I’ll Take a Dozen!

A few weeks back a group of family members came to the Solanus Casey Center in Detroit. One of our friars, Br. Dan, greeted and welcomed them. They had a wonderful story to share. Their mother, when she was a young married lady, had come to Father Solanus because she did not have a child. She asked Fr. Solanus to pray for her so that she might have a child. Fr Solanus apparently asked her: “Do you want one child or a dozen children?” She replied “I’ll take a dozen.” Fr. Solanus promised her that she would have children. And that she would never have to grieve over the death of any of them during her lifetime. She indeed had 13 children. And none of them had passed before she passed a few months back at the age of 103. So, the children got together to come to the tomb of Fr. Solanus to thank him!

What a wonderful and fascinating story!

Yesterday we celebrated the Feast of St Joseph, the husband of Mary. Also, the patron saint of the Capuchin Province, of which Fr. Solanus was a member. He had a very special devotion to St Joseph the Worker. When we investigate the life of St Joseph we see this intervention of God through His angel. Joseph is told to do what was to be done even ahead of time. It was a gift, I believe, that Joseph had and slightly in a different way Fr. Solanus also had. He had the gift of prophecy. He also had the gift of reading the minds of people. He made use of all his gifts for the glory of God. Because through the gifts he had, especially in his connectedness to the Divine, the many people who came to him were drawn closer to God.

May God bless us all through his Heavenly intercession that we all may be guided by the Holy Spirit or any other instrument that God wants to make use of in our lives. God can make use of any instance in our life to convey His message to us. We need to stay sensitive and open.

Blessed be God in all His designs!