“I
have come to bring fire to the earth,” said Jesus Christ, and his
words have come true in the lives of Catholic saints through the
ages—men, women, and children on fire with love of Jesus, and with
the desire to spread his word. The intention of this book of
inspirational stories from the lives of saints is to fill the reader
with this same fire. Whereas saints were once the popular heroes of
our culture, populating our art and folklore, lending their names to
our towns and streets and institutions, today they are all too often
hidden away in scholarly books and articles. We are too often given a
bland image of these holy men and women, whereas they were not
vaguely “spiritual” do-gooders, but men and women on a mission:
to attain to Heaven through the imitation of Christ, and to bring as
many others along with them as possible!
The
tales told in Inspiration from the Saints cover a variety of
themes in the lives of these holy men and women: their childhoods,
inspirations, and deaths; their boldness and their humility; their
love of prayer, mortification, and the Eucharist; their urge to
spread the Gospel; their family life; the impression they made upon
others; and much more besides.
“The
saints are not dead, but alive and present in the Church. In
Inspiration
from the Saints,
Maolsheachlann O Ceallaigh writes in a personal way not only of the
saints as living in the Church but as living with us in our own
lives. From childhood to death, from hardened sinners to mystics, we
here encounter men, women, and children who impress upon us the
achievable ‘reality of holiness’; we steep ourselves in the holy
glamour of the saints and learn how they make virtue so attractive.
At a time when we are tempted to cynicism in face of so many flawed
public figures, the author draws our attention to those who have
enhanced our Church and our world by their goodness.”—FR.
JOHN S. HOGAN,
co-host of EWTN’s Forgotten Heritage, author of A
Book of Martyrs
“This
excellent book is the fruit of the author’s study of the men and
women who have made history because of how they lived and loved in
saintly witness to their Catholic faith, serving as guides to help us
through the twists and turns of daily life. Its masterly selection of
anecdotes offers inspiration at a time when so many are disillusioned
and filled with doubts about the relevance of the Church in the
modern world. Through the example of such deeply spiritual
individuals we come to see how we too can become saints if we but
allow ourselves to be transformed by Jesus Christ. May this wonderful
book inspire us to do just that!”—ANTHONY
MURPHY,
editor of Catholic
Voice,
director of the Lumen Fidei Institute
Maolsheachlann
O Ceallaigh, in his refreshingly timely and personal reflections on
the lives of Catholics revered as saints from Apostolic times to our
own, offers myriad ‘saintly’ reasons why Catholics should be
proud of their Faith, and strive better to live and appreciate it, in
order to propagate and defend it.”—FR. PAUL STENHOUSE MSC,
editor of Annals Australasia
“In
a way, the very title ‘saint’ does a disservice to the holy
people upon whom it is bestowed, because it tends to make them seem
unapproachable—and if this is so, how can we emulate them, which is
what the Church asks us to do? This book, however, makes the saints
seem both approachable and extraordinary at the same time. Its
message: saints are real people who become Christ-like in their
lives, and, if they can do it, so can we!”—DAVID
QUINN,
founder of the Iona Institute, columnist with the Irish
Independent and
the Irish
Catholic