Bl. Marie Rivier and Power Ball

Our search for obscure saints this week leads us to the Blessed Marie Rivier. Marie lived mostly in the 18^th century. She suffered a horrible accident when she was two and was paralyzed. Her mom would take her to church where Marie prayed. “Cure me, Blessed Mother, and I'll give you a hat...Cure me. If you don't, I'll pout.” Nothing like an imperious demand couched in a prayer said by a brat. Well, fortunately for Marie, Mary didn’t care how Marie prayed and passed on Marie’s demand. Marie was cured. She grew out of her unpleasant child phase and was quite the holy woman. Her feast day is February 3.

Great brats are made. As a former child brat and now an adult brat, I can testify that I was spoiled by my father. I wanted to marry him when I was in first grade and when I learned he was unavailable; I decided to become a nun like my two aunts before me. Then the vows of complete obedience threw me for a loop and I became a former religious before I was six years old.

I find and I suspect many people find that we still are very much brats. The Powerball Lottery was recently over a billion dollars. I promised God that if I win, I’d do great things like pay off my parish’s new building or start a charitable foundation to fund Boy Scout Eagle projects or purchase choir robes and the list went on.

As you can surmise, I didn’t win. In fact, my tickets failed in spectacular fashion. Not one stinking number out matched in my five lottery tickets. Then my son surprised me by saying, “Mom, you don’t need the lottery to change the world.” Dang it! That boy (and sometimes brat) put me in my place.

One of my favorite bible verses is from Matthew 5:16, “Just so, your light must shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your heavenly Father.” It took a child to show me that being a brat is not necessarily a child thing and maybe I need to stop bargaining with God.