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Commentary

By Liz Quirin

Praying With St. Francis de Sales

“Is it ever going to end?” I heard one man say in reference to the snow over the weekend. He could just as easily have been talking about Lent for some people who began their Lents early and see no end in sight, the 40 days notwithstanding. Many people are coping with pain, suffering, loss and trying all the while to make sense out of it. Sometimes reason or rationality just doesn’t fit into the picture, so we should just quit trying to explain things to ourselves or anyone else who will listen.

Actually, facing hardships of many kinds — some that can be changed and some that can’t — have the potential to make us better people. It isn’t always the suffering or the length and breadth of it that
we can control. However, we can sometimes decide how we will handle it.
Like shouldering a very heavy bag or bundle on our shoulders or backs, the way we carry it can make it possible to take care of the task.

That being said, I don’t know how I would face some of the crises I see my friends
and colleagues handling now. I spoke with Mary, my college roommate in Lafayette, La., and she emailed me a prayer attributed to St. Francis de Sales (one of my favorites since he is patron saint of journalists and as Sister Francis de Sales, the name of one of my more flamboyant high school English teachers).

Mary’s husband died three years ago, and someone had given her the prayer. She keeps it taped to the mirror in her bathroom and says it every day. After reading it, I passed it along to others after I turned it into a laminated card. What surprised
me was how many people I included in my “card handout.” More cards were printed and passed out. I know everybody needs prayers, and many people have
prayer lists. I have a permanent place on my sister’s prayer list. She says hardly anybody ever gets off her list so it has become quite lengthy.

I’m including the prayer attributed to St. Francis, and I will be happy to send you
one of the cards I made if you just send me a stamped and self-addressed envelope
so that I can send it to you. It says pretty much what we should be praying, saying and thinking
about as we begin our days. (The background is a photo of a flower I shot in Nairobi, Kenya, a few years ago.)