Saints Louis and Zelie Martin

Saints Louis and Zelie Martin are proof that you don't have to do extraordinary things to become a saint.  You don't have to be well known and famous.  You don't have to be known for visions, levitation, or for performing miracles.  You can become a saint by living an ordinary life doing ordinary things like raising and providing for your family. Louis and Zelie Martin became holy by doing God's will in their lives, by being parents.

Louis Martin was born on August 22, 1823.   Although his father was in the military, Louis chose to be a watch maker.  Louis wanted to enter the Grand Saint Bernard Monastery.  Unfortunately he did not know Latin which was a requirement for entrance.  Louis returned home study Latin and to finish his training as a watch maker.  After an illness, Louis decided that God did not want him to become a monk.  He set up a watch making and jewelry shop in Alencon.

Zelie Martin was born December 1831.  Her father was in the military also.   After her father's retirement from the military, his pension was small so the family had to watch their expenses. Zelie was often sick as a child and suffered from migraines.  Zelie wanted to be a religious and asked permission to enter the Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul.   The superior decided that Zelie did not have a vocation.   Zelie learned how to make Alencon lace and decided to open her own lace making business with her sister.  She was only 20 years old when she began this ambitious enterprise.

Louis and Zelie met in April 1858 and quickly grew to love each other.  They were married on July12, three months after they met.  They had nine children, four children died at a very young age.  Five daughters survived, Marie, Pauline, Leonie, Celine and Therese.  Marie, Pauline, Celine and Therese enter the Carmelite monastery while Leonie entered the Visitation monastery.

Louis eventually gave up his watchmaking career to help Zelie with her lace making business which was doing very well.  She had to take care of her growing family and manage the household in addition to taking care of her growing business.  Their goal in life was to raise their children to be faithful Catholics. Their spirituality was based on three principles.  They put God first in all they did, they had confidence in God's providence and they trusted in God's will.

They also believed that they were to help others who were not as fortunate as themselves. Examples of their generosity and care for others abound.  They would find work for the unemployed, feed the hungry, and donate money to the poor.  They were also concerned about the spiritual  welfare of others.  They prayed for others and shared their abundant faith in God whenever they could. They were true neighbors to all they met.

Zelie died at the age of 46 from breast cancer.  Her youngest child, Therese, was four years old.  Louis moved the family to Lisieux to be closer to his bother-in-law, Isidore Guerin.  When Louis was 64 years old, he suffered the first of many health problems.  His condition deteriorated and he began not only to experience physical problems but hallucinations  and delusions as well.   His daughters Celine  and Leonine took care of him at home for as long as they could.  Eventually he had to be admitted to a hospital because of the delusions. When his condition stabilized, he returned home. He died on July 27,1894.

Louis and Zelie Martin were cannoized by Pope Francis on October 18, 2015.


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Spiritual Graces From the Classroom

                

     As the students knelt before the Christmas Crib during Adoration time they heard Sister say:

     Tomorrow, at the Baptism of Our Lord the Liturgical Season of Christmas comes to a close.  We kneel in awe one last time at the crib wondering and remembering.  In the beginning there was God. And God was perfectly happy in Himself because He was not really alone.  He was living in the Trinity.  And wanting to share His love, He created and saw that it was “good.”  But when He created man whom He wanted to tend His creation, He saw that it was “very good,” because He made us in His image and likeness with an immortal soul like Himself.  Keeping true to His covenant promise to always take care of us, He emptied Himself in the fullness of time, and became one like us in everything except sin; “He took on flesh.”

     Sister paused and then continued,

     Listen, do you hear that? Sounds of a flute. Shepherd, what song do you play? What is it that we hear?  Silent Night? What Child is this? Away in the manger?

     Boys and girls look there! A multitude of angels are gathering around, raising their voices in song, “Glory to God in the Highest and on earth Peace to men of good will!”

     And look there is grandfather whispering to his grandchild.  Can you hear what he is saying? Let’s bend low.
     “My child, this is our Redeemer who was promised many years ago, kept alive down through the ages and is now ‘fulfilled in our hearing.’”

     “Oh grandfather, it is true.  A great King has humbled Himself, remaining what He was, yet becoming what He was not.  How can this be, grandfather?”
     “It is a great mystery of our Faith my child.”

     Boys and girls, just like we have to bundle up on this cold morning, it was a cold night when baby Jesus was born.  See, Mary His mother has wrapped her Son in swaddling clothes and Joseph has tucked hay around Him for warmth.  The animals’ breath comforts the Child chilled in the night.

     “Grandfather, look, who are they?”
     “My child, they are the Kings of the East bringing the most precious materials their countries offer as a gift to the Child, a Child who is meant for all people.”

     Silent Night, Holy Night, All is calm, all is bright.

     Mary cradles her Son, rocking back and forth, back and forth.  Joseph, the Protector of the Holy Family, silently contemplates the mystery that is his to care for.

     Jesus, thank you.  Thank you for letting us take time from our school work to come to Church and kneel in silence ‘remembering’ one last time.  Thank you for coming to live in time to show us the way to the Father in Heaven. As much as we want to though, Jesus, we can not stay here.  We must turn our eyes to the crucifix for this is WHY You came.  “His life was incomplete until He crowned it by His death.”

     Jesus, make my hands, Your hands, my feet, Your feet, my heart, Your Heart.  Let me see with Your eyes, listen with Your ears, speak with Your lips, love with Your heart, understand with Your mind, serve with Your will so that I will become all that You have called me to be.

To be continued next month.

From the Vocation Director’s Desk

     A young woman wrote: “Sister, is it a struggle at first to enter into the religious life? ST

Dear S.T.

     Yes, there is a struggle.  First, it comes from having to detach oneself from worldly things.  In Matthew 19:16-22 we read about the Rich Young Man who was very sincere in his want to “gain eternal life.”  He told Christ that he had kept all the commandments and was searching for what he lacked. When Christ said, “If you wish to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor…, then come, follow Me,” scripture tells us the Rich Young Man went away sad for his possessions were many.

     Christ could not fill what was already full.

     As you spiritually grow in your relationship with Christ the tug for things of this world will no longer matter and in fact short-lived.  It is then that you will realize that a different struggle had been silently creeping in all along, that is to say, the struggle to submit your will to the will of another, namely, the Superior who speaks in the place of Christ Himself.  This is not so easily mastered but with prayer as the center of one’s religious life nothing will be impossible.  Prayer implies a deep intimacy with the Lord and the closer you are to Him, the more you are stripped of all that is a barrier between your love and His, even that of submitting one’s will.


     If you have a question regarding your vocation or religious life in general you may write or email Sister at:

Sister Patricia Jean, SJW
Vocation Director
1 St. Joseph Lane
Walton, Kentucky 41904
sjwvocations@gmail.com
www.ssjw.org