Happy Birthday to the Saint of Kindred Spirits!

Today is the Feast of Saints Gregory Nazianzen and St. Basil the Great! They are, as you will soon see, not only Doctors of the Church, but also brilliant advocates of friendship, so we have many delightful reasons to rejoice in these older brothers of ours today.

But wait! It's also the birthday of the first Little Flower, our sister St. Therese! And she, like Greg and Basil, has so much to teach us about friendship. Unlike them, though, it isn't primarily her words on friendship that provide the key to our longings for this great gift, but really her friendship itself. Sure, with those who had this grace in her lifetime on earth, but even more with any little soul now who seeks a soulmate. She is always ready to accompany each of us, not only like the guiding star she is, but much more intimately as the sister of our days and nights, the kindred spirit who doesn't leave our sides, just like she didn't leave Marcel. So don't even think we can stop celebrating as we move out of the Octave of Christmas!

I just mentioned great gifts, and that reminds me of Christmas miracles, which some of us have been praying for these past weeks. I need to let you know that Finn has not been miraculously healed in this Christmas octave, but before you go exclaiming over Little Jesus' naughty refusal of this gift, let me add that I have it on good authority (namely, Finn's mama) that Christmas miracles have abounded for his family, even though this particular gift wasn't under the tree.

Another dear friend of mine and Marcel's, similarly requesting a Christmas miracle for a suffering child, reported also that (a) the big healing has not taken place so far, but (b) smaller miracles have shone out in these days, like rays of sunshine through the clouds, and he is grateful. The way I see it, then, the greatest miracle of all has taken place: namely the persistence of faith and the glorious and ever-resplendent gift of HOPE, which have not been withheld by the dear Infant Jesus. So like the girl who never got the pony for Christmas, we have found consolation in the gifts that were under the tree, and they have been nothing to sneeze at!

Meanwhile, our comradery with each other and the Saints continues to raise our spirits to the heights of Heaven, where all the angels and Saints are crowding in to adore the newborn King of all creation, the Alpha and Omega who will wipe every tear from every eye, and even soon make all things new. Hooray! 

But what about friendship and today's feasts? You won't believe this quotation, even if you've read it before, and I predict it will become one of your favorites! Listen to the story, as told by St. Gregory Nazianzen, of his friendship with Basil (who became "the Great" partly through their very acquaintance and Gregory's admiration of him). I love this so much!!! Here is Gregory's account:

Basil and I were both in Athens. We had come, like streams of a river, from the same source in our native land, had separated from each other in pursuit of learning and were now united again as if by plan, for God so arranged it.

I was not alone at that time in my regard for my friend, the great Basil. I knew his irreproachable conduct and the maturity and wisdom of his conversation. I sought to persuade others, to whom he was less well known, to have the same regard for him. Many fell immediately under his spell, for they had already heard of him by reputation and hearsay.

What was the outcome?  Almost alone of those who had come to Athens to study he was exempted from the customary ceremonies of initiation for he was held in higher honour than his status as a first-year student seemed to warrant.

Such was the prelude to our friendship, the kindling of that flame that was to bind us together. In this way we began to feel affection for each other. When, in the course of time, we acknowledged our friendship and recognised that our ambition was a life of true wisdom, we became everything to each other: we shared the same lodging, the same table, the same desires the same goal. Our love for each other grew daily warmer and deeper.

The same hope inspired us – the pursuit of learning. This is an ambition especially subject to envy.  Yet between us there was no envy. On the contrary, we made capital out of our rivalry. Our rivalry consisted, not in seeking the first place for oneself but in yielding it to the other, for we each looked on the other’s success as his own.

We seemed to be two bodies with a single spirit. Though we cannot believe those who claim that everything is contained in everything, yet you must believe that in our case each of us was in the other and with the other.

Our single object and ambition was virtue and a life of hope in the blessings that are to come; we wanted to withdraw from this world before we departed from it. With this end in view we ordered our lives and all our actions. We followed the guidance of God’s law and spurred each other on to virtue. If it is not too boastful to say, we found in each other a standard and rule for discerning right from wrong.

Different men have different names, which they owe to their parents or to themselves, that is, to their own pursuits and achievements. But our great pursuit, the great name we wanted, was to be Christians, to be called Christians.

*      *      *

I am almost speechless, and at the same time I want so much to comment on each word! Let me begin (and perhaps end, depending on the time God allows me for this task) by excerpting the bold portions - which I had emboldened because they embolden me! I have been blessed with so many friendships with the Saints (in heaven and on earth, as Therese encourages us to identify the Saints), and these bold words more or less, in varying colors from pastels to neons, and nuances of experience, describe to a T (like in "Therese!") and to an M (if you don't mind my coining the expression, because like in "Marcel!") what I myself have counted among my blessings, as well as what I've rejoiced to see in the Saints. Because one way to read these bold parts is in the bold friendship of Marcel and Therese! And then in their bold adoption of us into their company!

This is no mere pie-in-the-sky ideal (well, maybe banana cream pie, or lemon meringue, my favorites! YUM!!) - but rather, in light of Therese's birthday today, a "have-your-cake-and-eat-it-too" experience! We can see this friendship in the Saints of old (or more recent times) and we can live this friendship with our favorite heavenly friends, and we can, thanks to their example and assistance, become such friends with each other. What a birthday gift from Therese to us! Like her holy mother in the Carmelite Order (who is also her name-Saint) Teresa of Avila, I think Therese is absolutely a patron Saint of friendship. AND as a birthday bonus, after the bold parts of our quote from today's Doctors, I have, thanks to one of Therese's best friends on earth (and in heaven), Marie of the Trinity, another quote which will, we pray, embolden you to become best friends (if you haven't already) with Therese and Marcel.

First, then, for a repeat performance by St. Gregory Nazianzen, who told us all the way back in the 300's what it was to be and have a friend in Christ:

I was not alone at that time in my regard for my friend. I sought to persuade others, to whom he was less well known, to have the same regard for him. Many fell immediately under his spell.

Such was the prelude to our friendship, the kindling of that flame that was to bind us together. In this way we began to feel affection for each other. When, in the course of time, we acknowledged our friendship and recognised that our ambition was a life of true wisdom, we became everything to each other: the same desires the same goal. Our love for each other grew daily warmer and deeper.

We seemed to be two bodies with a single spirit. Though we cannot believe those who claim that everything is contained in everything, yet you must believe that in our case each of us was in the other and with the other.

Our single object and ambition was virtue and a life of hope in the blessings that are to come. We followed the guidance of God’s law and spurred each other on to virtue. If it is not too boastful to say, we found in each other a standard and rule for discerning right from wrong.

Is this kind of friendship too much for us to desire? 
No way! It is exactly the kind of friendship that deserves the name! Let's do it! Let's love Jesus with all our hearts, having only one desire - namely Him - and let's run to Heaven together!

And if you haven't had the blessing of a friendship like this yet, may I suggest your finding such a friend in Therese and her sidekick Marcel? Never was there such a dynamic duo, but they love nothing more than making their duo a trio, and all it takes is YOUR friendship thrown in the mix, a friendship and companionship that they crave!

Here is what Marie of the Trinity said about Therese, after her friend (with whom she lived for 3 years and 3 months in the Carmel of Lisieux in the late 1890's) "left" for Heaven (but really with plans she immediately fulfilled, plans to return, to "come down"):

"I feel her even closer to me than when we were together. When she was on earth, I had to endure sharing her with many other people, but now she is with me entirely and I don't have to share her anymore. I think this is the privilege of all those who are part of the legion of 'little souls,' of whom she is the queen."

And we may truly add about this legion of little souls: "and of whom Marcel is the little prince!"

Marcel too experienced Therese's constant presence - not always by his feelings, but in reality. She promised him, as Jesus promised him, that she would never go away from him. And do you know what? She and Jesus promise the same to us, and we are even luckier than Marcel, for now that he is eternally happy with them in Heaven on Mary's lap, we have the assurance that he, too, will never leave us!

May this funny sci-fi sounding year of 2020 be merely the first in which your deepest yearnings for friendship are fulfilled. I can say in all honesty regarding my vocation as Miss Marcel:

I am not alone in my regard for my best friend Marcel. I seek to persuade others, to whom he is less well known, to have the same regard for him. Many fall immediately under his spell. 

If you have not yet fallen, might I suggest a copy of Conversations (or two copies!) for ease of access to the heart of the second Little Flower? He will not disappoint!

And I can't help suggesting one other friend whose books are full of life-changing truth and love. One of these friends-in-Christ whom I've been blessed to meet in recent months (for Jesus is always doing new things, and new friends are at the top of His favorite miracles list) had a nifty connection with the author I'm about to mention. My new friend's parents lived next door to this fourth Doctor (after Greg, Basil, and Therese), and knew his friendship! WOW!

There is a great book (not a Great Book, but a really terrific one) by G.B. Stern called "And Did He Stop and Speak to You?" The title refers to a line from the poem Memorabilia by Robert Browning in which Browning waxes eloquent about the awe of someone finding out that another had once passed the poet Shelley in the street. The poem goes like this:

Ah, did you once see Shelley plain,
And did he stop and speak to you?
And did you speak to him again?
How strange it seems, and new!

But you were living before that,
And you are living after,
And the memory I started at--
My starting moves your laughter!

I crossed a moor, with a name of its own
And a certain use in the world no doubt,
Yet a hand's-breadth of it shines alone
'Mid the blank miles round about:

For there I picked up on the heather
And there I put inside my breast
A moulted feather, an eagle-feather--
Well, I forget the rest.

-- How very Marcellian that he forgot the rest! And I'm not quite sure what to do with these last two stanzas, but it seemed quite rude to leave them off, especially when they might mean something very special to you! 

But to get back to G. B. Stern's appreciation of Browning's appreciation of someone passing Shelley, well she (yes, she, for G is short for Gertrude, a Catholic convert whom you might unknowingly know as the one who wrote The Ugly Dachshund which became a Disney movie, but I know as the co-author, with another lovely British convert, Sheila Kaye-Smith, of Talking of Jane Austen) used it as a starting point of her own awe at her own good fortune in knowing lots of great people, among whom was Monsignor Ronald Knox. And now you know we may never get back to the point unless I stop name dropping and actually do get back to the point!

The point (which I had forgotten but brooded over for a moment and it came back to me, thank Heaven!) is that my friend's parents not only lived next door to our next most highly recommended new BFF, but actually did speak to him! And he even signed a book for them, a book my friend has, in which the inscription says (I'll leave out my friend's parents' names to protect the innocent :),

"To my good friends . . . whose friendship I cherish. In gratitude  for all you have shared with Mary Jean and me throughout the years. --Kurt"

Wow! I guess I already said that, but WOW!!!
And who is Kurt?
None other than Dr. Conrad Baars, the greatest psychiatrist after St. Thomas Aquinas, and happily for us, one who lived in more recent times and wrote in English!

One thing has led to another for my friend recently, namely his allowing me to be his friend too, which naturally led to my bullying him into reading the complete works of Dr. Baars (Kurt to his friends, so we are calling him Kurt now too). My friend reports that his reading is going well, complete with major insights every few pages, and the desire to spread the works of this genius in whatever ways we can! As St. Gregory said so truly and so well:

"I was not alone at that time in my regard for my friend. I sought to persuade others, to whom he was less well known, to have the same regard for him. Many fell immediately under his spell."

That other dear friend, the one who first suggested I write a blog on Marcel, also loves Conrad Baars. She has asked me more than once to write a book on "The Great Trifecta" - her affectionate nickname for St. Therese (and the Little Way, which now is synonymous with Marcel and his even littler way, but along the same path), St. Faustina (and the Divine Mercy), and Dr. Conrad Baars. She joins these three in a trinity because they have contributed so overwhelmingly to the salvation of the world and the peace of little souls in the 20th and 21st centuries, but more importantly to us, in some ways, they have saved our sanity and our souls, over and over again.

Of Conrad Baars' books, my favorites may be Feeling and Healing Your Emotions and Born Only Once, though Psychic Wholeness and Healing is spectacular too, as are, really, every single word he wrote. His daughter Sue and at least one of his sons (whose name escapes me, so please forgive my Miss Marcel memory or lack thereof) have done great work in keeping their father's legacy of insight, teaching, and healing alive and well, though Kurt died on October 18 (feast of St. Luke, patron of physicians), 1981. Too soon, but I thank and praise God that Kurt had two years to admire and write about the young Pope John Paul II, in whom he saw (as he had seen previously in good St. John XXIII) the exemplar of an affirmed and affirming man.

So . . . you have your work cut out for you! If you already have some of Conrad Baars' books, perhaps you want to dust them off and start reading! If you don't know him yet, aha! You have so much beauty, truth, and goodness ahead of you in your acquaintance with him! 

As for me, I should add that the first time I heard about Conrad Baars was in the early 1980s, not long after he had died. A fabulously good, smart, and holy Jesuit (who in fact later said my husband's and my wedding Mass) had him topping a list of recommended books. But I didn't come across any of these books for about ten years. And then what? When I saw one for the first time, I immediately bought it. And then my life changed? Not a bit! When I began to read it, the book didn't move me and I quickly put it down. You know what that means, don't you? The Holy Spirit knew I wasn't ready for what would become life changing when the moment was right.

I think I saw or bought the book again in 2001.
Still not the moment!

But in the summer of 2005, after a very dear and bestest friend died and went to Heaven to intercede for me (thoughtful of her!), I came across CB in the St. John the Evangelist Library at Christendom College (where my husband taught and I frequented the library with its wonderful librarians and invaluable collection) and then POW! The moment had arrived, and I was never the same again. I checked out Born Only Once and in it Dr. Baars solved a third of my problems (the next two of his books solving, in short order, the next two-thirds of my problems!). As I recently told my new friend, I remember one memorable day (hence, even I can remember it!) when I read on three or four successive pages (of Psychic Wholeness and Healing) the exact explanations of three serious afflictions that were dogging (one for each of us) myself, my husband, and a good friend. Dr. Baars' clear assessment of the causes, symptoms, and cures of these three intense and longstanding ailments was nothing short of genius - or perhaps I should say inspired and miraculous.

Enough said. Read Conrad Baars! Get to know him and you will, through him, get to know the teaching of the Church (for Dr. Baars, like his friend, mentor, fellow Catholic and co-author Dr. Anna Terruwe, take their principles from St. Thomas Aquinas, the Universal and Common and Angelic Doctor - thus bringing our total of Doctors to five today, not counting my friend and his father, who bring us now to seven; but wait, Dr. Sue Baars makes eight!).

I could write about these incomparable friends for days, but then you would be reading for days, and you wouldn't remember to read Conrad Baars. Go, then, with my heartiest congratulations on having received, for Therese's birthday, as many friends and kindred spirits as your heart desires!

With little Therese, Marcel, Kurt, Greg and Basil, and each other, we sing:

​Little Infant Jesus, worker of miracles most unexpected, draw me, we will run!