St Lucy Patron Saint of the Blind and Journaling! Image Source
About the St. Lucy Image Artist Featured above: Rhys Nicholas: After a career as a musician and teacher I longed for a quieter life of artistic pursuits and contemplation. Drawing upon my inspiration from the Patron Saints, from which have fascinated me from childhood, I have embarked upon this new journey. SaintlyCo Modern Image Artist of St. Lucy Featured A modern twist keeping the spirit of the Saints alive Auckland, New Zealand
A Brief Reflection on the Martyr, St. Lucy and more… Update from MTJ…
I am practicing daily God-Mindfulness using the Guide I made available in this blog. On rising there is the following instruction:
I promise to silently bear my sufferings, inconveniences and injustices as reparations
for sins causing You ( Jesus) great sorrow.
https://marytojesus.com/2022/10/23/god-mindfulness-daily-practice-guide/
The phrase that “I promise to silently bear my sufferings,” although that is easier said than done! As my day unfolds often I will be in a situation where something is said that I interpret as a very unjust comment said to me and /or about me, and I instinctively wish to defend myself, or explode in anger. Then my mind starts to think about Jesus, and how He is God, and so Loving and Giving, and how He must have felt when He was unjustly accused, unjustly tortured and unjustly crucified, yet He said, “Father forgive them for they know not what they do…”. Jesus did not show anger, or raise His voice in defense of Himself, despite having every right to do so. He endured so much, can I not endure just a little bit of criticism in silence? Can I just endure a little in silence for the sake of His Sorrowful Heart? I find I’m asking myself these questions many days a week and feel a sense of failure and unworthiness for not even being able to bear what i think is an unjust criticism, when Jesus suffered Torture and Crucifixion all on MY BEHALF! Fast forward to Sunday December 11, and reading on the week ahead, I came across one of several versions of an account of St. Lucy’s Life, from the 4th Century! There are ample references throughout this post, that will give you an account of what they think are the facts of Lucy’s Life, but a few common threads come to the fore.
>>> this brave woman who lived in Syracuse lost her life during the persecution of Christians in the early fourth century
>>> the story of a young Christian woman who vowed to live her life in service of Christ. Her mother tried to arrange a marriage for her with a pagan and Lucy knew her mother could not be swayed by a young girl’s vow, so she devised a plan to convince her mother that Christ was the better partner for life.
>>> After several prayers at the tomb of Saint Agatha, Lucy saw the saint in a dream. St. Agatha told Lucy her mother’s illness would be cured through faith, which Lucy used to persuade her mother to give the dowry money to the poor and allow her to commit her life to God.
>>> While Lucy and her mother were grateful to God, the rejected bridegroom was deeply angered and betrayed Lucy’s faith to the governor Paschasius. The governor attempted to force her into defilement at a brothel, but the guards who came to take her away were unable to move her, even after hitching her to a team of oxen.The guards heaped bundles of wood around her but it wouldn’t burn so they finally resorted to their swords, and Lucy met her death. It is reported that they used their swords to gouge out her eyes, when they couldn’t kill her; but “When her body was being prepared for burial, they discovered her eyes had been restored.”
>>> St. Lucy’s name is derived from the Latin word for “light,” and her Dec. 13 feast day coincided for centuries with the winter solstice until the reforms of the calendar. In Scandinavian countries, where little daylight is seen in the dark days of December, the people celebrate St. Lucy’s feast with much enthusiasm. Young girls dressed in white deliver sweets while caroling. They wear red sashes to commemorate St. Lucy’s martyrdom, and wreaths of lit candles sit on their head, representing the light of Christ that shone through the holiness and purity of the virgin-saint of Syracuse. Source Michael Heinlein, The Holiness of the Virgin-Martyr -St. Lucy, Simply Catholic
Catholic Online
So if I have trouble enduring my perceived injustices in silence, and maybe envisioning enduring Crucifixion, well what about living like a Saint, Can I do that I ask? Oh sure, I can pray like St. Therese of Lisieux. But can I endure having my eyes gouged out like St Lucy? By the example of Martyr’s Like St. Lucy, let me be inspired, that if I ever expect to be willing to put my life on the line for Jesus, then I should fully expect that I will suffer injustices and inconvenience’s in silence for the sake of Jesus’s Sorrowful Heart.
St Lucy Prayer
Saint Lucy, you did not hide your light under a basket, but let it shine for the whole world, for all the centuries to see. We may not suffer torture in our lives the way you did, but we are still called to let the light of our Christianity illumine our daily lives. Please help us to have the courage to bring our Christianity into our work, our recreation, our relationships, our conversation — every corner of our day. Amen
St. Lucy an Inspiration for our times.
A song about St. Lucy!
An alternate and widely accepted account of the Story of St. Lucy…
A downloadable St Lucy Fact Page, purchased from Catholic Online, Please support them!