by Father Mark Goldasich
It’s said that every cloud has a silver lining. Well, I can attest that it’s true.
Last March, I wrote here about one of the dumbest things I’ve ever done. Back in mid-February, I went to retrieve an Amazon package outside the door of my home. Wanting to keep the heat inside, I didn’t open my front door all the way but reached around it to grab the package. In a split second, I slipped on some snow and reflexively grabbed on the metal door to keep my balance. Unfortunately, my right pointer finger was still in the door as it closed.
What followed was a trip to the emergency room for stitches with a visit about a week later to a hand surgeon for an evaluation. (That’s the “cloud” part.)
Since I never go anywhere without something to read, I had the February issue of U.S. Catholic magazine to bide the time in the surgeon’s waiting room. The front cover had an arresting illustration of a young, Black man with an Afro staring confidently at the reader. Intrigued, I went to the table of contents and discovered the illustration was of St. Augustine by an artist named Gracie Morbitzer.
Inside the magazine was a six-page interview by Jean P. Kelly, titled “Picture the Saints: Grace Morbitzer reenvisions the saints as loving, accepting role models for today.” Accompanying the story were a half-dozen more paintings from the artist — images of St. Mary MacKillop, St. Joan of Arc, St. Elizabeth and Mary, Our Lady of Sorrows, St. Óscar Romero and St. Felicity. I was captivated by Gracie’s renderings of the saints as modern-day people. (This was the “silver lining” of my injury.) Heck, I was disappointed when it was time for my appointment. (As an aside, by the grace of God, I didn’t need to have any surgery on my finger.)
When I got back to the parish, I was excited — but a little leery — to show Gracie’s article to Jennifer, one of my parish’s youth ministers. After all, just because I thought they were wonderful (I’m a senior citizen after all), how would someone years younger react?
I needn’t have worried; she was fascinated as well. A few weeks later, I shared Gracie’s interview with a former parishioner even younger than Jennifer. Her reaction was the same: Wow!
So, I popped online to Gracie’s website and sent a note of appreciation and encouragement. She responded immediately and, a couple of emails later, I asked if she did presentations and would consider travelling to Kansas. Her answer was “yes” to both. She’ll be coming to Sacred Heart in Tonganoxie on Nov. 1 and 2. More details about that as well as an interview that Jill Ragar Esfeld did with Gracie are on pages 8 and 9 of this issue.
Gracie portrays the saints as they might look if they were walking around today. She emphasizes that the saints were people just like us and that sainthood is a goal we should all strive for, “using the gifts we have to make our world a better place.”
In the U.S. Catholic article, Gracie says that “the call to sainthood is universal, and faith without works is not enough.” That’s why on her website she includes links to causes each saint “might care about today.” For example, in honor of the Archangel Raphael, who cured Tobit’s blindness in the Bible, the artist encourages people to contribute in some way to the American Foundation for the Blind.
Gracie said, “To the saints, I am so grateful.” Well, I’m grateful to Gracie and think she’s a “saint” for making these holy people come alive for a new generation.
