Every year, EVERY year, I miss the feast day of St. Martin de Porres, who is my favorite saint. So, of course, this year I missed it again. I go to Mass about 45 Saturdays out of the year, but last Saturday, November 3, St. Martin's feast day, I decided not to go, and that's really too bad because there is a very nice shrine to St. Martin in Memphis and I could have gone to Mass there.
One reason I love St. Martin so much is because of his great humility. When he first entered his monastery, he didn't ask to be a lay brother, but only a helper, or servant, although after a while the prior ordered him to become a lay brother. When the monastery was in financial difficulty, he asked them to sell him into slavery to get the money they needed. Thankfully, his request was denied, but his willingness to give of himself completely never ceases to touch and amaze me.
Another reason I love him is his hospitality, but there is more to it than that, and the more is something that I can't really explain because I don't understand it myself. I have just always been drawn to him.
St. Martin had a lot in common with President Obama. As you probably know, he was of mixed race and his father was only with the family for short periods of Martin's life. So, when the president was elected for the first time, I thought that St. Martin would be the perfect saint to intercede for him. For the past four years, my husband and I have said a novena to St. Martin for Obama over and over again, praying one day each morning that we ride to work together, which is most mornings. We say some other prayers and the rosary first, and usually get to this novena about the same time we reach the expressway. We usually finish about the time we get to the field I described in my poem the other day. It's the one that fills up like a bowl with fog. We call this St. Martin's Field.
I find most novenas to be a bit irksome in the way the prayers are written and this one is no exception, but that's okay. That's just another little something to offer up. I've put a link to a page with this novena on the sidebar, and another page with the Prayer of St. John Fisher for bishops, which I posted when the HHS Mandate first entered on the scene.
AMDG
Another reason I love him is his hospitality, but there is more to it than that, and the more is something that I can't really explain because I don't understand it myself. I have just always been drawn to him.
St. Martin had a lot in common with President Obama. As you probably know, he was of mixed race and his father was only with the family for short periods of Martin's life. So, when the president was elected for the first time, I thought that St. Martin would be the perfect saint to intercede for him. For the past four years, my husband and I have said a novena to St. Martin for Obama over and over again, praying one day each morning that we ride to work together, which is most mornings. We say some other prayers and the rosary first, and usually get to this novena about the same time we reach the expressway. We usually finish about the time we get to the field I described in my poem the other day. It's the one that fills up like a bowl with fog. We call this St. Martin's Field.
I find most novenas to be a bit irksome in the way the prayers are written and this one is no exception, but that's okay. That's just another little something to offer up. I've put a link to a page with this novena on the sidebar, and another page with the Prayer of St. John Fisher for bishops, which I posted when the HHS Mandate first entered on the scene.
AMDG
P.S. This post was originally called, "A Day Late . . . ." I need to find the patron saint of procrastination.
I don't think I've thought of St. Martin de Porres since my childhood, when I knew him as Blessed Martin de Porres.
ReplyDeleteThank you for bringing me back to him, and for posting the novena.
I can't remember when I first learned about St. Martin. I know that it wasn't until after he was canonized and that was when I was 15. It must have been in my late 20s or early 30s.
ReplyDeleteAbout 15 years ago, I found a missal in a used bookstore with relics of St. Martin, Mother Cabrini, and St. Therese stuck in between the pages, so I bought it. When I had major surgery in 2000, I asked my Catholic Doctor to stick the St. Martin relic in his pocket during the operation. He did, and he gave it back to me, but I don't remember ever seeing it again.
AMDG
"A Day Late..." But fortunately not a dollar short.
ReplyDeleteI agree, he's a perfect saint to ask to intercede for Obama.
A dollar short is my middle name.
ReplyDeleteAMDG