Saint Lucy

For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Jack and Jill by Louisa May Alcott.

Chapter 15: Saint Lucy.

Saturday was a busy and a happy time to Jack, for in the morning Mr. Acton came to see him, having heard the story overnight, and promised to keep Bob's secret while giving Jack an acquittal as public as the reprimand had been.

Then he asked for the report which Jack had bravely received the day before and put away without showing to anybody.

Some friends she had came often to see her, but still she beat her wings against the bars like a wild bird in a cage.

And soon, her spirits were all gone, and it was sad to see her.

Where was your Saint Lucy? I thought it was about her.

Asked Jack, who did not like to have Jill's past troubles dwelt upon since his were not.

You got a powerful name there, and you're s- and thank you so much.

And I put you in the prayer book because we have a lot of, of folks calling in or messaging in about eye issues, so you're all w- you're all in the prayer book, and we're gonna be going to St. Lucy for that.

So Lorraine, thank you so much.

God bless you.

And so these saints who are being martyred, they're being martyred for their vows of chastity.

So all you have to do is replace the word trans and put it on there and all of a sudden you see St. Lucy in a different light, Catherine in a different light.

Because this was the perversion, this was going against nature, this was going against God's law.

And then over the centuries it develops into celibacy being a vow and things like that.

Uh, you'll literally, if you're looking at the cathedral, look to your right, and you'll see it off in the distance.

Now, this church was important because up until recently, it housed a painting that we have already discussed, which is the Burial of Saint Lucy by Caravaggio.

That painting now is located in another church of Santa Lucia called Santa Lucia al Sepolcro.

It's not on the Ortygia.

You have to walk onto the actual island, to the mainland as I'm, I'm referring to it.

Now, it's about a 15-minute walk or so, but very much worth your while because let us not forget that Siracusa was also the birthplace and home of one of Christianity's most important saints, and that is Saint Lucy.

Saint Lucy, born in Siracusa in 283 after Christ.

She was born into a wealthy, noble Christian family, and she secretly dedicated her virginity to God.

Yeah.

Why is it that, uh, Catholics have, uh, the tradition of relics? Um, St Lucy's remains will be, uh, touring the US.

I went to Lourdes, by the way, when I was in France in 1983.

Mm.

And let me just read from the first paragraph of the first, there's a prologue, but this is the first paragraph and the heading is Claire, which is one of the figures that we learn a lot about in the book.

Mid-morning on a warm day in late March, in a leafless ash near the lich gate of St Lucy's Church in Lower Eardham, an olive green chiff-chaff clasps a twig with wirework legs and makes a small assay at song.

He has travelled such a long way to get to the little village, fleeing famine, crossing the sea at night, braving terrible dangers.

Now he stops, picks a bristly beetle larvae from a fissure in the tree's bark and swallows it down.

This acceptance, delight, and joy, fascination with how things are, confident trust in the intelligibility of the world, all of this I find in the works of Dante and Melville.

And wonder is what I invite everyone here tonight to cultivate for the next few minutes while I endeavor with the help of Our Lady Queen of the Angels, Saint Lucy, Saint Augustine, whose feast day it is today, Saint Anthony, and baby Jesus.

to share with you some exciting treasures that have shown themselves to me and want to show themselves to you in these books.

This year the Holy Father wrote proclaiming the year of Saint Francis of Assisi and in the proclamation he wonderfully quoted Dante quoting our patron Saint Thomas Aquinas as he appears in Dante's Paradiso.