Oct 26th - José Gregorio Hernandez-Cisneros

Many labor in obscurity and die senseless deaths. Does not really sound like the path to sainthood, does it?
Jose studied medicine around the world at the most prestigious universities of the time but sought out the religious life. Eventually he discerned that was not his way. Instead he devoted himself as a lay religious physician, living a prayerful, celibate life devoted to God. He died when hit by a car while carrying medicines to a patient.
Not a very exciting life and not a noble way to go. But what he did was exciting, and how he died was in service to the poor. That is how we should look at his life; not via the world's lens of fame, fortune, and show, but as the life of a servant. He lived as a figurative servant on the back stairways of the world, rushing about but unseen except momentarily by those he served.
We have to ask ourselves if we are challenged by his life. Do we live the vocation we are called to even if it is not glamorous or involves immense amounts of self-sacrifice. Do we think of these things as needing reward or do we live them in quiet grace? Do we worry about death?
How many people surround us who live lives of quiet grace? How do we view them? How do we feel or think when they are gone?

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[His] disciples said to him, “If that is the case of a man with his wife, it is better not to marry.” He answered, “Not all can accept [this] word, but only those to whom that is granted. Some are incapable of marriage because they were born so; some, because they were made so by others; some, because they have renounced marriage for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. Whoever can accept this ought to accept it.”

-- Matthew 19:10-12