March 22: Saint Lea
About this Saint, Saint Jerome writes: Who will praise the blessed Lea as she deserves? She gave up painting her face and covering her head with shining pearls. Exchanging her rich clothes for sack cloth and ashes, she stopped ordering others around; she lived in a corner with a few sticks of furniture; passed nights in prayer; instructed her companions by example rather than protests and speeches; awaited her arrival in heaven to be rewarded for the virtues she practiced on earth.
So too I beg you with tears in my eyes not to seek the pleasures of the world but to renounce all that is worldly. In vain man one attempt to follow both the world and Jesus. Let us live in renunciation, for our bodies will very soon be dust nor will anything else last longer.
How much do we complain, when we have lost something small? If we don't have a large house, a costly TV with cable, we feel deprived, and yet do we really have anything? Saint Lea only had a few sticks of furniture, but you can be sure she had a wood stove to cook on and heat with. She was far better off than us, because she could give this good example of self-sufficiency, both spiritually and materially
PRAYER: Saint Lea, help us to appreciate what is truly importance in this life. Amen.
