostles 4:32-5:11) on the internet after writing this at  http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Acts+4%3A32-5%3A11&version=ESV":
^"32 Now the full number of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one said that any of the things that belonged to him was his own, but they had everything in common. ³³ And with great power the apostles were giving their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. ³⁴ There was not a needy person among them, for as many as were owners of lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold ³⁵ and laid it at the apostles' feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need. ³⁶ Thus Joseph, who was also called by the apostles Barnabas (which means son of encouragement), a Levite, a native of Cyprus, ³⁷ sold a field that belonged to him and brought the money and laid it at the apostles' feet."
So glad to find support in the Bible for my thought.