I knew as a young Catholic that we are called to unity with God. I saw religious life as the way to achieve this unity. When the time came when I no longer felt God was calling me to religious life, and I began dating an amazing man, I wrestled with the concept of unity with God. If we are called to give our hearts totally to God, how can we give our hearts totally to another person? Indeed God had taken the place where my friendships and relationships failed as an adolescent. I did not know how to give me heart, how to love and be loved so vulnerably.
In Minnesota, Fr. Andrew Cozzens, now bishop, spoke on the spousal relationship between God and the soul. I asked me question, the very same one you read above. He said, “it is possible to have unity with God…all three of you.”
Now, on October 18th, we’ll have in the books a formally recognized illustration of this radical and blessed call lived out. Two individuals, a man and a woman, sought unity and total devotion to God. Both were told they did not have a vocation to religious life. They spotted each other on a bridge and married three months later.
Now they will be canonized together. Their youngest daughter is a Doctor of the Church (one of the four women). Two other daughters are on the road. Really, it’s only a matter of time for the remaining two. The power of marriage, of the decision of a person to abandon himself or herself to God’s will, and then to marry another who feels the same, this is a power that cannot be beat. The Trinity is a community of love and in the marriage of two people who have taken this path, the outpouring of love is indescribable.
Thank God for the soon to be Saints Louis and Zelie Martin. Pray for us!
For more about the lives, read here.