To Teach the Children

 

Today is the feast day (in the traditional calendar) of St. Jean Baptiste De La Salle, founder of the Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools and patron saint of teachers. He founded free schools for the poor and teachers institutes to train those who would form the minds and hearts of little ones. His apostolate, like that of St. John Bosco later, was often attacked, especially by those who thought the poor should be raised only in trades and manual labor. His congregation focused on "lay" brothers who were not going to be priests, but whose work was to be in the classroom. 

Say Thank You to Your Patron Saints Today!

All Saints Day is the perfect time to give special recognition to your patron saints. I am truly blessed to have been named for our Blessed Mother and her mother, St. Anne. I was born the day after the feast of the Annunciation so Mary was an obvious and appropriate choice. (Most of my siblings also have names associated with a saint whose feast day is near the date of their births.) How I love the feast that celebrates what I can only consider the most significant day in human history when the Word became flesh and began His journey among us. Without Mary's yes, the Incarnation, and the passion, death, and resurrection of our Divine Lord we would remain spiritually dead in the primordial muck of original sin. Thank you, Mary!

Happy Feast Day, St. James and Jamie!

St. James the Greater, brother of St. John

I love St. James! Both St. Jameses in fact. Having visited Santiago de Compostela in northwest Spain when my daughter was teaching at the university, I grew to really appreciate St. James the Greater, the brother of John. And then there is "St. James the Lesser" (I wonder if he was physically smaller or was he just quieter than the "Son of Thunder?") who told us in his epistle that "faith without works is dead." (HT to Janet for catching my error. Maybe this will keep me straight in the future about the two Jameses. )

Anyway, you gotta love a man who knows the score and articulates it so clearly! So thanks, St. James the Lesser

When our youngest child, a daughter, was born on August 2nd, the feast of St. Eusebius, we considered name possibilities. Much as I like the historian saint, I even have his history on my saints bookshelf, we couldn't think of a name variation our daughter wouldn't roll her eyes and groan about when she was older. ("Eusie? Mom, you've got to be kidding! What were you thinking?")

St. James the Lesser, uncle of James and John

So we looked at nearby dates for a more girl-friendly patron.  And there was my friend St. James
the Greater only a week earlier on July 25th. (St. James the Lesser's feast is May 3rd) So Jamie she became. The only questions we got were, "What's her real name? Isn't Jamie a nickname?"

Nope, Jamie she is, check out her birth certificate.

So Happy Feast Day to St. James the Greater and his namesake Jamie who can claim the other St. James for a patron as well. And thanks for the great epistle, St. James the Less.

St. James the Greater and St. James the Lesser, Pray for us!