Sainthood Sunday: St. Cecilia

Saint Cecilia is the patron saint of music and her martyrdom in the early history of the Church is the subject of numerous rumors and legends. The story has it that she pleged herself to perpetual virginity and prayed that she would be protected in a time when it was not considered the norm to remain a virgin.

When she was married to a man named Valerian, she told him of her vow and implored that he honor that. When he was baptized, he was able to see the visions that she was seeing. His brother was also baptized and to reward them for this, they were martyred by beheading which was ordered by the mayor.

Cecilia during the course of this time had been preaching and won a good amount of converts to the Faith, if by "good amount" you mean hundreds. The result of this was that she was arrested and sentenced to be killed by suffocation. When that didn't work they attempted to cut off her head and three efforts proved unsuccessful. She lived for three days, singing as the blood poured from her neck.

This was the part of the story that really got to me. The joy of Cecilia as she was dying is something that I want to capture in my own life. It seems that when things happen to me that are disappointing (I recognize that "disappointing" hardly describes having an unsuccessful decapitation take place) I get pretty down and it affects the people around me. it is as if joy takes a real effort, a real choice, a definite movement of the Holy Spirit in order for it to start to work in my heart and soul.

That is the struggle of manifesting this fruit. We need the grace of God in order to manifest it, but we must choose to allow the grace of God to work. For Cecilia it was a matter of choosing to see that she was destined for heaven, that her unification with God was at hand and she was allowing God's grace to work so that even in her death she could witness to others about what God could do in her life.

Imagine the witness that we could present to others if we were able to let the grace of God work in our lives, even in the difficult times.

Even at the times when it seemed like we were losing all that was important to us.

Granted we may not be in a situation where we are losing our heads, but it may feel like it.

The key is to make the choice for joy, to make the choice for grace.

Then, if possible, sing.

St. Cecilia would be proud.