There doesn’t seem to be enough time in the day to pray and read the bible.  I was assigned a 7-day prayer and amidst the troubles of the week, I missed 4 days.  Perhaps that is why my father doesn’t let anyone talk to him about religion and prayer.  He is elderly, in his late 80s, and has not much to do but look at the stocks on his phone and watch the news on the television.  Much of the time he remains sitting in his wheelchair limp.

I talked to him while visiting and asked him if he wanted me to read to him.  He asked.  What book?  I told him the St Teresa of Avila. . . before I could end saying the whole title, he flatly said no.  My husband is similar and he is also a senior.

Why is it that these two old people don’t want to open their minds to something new?  One thing for sure is that they said they did not want to be influenced by the lives of the saints.  These two men spent their lives living life with its many experiences and they do not look for anything more because they believe they have experienced all they have to experience by now.

Learning from the lives of the saints helps me.  The lives of the saints purport many truths about the challenges of life’s reality.

A patient in the care of a doctor needs surgery, lest his leg be amputated.  However, he has no family or friends to pay his medical bills.  He is left without hope.  A saint would do everything she can to help the patient which includes trying to secure sources to pay for the surgery to after-care should the leg be amputated.  This can be done in care facilities that the saint helps set up.  Of course, the service would be free, but everything including the facility would require money.  That is always the question – where will the money come from?

A saint relies on God to bring in the funding source.  Sometimes, it just comes out of nowhere.  Similar to a kind heart that could have been deeply touched by the patient mentioned above, and offered to pay.  As for the care facility, that is a bigger project that requires a bigger source.  Again God in his being brings change to circumstances.  For example, sometimes the saint finds herself in the right place at the right time.

So, my father and husband, though old, may learn some stories of the saints that will bring them hope in their lives that there is a greater good in all this mess on earth.  And, that they will rely not so much on their own intellect but the will of God and the promise of His Kingdom.