Reflections on the feast of Blessed Bronislava.

“My lover speaks;/ he says to me/ ‘ Arise, my beloved, my beautiful one,/ And come!” Song of Songs 2:10

Borrowing a book from the library is quite the ordeal. I require that I have good, healthy variety of novels. Usually, I try to include a piece of nonfiction, but I have noticed that I rarely ever finish non-fiction pieces and rarely ever read them in a linear fashion. I read it as I please, starting in the middle or even the end, skipping chapters--- essentially bushwhacking my way through the book so painstakingly put together by the anxious author.

Yesterday, I checked out a book of Saki’s short stories, a book by Iris Murdoch ( seeing as she’s supposed to be one of the greatest writers of the 20^th century, I thought I might try a hand), a book that looked like a thriller but proved to be insanely immature and adolescent, and The Big Book Of Woemn Saints by Sarah GAllick

The last book is perhaps the most important of my selection. There is a woman saint for each day of the week, for the entire year. I have found, these digestable, simple paragraphs about women of faith seem to increase my own faith and make me desirous of the love they sought and gained. Through the saints devotion and lives, I can clearly see God as a lover—constantly seeking us out and drawing us towards Him--- everything in our lives here on earth is God wooing us! How beautiful life is!

Today, is the feast of Blessed Bronislava of Poland. She protected her nuns when her convent was under attack from the tartars saying “ do not fear anything—the cross will save us!” Then she proceeded to bang the cross against the wall and a secret passage opened, allowing the nuns to escape.

Any skeptic would remark that Blessed Bronislava simply banged on the knob to open a secret passage that had long been there. The skeptic might even go so far as to say that Blessed Bronislava knew the passage was there and was simply making a “show of faith”.

It is easy to believe the “ realistic” options in our lives. It is hard to believe, especially today as we think that only what is intellectually perceived--- that is the tangible reality, is the only reality. All other possibilities, in our eyes, are simply tricks to deceive us and shroud the truth. Faith is too hard for our pride to grasp because it insists that the human mind cannot perceive certain things and indeed, demonstrates fully that intellect falls terribly short in the face of God.

And how is this terrible?! Romance cannot always be intellectual! How boring! Relationships are not built soley on the mind. If they were, I can’t imagine how the earth would be propogated. Sex, is hardly an act of the mind. More so a loving, trusting act of the will requiring each partner, not to be intellectually superior, but vunerable—exposing all their good parts and all their bad parts---accepting each other and bettering each other as God made them. In this respect, God also demonstrates that HUMILITY and MEEKNESS are also, in a word, desirable traits and ( if I may be so bold) sexy.