I was just reading about a lesser known saint named St. Landericus (Landry). A brief account of St. Landry’s biography is provided in a book I recently bought from a local Carmelite Gift Shop. This book, Illustrated Lives of the Saints, included a saint’s biography for each day of the year. Each saint’s biography concludes with a prayer.
Here’s the prayer at the end of St. Landry’s biography:
God, You made St. Landry an outstanding exemplar of Divine love and the Faith that conquers the world, and added him to the roll of saintly pastors. Grant that by his intercession that we may persevere in Faith and love, and become sharers of his glory. Amen.
I couldn’t help but notice the word “Faith” was capitalized.
The saintly book says St. Landry, a bishop of Paris, was sincere and dedicated. He had great love and charity for the poor and the lowly. St. Landry went so far as to erect the first hospital in his city of Paris, the famous Hotel-Dieu. He welcomed Benedictine monks to help offer his people spiritual assistance.
If you truly want to help the soul of your neighbor, you should approach God first with all your heart. Ask him simply to fill you with charity, the greatest of all virtues; with it you can accomplish what you desire. – St. Vincent Ferrer
It’s pretty safe to say St. Landry did that on some level. It’s pretty safe to say St. Landry persevered in prayer throughout his earthly life, and he prayed with Faith. It’s pretty safe to say St. Landry approached God in prayer with all of his heart.
You must speak to Jesus not only with your lips but with your heart. – St. Padre Pio
Are we doing that?
Did you know your prayers rise up like incense to heaven? (Psalms 141:2)
Prayer is an offering that belongs to God and is acceptable to him: it is the offering he has asked for, the offering he planned as his own. – Tertullian
Maybe we can think of offering up our prayers to God is like offering God a pizza. Let’s get deep here for a second. Maybe if you approach God with more of your heart you give him more toppings on the pizza, and if you pray with all of your heart, you give God a delicious supreme pizza cooked in the oven of your heart.
I, the LORD, explore the mind and test the heart, Giving to all according to their ways, according to the fruit of their deeds. Jeremiah 17:10
What supplies the heat? The heat is supplied by your love and your Faith. Your love is the flame and your Faith regulates the temperature of the flame. Without one or the other God gets a cold pizza. Without either God gets a frozen pizza!
There is nothing colder than a Christian who does not seek to save others. – St. John Chrysostom
I think the secret ingredient for a good prayer life is to spend a lot of time persevering in prayer, praying for others. That’s the Fatima challenge for each of us here. Because there are so many lost souls in the world today who have no one to pray for them.
Pray much and make sacrifices for sinners, for many souls go to hell because there is no one to make sacrifices for them. – Our Lady of Fatima
If we saw someone caught in a river’s flood, we would want to save them. Have you seen anyone today that is caught in a spiritual flood? Pray for them. Pray for that lost soul you knew years ago. Pray for those who passed tragically. In Faith, throw them a life line with your prayers and get them out of the flood waters and back to safety.
In her maternal love Mary cares for the brothers and sisters of her Son as they journey on earth in the midst of dangers and hardships, until they are brought safely home to the happiness of heaven. – Second Vatican Council
With your Faith filled prayers you can play a supporting role to the Blessed Mother by helping rescue souls trapped in the current of the world’s raging flood back to safety.
Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The fervent prayer of a righteous person is very powerful. James 5:16
Your prayers helps get lost souls out of harm’s way, and through the Blessed Mother’s intercession, the Holy Spirit gives them a warm blanket and a cup of coffee.
We must above all seek the prayer of the saints. Thus, what is beyond our own powers to obtain will be granted through their intercession. – St. Bernard
The field hospital is built. The Benedictines preside in distributing mercy and wise counsel to souls in dire need. St. Landry smiles in heaven with a slice of pizza in hand, and praise God, today your humble prayers have just conquered the world.
…the genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold that is perishable even though tested by fire, may prove to be for praise, glory, and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 1 Peter 1:7