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November 13 | Trust vs. Fear
A.D. 1850–1917
What’s your biggest fear?
For Frances Xavier Cabrini, it was water. As a young child growing up in Italy, Cabrini had a near death experience in water. Nearly drowning didn’t just permanently weaken her lungs, it also gave her an intense fear that would haunt her for the rest of her life.
But so often, God calls us to trust him in our fears. And Cabrini did. She ended up founding her own order of religious sisters—the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus—and as part of her mission, she had to cross the Atlantic Ocean 27 times. Her trust in God didn’t remove her fear, but it did allow her to move beyond it. It was this same trust that allowed her to open 67 charitable institutions in her lifetime, including hospitals, orphanages, and schools. It didn’t matter that she was an immigrant, a woman, and an Italian in anti-Italian America. She trusted God and he used her to do amazing things.
Do you trust God, even in the things you fear the most?
Our lives are ruled by fear if not by faith. We fear so many things, but the fears we allow to grip our lives are usually trifles compared to the realities that are worth fearing. We all have fears, but most of us aren’t terrified of what should petrify us.
Do you know what should scare us more than anything else? The fact that we can mis-live our lives. Most people never consider it as a possibility, but it’s true. We assume that all lives are well-lived. It isn’t true. We deceive ourselves. The disturbing truth is you don’t even need to do something significantly egregious. You can mis-live your life in the most mundane and ordinary ways. All it takes is the consistent application of mediocrity, laziness, procrastination, self-centeredness, and materialism. All it takes is to be ruled by fear instead of faith.
If Cabrini hadn’t trusted God in every moment, she might have missed out on the incredible things that God envisioned for her. She might have missed out on the life God wanted to give her. The same is true for you and me.
Decide today to trust God, to allow him to overcome your fears, to steer you toward the life he envisioned for you from the beginning of time!
WHAT FEARS ARE HOLDING ME BACK TODAY?
I will trust God, even in the face of my fears.
This reflection is brought to you from book title.
Feast Day: November 13
Feast Day Shared By: Saint Agostina Pietrantoni, Pope Saint Nicholas I
Patron Saint of: Immigrants, Hospital Administrators
Also Known As: Mother Cabrini
Canonized: July 7, 1946
Canonized By: Pope Pius XII