Maura was born in the ninth century at Troyes in Champagne.  A very prayerful child, she was able through her example and fervent prayers to convert her entire family to Christ.

Throughout her life, this virgin remained devoted to prayer and was most obedient and charitable to all. After her father’s death, she cared for her mother as well as serving the poor and the Church. It delighted her to make sacred vestments, trim the lamps, and prepare wax and other things for the altar. She spent long hours in church, adoring God, praying to her divine Redeemer, and meditating on His life and passion.

She fasted twice weekly, on Wednesdays and Fridays, on bread and water only. She visited with her spiritual director frequently, walking barefoot over five miles to the monastery to see him.

So wonderful was her gift of tears, that she was seen often on her knees with tears streaming down her face out of love and joy. God performed many miracles in her favor, but out of humility she would avoid all recognition or praise from humans.

St. Maura died at age twenty-three. Her relics and name are honored in several churches in France and she is also mentioned in the Gallican Martyrology.

Other Saints We Remember Today

Saints Carina, Melasippus, and Antony (360), Martyrs

St. Willibrord (739), Bishop, Patron of Holland

St. Engelbert (1225), Archbishop, Martyr

There are many wonderful books about Catholic saints available. Most of you probably own some of them. Perhaps you even have some collecting dust in your home. They looked so interesting, but you never found the time to read them. So, why should you purchase another one? Because in the new A Book of Saints for Catholic Moms, Lisa Hendey has put together a very inspiring, practical guide to the saints designed especially for Catholic mothers.

Hendey, the founder of CatholicMom.com, wrote this book as the follow-up to her bestselling The Handbook for Catholic Moms. In that book, she focused on the “importance of nurturing ourselves as moms in four components of our lives: heart, mind, body, and soul.” In this resource, she has profiled 52 saints and highlighted which of those four components they speak to in our lives. This book can be used on a week by week basis with the focus being on one saint per week, or one may simply wish to focus on a saint that speaks to whatever area of one’s life is in need of a little extra help at the moment.

For each saint, Hendey offers a variety of topics: a brief biographical sketch, reflections on lessons learned from the saint, popular traditions associated with him or her, a quote from the saint, a week’s worth of Scripture verses that are associated with the spirit of that holy person, activities to do either alone or with your children, a prayer asking for the saint’s intercession, and questions to ponder throughout the week. Of course, one is under no obligation to do or reflect on all of that information, but it is good to have options. Each person reading this book will find something that appeals to her and her preferred way of learning and praying.

The variety of saints that Hendey profiles should also be noted. Beginning with our Blessed Mother, “the first and best Catholic mom,” she includes many of the well-known saints you may already know and love, such as Teresa of Avila, Sebastian, Maria Goretti, Patrick, Martha of Bethany, John Paul II, and Mother Teresa of Calcutta. But, she does seem to have made a concerted effort to focus on saints that are less well-known. It is possible that readers may find some new friends in the communion saints as they read and reflect on individuals such as Josephine Bakhita, Isidore of Seville, Louis and Marie-Azelie Martin, Chiara “Luce” Badano, and André Bessette.

In A Book of Saints for Catholic Moms, Lisa Hendey has compiled and created a very useful and inspirational book. It can be used alone, with your family, or as part of a Catholic women’s book club. No matter how it is used, your life will be enriched as a result.

I confess I was at Bed Bath and Beyond the other day and I saw the box screaming at me to “buy, buy, buy the ShamWOW!” I mean, how could I resist when that geeky little guy on the front was telling me that “You’ll be saying WOW every time!”

I got the box home and stored a healthy amount in the kitchen and under the sink in the bathroom. The next time there was a leak I would be ready. As I was unpacking the box, proud of my contribution to house and home, I noticed a small piece of white paper that fell out. It read simply, “Do not place in the dryer.”

What?

Why would I need to be so gentle to my ShamWOW products? It’s not as if they could break or anything like that. Then I noticed the tag: 100% Rayon.

Rayon?

I bought a sheet of rayon from Germany? I don’t think an American has felt this ripped off since we built the United Nations. I still thought there must be something to these things and that all I had to do was wait until my next big spill so that I could use these little beauties.

Sure enough, a few days later, we had a spill at the house. It wasn’t just any spill. I was brining chicken breasts to prepare on the grill and the brining juice poured out of the bag and all over the floor. I screamed in anguish. Then I rejoiced. I had a ShamWOW! I would be saying WOW in no time!

What a joke.

I wiped at the floor and counters with my new towel and found that everything was still soaking wet. The little sheets didn’t even pick up that much liquid. In the end, I ended up grabbing a bath towel and wiping down my kitchen with good old fashioned American cotton.

I felt so betrayed by the ShamWOW. Here I was an innocent bystander and I had been taken in. I thought they wanted to help and it turned out they were just out to make a quick buck and supply me with something I could have picked up at the fabric store for about 50 cents.

I was so angry.

Then I remembered all the times that I had made big promises to people. “Don’t worry! I’ll take care of it!” “No, really, I just want to help out!”

How many times had those situations ended with me just apologizing for not doing the job I was supposed to do as I moved on to the next thing that I thought was important? Certainly not what a saint is supposed to be doing at all.

I think I may have turned a corner in my life, and this may have to do with Easter, but I really truly want to help other people. Not that I didn’t before, but helping people was part of a few things that I did. Now I think that there is a great amount of joy that can be found in cleaning up the mess of others, of making something right, of making someone better than they are, of encouraging them to move beyond the ordinary, the every day.

In the end, isn’t that what we are supposed to do any way? We can’t make big promises and advertise all these great things that we are going to do if we are not going to deliver. What if we promised to do just one thing today? What if we promised to help other people in a way that we might not have in the past? What if we were more concerned about the success of the people around us than our own success? What if we only did things for the benefit of others rather than for ourselves?

If we can all help each other to become saints, to become better, to live each moment as our final moment on the journey to sainthood, well…

THEN you’d be saying “Wow!” every time.