Today we read about a famous saint in the book In Caelo et in Terra. He had several names... he was known as Guido di Pietro during his early life. When he and his younger brother joined the Dominicans in 1420, he was known as John of Fiesole. And if you are a connoisseur of medieval art, you might recognize him as Fra Angelico.
He was an extremely talented painter from an early age. He could have had fame and fortune with his abilities and his family connections. Instead, he put his talents to God's use and brought beautiful paintings to the world, showing God's beauty and illustrating passages from the Bible. If he'd chosen fame and fortune, we wouldn't be talking about him today in my blog.
You can read more about him here, and you can watch a video about him here.
Today on my Alexa speaker, I played my daily game of Question of the Day, and the questions Alexa asked me was about Florence Nightingale. She revolutionized nursing and medicine during her lifetime, and her name is synonymous with kindness and great bedside manner. She also introduced sanitary policies in the hospitals where she works that increased the survival rate among patients 55%!
These two people could have invested their time and talent in making money and indulging in selfish pleasure. Instead they took the gifts God gave them - painting and nursing - and put them to His good use, sharing His love with the world.
Of course, you have that choice, too. Every day you get to choose if you're going to use your talents for His glory or for your pleasure. The great thing is these are not mutually exclusive. However, if you choose your pleasure first, you'll lose both your pleasure and His glory ultimately. But if you put Him first, you'll get both His glory and your pleasure thrown in.
Wednesday of this week begins Lent. And typically people see Lent as a negative time of suffering and penance. Some people take this negative time and place it in light of the joy that will come on Easter morning when we celebrate the resurrection. But I would challenge everyone to see it in light of these two people: Fra Angelico and Florence Nightingale. They worked hard, and their work might have been seen as suffering by those who didn't see the great joy they experienced in doing it.
If you take your gifts and use them this Lent, bringing joy to those who need joy very desperately in 2021... and if you do your fasting and giving things up in a spirit of joy and love as you move closer to Jesus... then you won't see Lent as a negative thing at all... but all part of the joy that is wrapped up in Easter and in living our lives with Jesus.
God, thanks for the great examples of Fra Angelico and Florence Nightingale. Fra Angelico, pray for us.
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