In the
theme of things that refresh my soul- spending time with my furry boy does
miracles. I was reading an article about
how science discovered that dogs can understand language and have a
developmental intelligence of a two-year-old.
After years of study, scientist have discovered that dogs comprehend
many words and also the tone of their master.
I find these studies a little lame because all dog owners know this and
much more (smile). Now, don’t hold this
against me, but I am a dog person who also through circumstance became a bird
mom and from a young age my dog has been conditioned to chase cats away and
keep his bird brother safe. I give the
command in Spanish, “gatos, gatos,” and
my babe runs out into the yard ready for the chase. He always returns with the proudest grin of a
job well done. I joke that he’s
trilingual, because he understands English, Spanish and Dog. When I am around animals (especially mine) my
soul is utterly happy.
Sometimes I need to bribe him with treats.
Sometimes he needs a lecture, "just one picture please."
After my
reversion, I had two areas that I was very hesitant even resistant in terms of
my Catholic faith: Mary and the saints.
I felt that both distracted me from my worship of God, I even told a
priest once during confession that I felt guilty asking Mary or the saints for intercession
because I was afraid to make Jesus jealous.
Though he gave me a great explanation, it took quite some time before I
converted in these areas. My first
conversion was in regards to the saints, the priest told me that they were my
friends and just like I would ask any friend for prayer I could do the same
with these holy people. Yet, I wasn’t
convinced until I met Saint Francis of Assisi.
He came to me through song. It
was around 2007, I was in a very dark place, and had just started attending Jovenes Para Cristo meetings. One night we were asked to close our eyes and
the choir began singing the “Peace Prayer.”
The words had such power over my spirit and I remember sobbing a good
snotty cry. Afterward I discovered that
hymn was inspired by Saint Francis and my curiosity led me to learn more about
this Catholic man. I found his life
absolutely fascinating, but what I most loved was that we had so much in
common. Things that (at the time) I
would not associate with God. Little
things like the stories of him speaking to birds and saving a town by
converting a wolf were things that spoke to me as an animal lover. His profound love of nature and his complete
love for all creation surprised me. I
loved that he had an awareness for all these things that I so loved. And because of these small commonalities he
became my friend who slowly led me from God’s creation to the Creator.
Love my cheetah print shirt!
Saint
Francis, was the first saint that I didn’t feel uncomfortable or suspicious around
and that’s why to this day he’s my favorite, my special beloved saint. Through Him, God showed me that it’s good to
have holy friends and who better than the saints - that saints lead us to God,
challenge us to become better people and intercede for us! Some say we shouldn’t have favorites among
the saints, but I disagree.
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