Choose to be inspired

 “O Creator and Giver of Life, who crowned your martyr Maria Skobtsova with glory and gave her as an example of service to the suffering and poor even unto death: Teach us to love Christ in our neighbors, and thereby battle injustice and evil with the light of the Resurrection; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God in glory everlasting. Amen.” 

Often, I find it impossible to read biographical sketches describing the faith of the saints without feeling woefully inadequate and insecure about my own faith.  A recent example I discovered is Saint Maria Skobtsova (21 July), whose fascinating path to sainthood proved anything but traditional.  Mother Maria was a divorced woman, a political revolutionary, an intellectual, and a nun known for her blunt, outspoken, strong-minded personality.  She was born at the end of the 19^th century into an affluent family and later became a member of the cultural elite of St. Petersburg – counting writers, poets, and political thinkers among her close friends.  That comfortable existence quickly disappeared when world war forced her (and many others) to flee Russia for Paris where she lived in poverty and watched helplessly as so many around her (including her youngest child) succumbed to disease and/or the lingering effects of alcohol and drugs.
 
While the first part of Maria’s life focused on ideas, the part that began in Paris centered on action.  She empowered, fed, served, counseled, and cared for all her neighbors, even becoming an active part of the resistance movement that smuggled Jews to safe locations.  Unfortunately, that work eventually led to her arrest and deportation to a concentration camp.  She continued serving others in the camp and carried that service to its most extreme consequence when she took someone else’s place in the crowd selected for “extermination” in the gas chamber on 31 March 1945 (the day before Easter and just as World War II was ending in Europe.)  Her life exemplified what it means “to love one another as I have loved you” (John 13:34).  So instead of comparing myself to Mother Maria and feeling inadequate, I choose to be inspired by her and plan to find ways to love all my neighbors (even the difficult ones) and to, (echoing the words of John and Anne in his recent sermon and her recent article) ‘embody hope in my small corner of the world, in Jesus’ name.’      
 
— Lindsey Nicolai