With the reading of the Saints at the noon prayer I hope it=s becoming clear that the way the Lord shapes us into holiness is quite varied.

        I=m sure if she was born in our time, at least by the way the parents actually took care of her, she would have been dismissed in some form. If not abortion something else. Yet, here=s what happened.

        A war took place after thirteen years of being in that situation and so she was moved to their second castle and in this place she was thrown in the dungeon. Fortunately, the war didn=t last too long, about a year, so she was rescued out of it and at the same time the mother found out that a certain Franciscan had died in Costello and that people were being healed at his tomb. They decided they would take Margaret there and have her pray to be healed. It was quite a journey. When they got there they told her to pray real hard to be healed. She prayed and the parents left the church and then came back in late afternoon and saw that nothing had happened to her so they left her there. They simply abandoned her there.

        Here=s Margaret at the age of 20 with all these defects, that our society would consider absolutely horrible, and she was taken in by the poor. That is they had compassion on her. She would go to one home and work there, sew, help with the cooking, and take care of the children, then when they couldn’t handle it any more, she would move to the next one, etc. In the process what happened was she brought things there, that is, one home there was no peace after being there she would pray for them and peace would come into the home. Another home the poverty was so bad that they needed more revenue and sure enough mysteriously more revenue came into the home. Things like that were happening. Then the people, observing her virtuous life, said Ayou ought to become a nun.@

        So they talked the nuns into accepting Margaret into the convent and she fulfilled all the basic exterior canonical requirements and was accepted. The problem was that Margaret kept the rule. She was obedient, and very faithful to all her obligations. This disturbed the community because it was lax. She was always very obedient to inspirations of grace, she just didn=t up and do things. She would pause and pray about things and sometimes consult her spiritual director. In this case she did this also and the spiritual director basically said, AYou are doing the right things. This is what God wants, so keep at it.@ Because she kept at it she was kicked out of the convent .

        The second sponsor that she went to was more interesting because the house caught on fire. In those days there was no fire department so everyone gets a pail of water and lines up and passes one to the other till they can quench the fire. In this case the fire was out doing their brigade so the mistress remembered that Margaret was in the house. She ran back and called out and Margaret showed up and she was praying. She was calm and the mistress said, AGet out of here! It=s going to burn down!@ Margaret said, Ahave no fear it will not burn down. Here=s my cloak, take it and throw it into the fire.@ As soon as the mistress threw it into the fire the fire was extinguished. With that kind of miracle the whole town became aware of Margaret.

        Besides other miracles that took place in her life what was most interesting is that she didn=t live too long and she became famous in town, everybody knew her. She died at the age of 33. Before she died, she became a Third Order Dominican, montalate. She extended her work besides the poor and the dying to the prison. The prison was absolutely horrendous. You were basically locked into a cell or always chained to a wall and since the jailer didn=t get much pay he would take the food that was offered through generous people and sell it to the prisoners that could afford it. What was left over was given to the other prisoners. Which means some people never ate. Nobody cleaned the place and of course they didn=t even have a decent place to sleep. She organized the montalate and they began to do some important work. They cleaned up the place, get people to pray and to die in the Lord.

        Soon after that she died. It was interesting at this time when the word got out that she died the whole town showed up. People were in the church, Dominicans were carrying her on a stretcher and they intended to bury her in the cloister because she was a Third Order Fransican. The people were basically opposed to it, they said, AShe=s our saint, bury her in the church!@ So it became a chant. The Dominicans were trying to show that you can=t canonize a saint this way. You have to go through Rome, etc. So they put the body down and they tried to calm the crowd down and start reasoning with the crowd. In the meantime, parents who had a very deformed child who was about 6 or 7 years old, wiggled through the crowd and placed the child next to Margaret. While this was going on, all of a sudden Margaret=s arm went up and touched the child. The child jumped up and said, AI=m healed! I=m healed!@ Of course, everyone knew that she was mute and deformed and there she=s all healthy so that settled the argument. Margaret was buried in the church. She=s one of two hundred some incorruptibles of our church. So you can go to Costello and see her laying out as if she=s just asleep.

        Now I think this witness of this saint has some powerful things to tell us. The first one is that God really loves each one of us and that he holds nothing back. The only reason God doesn=t get closer to us is us, it=s not God. It is powerfully shown in this. She prayed many times as she got older in the prison for instance, she would even levitate. She was so absorbed in her prayer. She had deep union with God.

        Secondly, it counter acts against all our culture that says AI have to be pursuing my self fulfillment.@ She accepted her terrible limitations. But because she placed them all in the hands of God, let God integrate her life, she was able to be his instrument. Therefore, there is nothing in us, we all have weaknesses and defects, I=m sure there=s one in each of us that we hate and wish we could get rid of, but that too is in God=s designs for us. We have to learn how to place it in God=s hands and let God really guide our life.

        There are many other examples and insights that come from meditating on Margaret=s life. But I think those two are sufficient to think about. How do I really look at God generosity toward me? That he holds nothing back from me, absolutely nothing. Secondly, how do I look at my weaknesses and faults and short comings and as a result let the Lord really shape my life. Let God be God in my life. Hopefully, if we can let God be God in our life we would treat each other that way and let God be God in each other=s life.

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