BLESSED SISTER MARIA GABRIELLA SAGHEDDU

Blessed Sister Maria Gabriella Sagheddu

1914-1939

My readers know I love to pick out the few women among the saints of the day because they're usually not discussed very much unless they happen to be one of the rare women that has garnered big attention throughout history. Today's choice is another of "the hidden ones" that I love to learn about, and then I pass it on to you. (She is a blessed, which is the first stage toward becoming a saint.)

The constant pains and disabilities that have grown on me and trapped me in their clutches have limited my ability to keep this habit on a daily basis. Also, there is often not a single female saint on any given day for whom the church has dedicated that day to her. I do not think it likely that there are fewer women who deserve sainthood than men. It is a comment on our religious culture that women are less noticed or highly regarded. This goes hand-in-hand with the culture, in general.

Do we expect women to be more religious and therefore we ignore them unless they're miracle machines? I don't know. Whatever the case, I like to pick out the women from the sometimes very long list of saints for each day and concentrate on those.

Another issue is that we seem to know so much less about these female saints than the male saints, making it doubly hard for women to find role models of the mystical life. Well, we'll just have to break new ground, won't we?

So, today we have Sister Maria Gabriella Sagheddu. She was a Trappist nun born in 1914, who is known as a patron of ecumenism because she was devoted to the concept of Christian unity, which strikes a chord with me, as I am keen on religious unity, such as can be experienced to whatever degree possible, given the different religious orientations. Blessed Sister Sagheddu clung to the idea that everyone would become one in Jesus Christ.

Years ago, when I was a nun in the Vedanta convent, we were all so excited to watch this series of talks with Bill Moyers and Joseph Campbell called "The Power of Myth." I highly recommend it, if you can get a copy. It's probably on Youtube, come to think of it. I can't really do it justice in explaining its effect on me, but it often highlighted the similarities among different religions, which was a great education for me. We all have more in common than you might realize.

The Catholic Church is the home of Christian ecumenism, and I am sure this idea will surprise some people who think that everything that is not strictly Catholic is automatically "demonic."  It is too bad, because they miss a lot. If you read the Catechism, you come across this idea that, if a person lives their life in a Christlike way, they are already part of the body of Christ, perhaps without even knowing it themselves. It makes sense, doesn't it? Truth and authenticity just shines through this concept. Jesus IS Truth, and the church recognizes this. Jesus said that those who love him follow his commandments, so, even if you don't know him and have never heard of him, if you are living his commandments, you must love him in some mysterious, mystical way.  In some way, you are part of the body of Christ if you behave in a Christ-like manner.

Maria Sagheddu was one of eight children born to shepherds in a small town in Sardinia. From all accounts, she was an ordinary child, with faults and bits of brilliance combined. She was a very good student, but had a mercurial personality at times, such as when her mother told her to throw out some potato peelings after preparing the evening meal. She argued, then threw them out, then went and got them back again. Who knows what was going through her mind and whether some sense of asceticism and thriftiness was offended?

She had a tendency toward severity with the children to whom she had begun to teach the catechism when young, and the priest replaced her stick with which she used to punish them. He gave her a note to use patience, rather than the stick. Though a strong personality, she took the correction and altered her method from that time forward.

It seems a shame that she died less than 2 years after making her vows with the Trappists. She had offered herself as a spiritual sacrifice for the unification of the Christian Church during a special week dedicated to it in 1938. God took her at her word and brought her home to himself the next year.

She was only 25 when she died of tuberculosis, but it just shows us that one's mission in life is realized in God's time, long or short.

God bless us all.

Silver Rose

JESUS PUNISHED THE RICH, BUT NEVER THE POOR

As I listen to and read world news, I am disturbed by a furious trend toward punishment as the cure for every societal ill, real or imagined

Recently, for instance, I heard that the small country of Brunei has just passed a law that adulterous and homosexual acts will be punished by stoning to death.

Stoning to death.

In our country, we have a so-called "president" who instituted  a policy that directly caused thousands of children to be taken away from their parents and incarcerated in cement-floored holding cells for an indeterminate time, with no plan in place as to how the children and parents would ever be reunited - all because the family came to this country, fleeing poverty and gangs, hoping for a better life.

Their kids were taken from them because, essentially,

their papers were not in order.

Donald Trump claims, falsely, that President Obama did the same thing. He did not. Trump is lying, once again. While the occasional incidental separation of children from parents convicted of serious crimes DID take place during the Obama administration, Trump's "Zero Tolerance Policy," as announced by Jeff Sessions (many videos available of the day he announced it) is what caused a huge uptick in the number of case of children separated from their families - so much so that the incarceration of these children and the conditions under which this was carried out, is a major scandal of this administration, in part because of the THOUSANDS of children and families thus brutalized.

I could write quite a bit about the punitive temperament of Donald Trump, but I just can't bear to let my mind touch him any more than I absolutely have to, other than to say that he and the people he represents form a large block of humans whose orientation tends toward harsh penalties, incarceration, and cruel practices.

"Sell your possessions and give alms; make yourselves purses

which do not wear out, an unfailing treasure in heaven, where no

thief comes near, nor moth destroys. For where your treasure is,

there will your heart be also."

Luke 12:44

I have observed that the people who ignore Christ's preference for the poor, and the Biblical injunctions against the amassing of wealth, are the same people who, with angry hearts, continually castigate the poor and disadvantaged. They are the ones who revel in the punishment of lawbreakers. To them, harsh worldly laws that target the poor and disadvantaged, are more important than the commandments of Jesus and the apostles, despite many of them advertising themselves as the best Christians ever. They are the modern Pharisees.

It is all smoke and mirrors, sleight of hand, and

the Wizard of Oz behind the curtain; meant to

distract attention from the disobedience of the

modern day Pharisees for whom commerce is

their God.

To combat our cultural tendency toward this harsh punitive orientation, we need to cultivate the love of Christ and advocate for the poor and disadvantaged, just as he and his Biblical forbears did. Resist the political narrative that encourages hatred of desperate immigrants who come here searching for peace, safety, and survival. Resist the lies and obfuscations that would have everyone believe that massive numbers of people are "gaming the system," "faking disability," and illegally obtaining food for their children at our expense.

The Pharisees are using gullible people to advance their agenda, which is to further enrich themselves while feigning religiosity at the same time. In doing so, they are twisting and torturing the Christian faith beyond all recognition.

Try to stay focused on the heart of Christ and his commandments. I recommend meditation on His words. Ignore the countless justifications for cruelty that the Pharisees present to us.  Concentrate on the heart of Jesus' message, his continual preference for the poor and disadvantaged, and everything good will flow from there.

"If you wish to be complete, go and sell your

possessions and give to the poor, and you shall

have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me."

Matthew 19:20

May the Lord submerge your heart in His love.

Silver

ARE YOU TOO COOL TO BE SYMPATHETIC TO THE PAIN OF OTHERS?

"Rejoice with them that rejoice;

weep with them that weep."

Romans 12:15

I have many happy days in my retirement, despite painful disabilities, and if you ask me, "how are you?" on any given day, I will usually say that I am "great" or something similar, but there are days, like this one, when I wake up to excruciating pain and can barely walk, but walk I must. Anyone who lives in an apartment with a dog knows what I am talking about. We are in service to the animals - especially first thing in the morning when they just have to get outside to accomplish their ablutions.

So, there I am, with little doggy bag in hand, and a neighbor asks me how I am and I tell him that today I woke in horrible pain - that the change in weather got to my bones.

Instead of expressing sympathy, the guy completely ignored what I had said and started talking about what a great day he was having.

I have seen various iterations of this type of thing. The men tend to ignore the comment about pain and will pretend they haven't heard it. Or perhaps they DON'T hear it. I am not quite sure about that. The women, especially if the conversation is on Facebook, will usually give some unsolicited advice, laden with criticism for daring to "complain" about pain. (I often say that THIS is why men are in charge of the world. Women are too busy criticizing one another and flapping their lips around rumors and gossip.)

Sometimes, I am gifted with some cosmic poo poo armchair philosophy that demands that I not mention the pain when asked, but that I should be "grateful" instead, and I should "count my blessings." This is a nasty thing to do to someone. What it communicates is a negative assessment of one's character.

I have my own unsolicited advice for these people. If you do not care about the well-being of the person, don't ask. If you DO care, and you hear that the person is in agony of pain, then be sympathetic.

First of all, sympathy is healing and peace-inducing. Read the chapter of the quote above and consider why Saint Paul recommends it. I would also like to point out that sympathy is free. It doesn't cost you anything to be sympathetic to the sufferings of others, so why not be sympathetic?

If your reaction to someone else's expression of pain or unhappiness is irritation, what does that say about YOU? Perhaps you think your precious time is being wasted, or perhaps you do not know what to say. In that case, let me tell you. Use some version of this:

"I am so sorry to hear that! I hope it gets better soon."

Put some warmth in your voice and add a smile, if you can manage it and if you haven't given out your daily allotment of smiles.

I find it odd that I have to write a blog post like this one. It seems a no-brainer to me. I try to always be sympathetic and, if I am close to the person, I might ask if there is anything I can do to help alleviate whatever the complaint happens to be. I don't consider it my right to "train" the person in the art of pretending there is nothing wrong. It is not healthy to make other people erect a false front of blissful, uncomplaining perfection because it is a big fat lie.

Life is messy and sometimes painful. For those of us with chronic illnesses and disabilities, it is QUITE painful at times. Pretending otherwise is a waste of time. Now, if you want to pretend that your life is perfect and if you have a personal philosophy that requires you to never admit to a pain or difficulty, that's your business. Go ahead! Pretend the day away, but don't burden the rest of the world with your criteria.

To be fair, I have to visit the other side of this troubling coin, and that is the fact that there are people in the world who do nothing BUT complain. I had a person like this in my life for some time. The woman complained to me constantly, despite the fact that her life is much more advantaged than mine. She's been married to the same man her whole adult life. They have a bunch of great children. They own a large home in a really good part of town. Her husband makes good money, and they frequently travel overseas on vacation.

This woman did nothing but complain about her blessings. Example: She would complain that a specially formulated medicine cost $500.00. She had the money to pay for it. She was complaining that it was expensive. Or was she bragging? I was never sure. The fact that she was complaining about spending $500.00 on medicine to a woman who goes WITHOUT many things she needs felt like abuse to me.

There is no reason to entertain people like this - people who complain about their blessings. That is a different kind of pretense entirely. After trying to get this person to understand that she was punching down on me by complaining about her blessings to someone who had so much less than she, I finally had to stop talking to her on the phone. She didn't try to draw me back in or to modulate her inconsiderate behavior. She just stepped up her litany of complaints to other people.

Even THIS person got my sympathy when she wasn't complaining about her advantages.

My bottom line is that, unless you're dealing with a person who complains about her good fortune, please just try to be a little sympathetic.

Silver Rose

(Sannyasini Kaliprana)

Silver Cottage Ashram Hermitage

Albuquerque, New Mexico

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