Saints Louis and Zelie Martin

July 12th is the Feast of Saints Louis and Zelie Martin, parents of St. Therese the Little Flower and her sister Venerable Leonie.  Patrons of Marriage, Parenting, Illness and Widowers

Most everyone knows the stories of the most popular saints, especially the "Greatest Saint of Modern times"- St. Therese.  Although, not as often do people reflect on how they got there.  Who were their biggest influences and the ones who formed their way of thinking and paths?  Undoubtedly, the parents of St. Therese supplied fertile ground for her to develop her spiritual life and her "Little Way."

The beauty of the stories of Saints Louis and Zelie Martin is that they were great witnesses to married life and the daily trials and struggles in an ordinary family- where this ordinariness can actually become the catapult to holiness with each moment, trial and joy offered to God with complete submission to His Holy Will.

Sts. Louis and Zelie Martin were good friends with disappointment and heartache.  They knew well what it meant to hand over to God their ideas and plans for their lives and see that what God had in mind was not the same.  It seemed that this would resonate throughout their entire vocation of married life.  They both had desired to enter the religious life but from the start they would see that God's designs were not theirs.  After they were married they lost 4 of the 9 children that they bore- but never became bitter towards God but accepted this great sacrifice.  Zelie would even admit that she would rather her children die young than to not reach Eternal Life.  This must have been a hard prayer to pray!

After even all this heartache, Zelie herself became gravely ill with breast cancer.  Once again, even after making a pilgrimage to Lourdes for her healing, she was accepting of God's answer of "No."

Throughout all of their trials however, they kept their trust in God and praised Him for the good and the bad in their lives.  They knew that God's plans were ultimately what would be best for their family and for their eternal souls.  They could not see then what we know now- that the fruit of all of their trials was something big!  They probably never dreamed that they would one day be the parents of the Greatest Saint of Modern times or that they themselves would be saints.

This is the Mercy of God at work!  God asks for our Trust in Him and in exchange He has very big plans for us, our families and our eternity.  We cannot even fathom the plans that God will bring to fruition in our lives.  We must take each day, each moment at a time and give it to God with our complete trust in Him.  Do we trust that He knows what He is doing?  Do we trust that he has our best interests in mind?  If we believe this, because it is true, then we have nothing to fear.  Even what appears to be the most dire of circumstances are actually God's Mercy at work in our lives- transforming us into great saints!

Don't miss each opportunity today to accept God's will in your life and to Trust in His Mercy.

Saints Louis and Zelie Martin, Pray for Us.