What EVERY Christian Can Learn from Mother Angelica

Rest in Peace Mother Angelica

Mother Angelica was perhaps the greatest American Catholic in the last fifty years. All of us, Catholic or not can learn a lesson from this great lady. 

The eulogies written and said for Mother are many and far more beautiful than I can write. So rather than eulogize her I am going to point out what I feel are her  most important characteristics that we as Christians could emulate in our lives. 

Mother knew of only one road to take and that was the road of faith. When she believed that God was calling her to do something, she set her eyes upon Jesus, threw the throttle into full speed ahead, and turned a deaf ear to those who said what she wanted to do was impossible.  She also knew that sometimes she would misinterpret what God wanted her to do, those times she would experience failure. She did not fear failure. The only thing that she feared was standing before Jesus and being shown what she could have done. 

She was a caring person. I read where she was more concerned with the spiritual conditions of her employees than she was concerned with the television network.  She was also fearless when it came to speaking the truth. She saw that the Church was looking to throw away practices that were necessary to keep.  She took on the mighty and helped preserve important Catholic practices that she rightly thought as important.  She also was honest to those who worked with her and if she had a disagreement with say for example with inviting a certain guest on to a show because the guests views were too liberal, she came out and said it. She was also compassionate knowing that we are all sinners and she did her best to coax and coach people back into the Church when they had lost their way.

She also had a great sense of humor. There is nothing worse than a glum Christian. From what I've heard on EWTN these past few days she even kept her humor during her sickness over the last years of her life. She embraced the suffering that came her way.  She joined it to the sufferings of Christ as St. Paul tells us to and she made her pains and her bed-ridden state into something holy.  Her whole life contained suffering. For years she had to wear pounds of braces so that she could walk. She bore this cheerfully, without resentment, for the good of all and offered it up to Christ. 

The thing she did the best is that she brought Jesus to life for many many people!  We have a tendency to think of Jesus as "up there, somewhere."  She brought Him and His teachings back to earth.  She reintroduced something that some Catholics forgot about, a personal Jesus. She reminded us that Jesus loved us and our ideal fate is to be with Him in heaven. 

Mother will be missed, there is no doubt about that. The good that she did has reached around the world via the television and radio stations she founded.  How many people came to Christ because of her?  How many returned to the Church because something she said or did on TV?  We will never know, 

She is at rest now.  Probably in heaven talking with Saint Maximilian Kolbe about modern communication methods or speaking her words of thanks to Jesus and the Blessed Mother.  She belongs in heaven for because of her work many others will enjoy being with God that may not have made it at all.