Today is the feast day of Saint Jerome. He has many claims to fame, with the biggest accomplishment being his translation of the Bible into Latin. Such a good job was done, that he became not only a Saint, but a Doctor of the Catholic Church. Not to be outdone, he is also a Saint in the Eastern Orthodox Church AND the Lutheran Church, AND the Anglican Church.
He was a late convert to Christianity and Catholicism, and his main reason for making this good decision was to build a life of faith to serve a sort of repentance or penance for his loose lifestyle in college. If every college student who made bad choices in college took this route, we would be overrun with saintly young Catholics! The movie Animal House would have provided plenty enough to fill the chapel at Faber College, the fictitious college where the movie took place, but I digress.
Inspiration
Aside from his many accolades and accomplishments, I was struck by his method of inspiration to do this translation. It took about 20 years of steady work. To help the Holy Spirit guide him in his work, he moved to Bethlehem, and took up residence next to the newly built Church of the Nativity. Each day was spent in the church, making strides on this important work. In God’s House, doing God’s work, fulfilling his mission.
To bring this back to the present, many churches have Adoration chapels. Some are 24/7, some are partial days, and some are scheduled. Many find an adoration chapel to be a place to clear their heads, get some quiet time with Jesus, and think a bit deeper than normal. I know of at least one GVM reflection writer who sits in adoration to be inspired to write their monthly reflection.
Our Best
We are not all called to do something heroic, like Saint Jerome. Life is not always supposed to be heroic, but we certainly want to do our best. As a follow up on today’s reflection, try to get to adoration for 15 minutes this month. If that is not possible, find a quiet place, hide the phone, and get 15 minutes of quiet prayer time. You just might like it, and you might be inspired to be heroic in your own way, in your own life. As a seminar speaker told us last week, “to change the world, start by changing yourself.” The trick is to find out what to change, and perhaps a few of these 15-minute sessions, alone or with Jesus’ presence, will help.
Remain Blessed.
