Do you ever wonder what the Catholic Church in America will be like ten or twenty years from now? 

The truth is, you and I get to answer that question because what we do every day will determine what the Church will look like in the future. You may be thinking to yourself, I’m just one person. What can one person do to make a difference? For too long we’ve given into this limited thinking as Catholics.

Every single Catholic who has ever lived is a link in a chain back to the time of Jesus. You carry the faith with you today because some man or woman before you chose to carry the faith. And how you carry the faith will impact the generations ahead of you. Learn to see yourself as a link in the chain and you will start thinking on a whole new level.

There are billions of Catholics who have lived since the time of Jesus. Among them is Wenceslaus I—and whether you’ve heard of him or not, he is a link in the chain of faith that was passed on to you. 

Wenceslaus was raised Catholic by his grandmother, Ludmila. He later became the Duke of Bohemia and, despite the political dangers, he used his power to spread Christianity and help the poor. In a tragic turn of events, his brother Boleslaus became power hungry and murdered him. After his death, Wenceslaus was remembered for all his good deeds—and even today his story is memorialized in the Christmas song “Good King Wenceslas.” He was a link in a chain of faith that still remains unbroken over 1,000 years later.  

Will you be a link in the chain too? Or will you break it? In every age, there are a small number of men and women who are prepared to turn their backs on popular culture and personal gain to embrace heroically the life Jesus outlines in the Gospels. These people fashion Catholicism into a lifestyle, they listen attentively to the voice of God in their lives, and they passionately pursue their personal adventure of salvation. As a result, they capture the attention and the imaginations of everyone who crosses their path. 

Paradoxically, the modern world tends to pity these people, because it believes they are missing out on something. Never feel sorry for them. These men and women are the happiest people who ever lived. They are the heroes of Christianity; they are the saints. 

Whether the Church will thrive in this modern era depends on men and women like these. It depends on you.



Feast Day: September 28

Feast Day Shared By: Saints Lorenzo Ruiz and Companions and Saint Eustachius

Patron Saint of: Prague, Bohemia, Czech Republic, and the Bohemian People

Also Known As: Good King Wenceslas

Symbols: A Crown and Dagger