The Witness of "Sister Cider"
Charm is deceptive and beauty fleeting; The woman who fears the Lord is to be praised. Acclaim her for the work of her hands, And let her deeds praise her at the city gates. —Proverbs 31:30-31 We often fall into the trap of thinking that living the Gospel means doing extraordinary things. Certainly the experiences of so many of our brothers and sisters in the Middle East and Africa—who are witnessing to their faith in heroic ways—remind us that any one of us could be called upon at any moment to give our life for Christ, but, for most of us, our life of discipleship will be lived out in small, daily sacrifices and times of prayer. I think that one of the great tragedies of our faith tradition is that much of the beauty of the lives of the Saints has been lost within a haze of miracles and martyrdoms. But, like each of us, these women, men, and children lived ordinary lives. What set them apart wasn’t that the majority of their actions or prayers were extraordinary—w...