“It is with the smallest brushes that the artist paints the most exquisitely beautiful pictures.” — St. Andre Bessette

How many Saints were “small brushes” who had to convince their superiors, family, or colleagues that being weak was not a total handicap? Conversely, how many religious superiors, family members, or colleagues had to convince Saints-in-the-making that their ailments, doubt, and weakness were not impediments to accomplishing the will of God?

St. Andre Bessette, whose feast day is today, was accused of seeking entry to the Holy Cross Brothers as a way to run from his situation rather than a response to a call to religious life. He had “frail health” and was unable to sustain a job. St. Andre simply assumed that if there was nowhere else he could go then God wanted him in religious life. How we interpret the things in life not the things themselves determines whether God can work through us for the greater good.

By the time he died at ninety-two, ailments still existing, St. Andre’s dream of a huge basilica created to honor Jesus’s foster father St. Joseph had neared completion and countless people had been cured of various ailments.

St. Andre Bessette, pray for us that we see our ailments as instrumental rather than a hindering ball and chain. Help us to keep our eyes on God alone.

Sources and biographies:

http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=18

http://www.americancatholic.org/features/saints/saint.aspx?id=1252

Picture from Wikimedia, public domain. This is a revised post from last year.