Today, 4 Oct 2012, is the first anniversary of this blog, Society of Saints. What an interesting and amazing year it has been! It has been a privilege to get to know our brothers and sisters in Heaven better, and to seek to honour them. After tapping away on the keyboard into the night about the life of a Saint, I’d find myself inspired the next morning and full of thankfulness to God for His work in that Saint’s life.

During the past two months I haven’t been able to write on Society of Saints as often as I would like. I’ve truly missed it, the buzz of discovery and the zing of inspiration. However I haven’t had as many hours to work with because of what has been happening with the Year of Grace, and of next week, the Year of Faith. To see where those hours have gone, have a look at www.ofgraceandfaith.blogspot.com. Often each entry over there has taken some 3 hours or so to put together. The last few entries on Society of Saints have also taken longer to prepare, usually over several days.

So there is a much longer gap between blog-posts. I’m currently working on the principle of Blessed Mother Teresa, ‘He looks after us. If He wants something done, He gives us the means. If He doesn’t provide us with the means, then He doesn’t want that work done.’ At the same time I need to do my part, and be more disciplined with the time given to me and less wasteful of it time. Your prayers in that regard would be very helpful.

It has been a wonderful year. With regularity I experienced the power of the intercession and guidance of St Francis of Assisi, the major patron of this blog. Due to the number of Franciscan Saints written about during the year I have gained a much greater insight into Franciscan spirituality and an inkling of just how proud St Francis is of them. But I have also been astonished at the lives of the martyrs – particularly the Mexican, English, Polish and Japanese martyrs I had never learned much about before. Discovering more about the individual martyrs within large groups of beatified and canonised Saints has been a real eye opener. During the year I have also had the privilege to learn more about Saints who have only been raised for public veneration in the last 20-30 years. Because they lived more recently, generally in the 1800s and 1900s, far more detail is available about their lives – and the more detail there is the greater the appreciation of God’s work in their lives can be. Another joy has been delving into the actual writings of Saints, particularly of those I thought I knew well. To read their letters and parts of their lesser known written works has made them come alive for me as real brothers and sisters in Christ at a whole new level.

Only the good Lord knows where He will take this blog to in the next 12 months and which Saints we will discover and rediscover and be inspired by. With gratitude I thank Him for all of the graces that have come through blogging about His Saints in this last year, and trust in His aid and guidance for the times to come.

To finish with, this quotation from our Patron, St Francis seems singularly appropriate: “Start by doing what’s necessary; then do what’s possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible.”

St Francis of Assisi, pray for us, and please keep praying for us and for the work of this blog.