June 15, 2025 • 65 mins
In this episode of The Heart of Fiat Crucified Love, Dr. Mary Kloska brings to light saints who spent part of their vocations as nannies and she shares what we can learn from them in this work.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
So listening to WCAT radio, your home for authentic Catholic programming.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Hello, and welcome to the heart of Fiat crucified Love.
This week we are going to talk about the visitation.
We just had the feast day of the visitation on
May thirty first, and we're going to talk about the
(00:33):
spirituality and the saints that lived a life as a nanny,
as a domestic servant, and we'll talk a little bit how.
Speaker 3 (00:47):
The Lord pulled me into this form of.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
Ministry sanctity, right, this vocation to make me holy. But
I have been very surprised over the years here to
find so many of even my very favorite saints who
(01:16):
were called for a period of time to live as
a nanny and as a housekeeper, kind of similar to
what I do in the homes of the affluent as
a nanny house manager kind of a thing. And though
also the effect that nanny has nanny's have had on saints. Right,
(01:39):
So we're going to talk about all of that. I
just thought to be neat to share with you, and
especially in.
Speaker 3 (01:45):
Light of the visitation.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
I absolutely never play guitar anymore, and it's actually kind
of funny. This one is the one I've had for
twenty some years. It's been all over the world, and
every time I would go to play it, one of
the streams will have popped, which is kind of odd,
and the guys that could Guitar Center actually think it's weird.
(02:10):
But we thought we got the problem figured out and fixed,
and I actually prefer my other one, which is like
a classical acoustic fusion. And right when I got this
whole thing set up, I was going in the other
room and I hear this big bang, and I thought,
(02:30):
what in the world is this now?
Speaker 3 (02:31):
And I go and believe it or not, on the
other guitar, the stream popped and it just doesn't make sense.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
But thankfully I have this backup, and to me, those
little glitches are signs of just enough spiritual warfare where
I know what I'm doing actually is important enough to
have the evil one try to ruffle my feather. So
(03:02):
this has got to be an important podcast for somebody
out there. So let's start with a prayer and then
I'm gonna actually play a song.
Speaker 3 (03:15):
This is so courageous.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
I don't play guitar, and I certainly have not played
music that I wrote twenty years ago recently, but this
is a song on the Visitation that I wrote probably
in like two thousand and four ish, so yeah, like
twenty years ago. And then we'll read from the Gospel
(03:37):
of Luke, and then I'll share some reflections on that
and then on.
Speaker 3 (03:40):
Some of these saints.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
So in the name of the Father and of the
Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen, Come, Holy Spirit,
Come by the means of the powerful intercession of the
Immaculate Heart of Mary, the well beloved spouse.
Speaker 4 (04:00):
Siop, Hurry hurry, Mother Mary, run with your.
Speaker 5 (04:27):
Baby, proclaiming kids peace.
Speaker 6 (04:36):
Hurry hurry, Mother Mary, fly spearit.
Speaker 7 (04:52):
Cary cans love.
Speaker 8 (04:58):
Be ab.
Speaker 7 (05:00):
Chances.
Speaker 9 (05:03):
You must make cast Go to lizab three joys.
Speaker 7 (05:19):
He choosen.
Speaker 10 (05:24):
You must speedly, for all things are possible for God.
Speaker 7 (05:40):
Do not fear married. Do not we marry.
Speaker 5 (05:51):
Rejoice in the Lord Mary, for from you.
Speaker 10 (05:58):
Our saviors Column treasure him within. Mary. As you travel
through the.
Speaker 5 (06:08):
Hill country, go to your kinswoman.
Speaker 7 (06:18):
Bring his love.
Speaker 9 (06:23):
Alizsbths plasin you and blesssness the child with your wood.
Speaker 7 (06:45):
Alive sabaths at the side of your voice. Ben my
lot for joy who and I married, that you should
(07:14):
come to be married. For blessed or you believe the
word of God for me. For me, he said, behold Guy,
(07:43):
the head maiden the Lord, for for me reason, let.
Speaker 11 (08:03):
Be done.
Speaker 7 (08:05):
In my life.
Speaker 5 (08:07):
Fast you will, Oh, listen to the spirit Mary praying
in your heart. Mary crying out and fea Mary, and
(08:33):
surrender to as well. Listen you Mary, and bless it
is your son. Mary, pray with in my heart, married.
Speaker 7 (08:55):
Your head of my soul, proclaims.
Speaker 10 (09:06):
For the greatness of the Lord, and my speared.
Speaker 7 (09:15):
Exhalt, sing God, my save.
Speaker 9 (09:23):
For the many.
Speaker 7 (09:26):
One has done great things for me and told me his.
Speaker 6 (09:46):
Prey, Hoy, mother, Mary, run with.
Speaker 9 (09:58):
Your baby, do shame.
Speaker 7 (10:05):
His man lalie lulja.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
Since this just got really strong, I can hear just
as I played, and then I tuned in and I played,
and I tuned that this is that's off, sorry, And
I kept struggling to read this. This is the actual
piece of paper in an attic at a monastery in Poland.
Speaker 3 (10:58):
Where I wrote this.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
So as you see, I was like writing it and
scribbling it and trying to get the chords, and.
Speaker 3 (11:07):
I was not being nice to my future self in
the way. It's not very neat.
Speaker 2 (11:11):
So at the end, if I remember instead of praying,
we're gonna sing when we're some.
Speaker 3 (11:20):
But let's see here. So most of you know the
story of my vocation Zu the woman with multiple vocations.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
But I was a missionary for many years, and I
had lived as a hermit, so I kind of went
back and forth, and then I actually had temporary vows
as a diaceisan hermit. And my heart is still convinced
that was God's will. But he also allows people's free
will to mess things up.
Speaker 3 (12:01):
And it doesn't mean that.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
That he leaves you hanging right. He always comes up
with a plan B and a Plan C. Say what
if he determined you were supposed to marry someone and they.
Speaker 3 (12:15):
Didn't agree right, or you know, they chose a different path.
Speaker 2 (12:21):
Does that mean that like your vocation lists your whole
life now, like he brings you Plan B, Plan C,
Plan D.
Speaker 7 (12:27):
And so.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
He brings beautiful things out of brokenness when you give
them to him. And without having the support that I
needed within the church. It is a strange vocation to
pray in solitude all the time, and financially too, write
because you know, even more than a sister who can
(12:51):
be out in the world a little bit, you know
her community. They all kind of live together and support
each other. Son may teach, or they might have a
work they do, you know, and having those beautiful habits.
Everybody wants to support our sisters, so they send money there,
and you should. If you don't support the sisters, that's
not a good thing. But it's a little more tricky
(13:13):
to find that kind of support for a single woman
that is embracing a life even more extreme than one
in a religious community, because it's a life of total.
Speaker 3 (13:28):
Solitude, right, and dependence on God.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
But as I was kind of thrust back into the world,
God acted very creative, greed creatively with me. And I
had a good priest's friend who is a vocation director
of a large archdiocese, and he's familiar with vocations, right,
and he's familiar with me, and he said, you know,
(13:56):
why don't you try something like Saint Charles de Foucal
and the communities that came from them. They lived the
contemplative life, but they had to work in the world.
And and I'm still certain that I would. My kind
of a soul was not created to be exposed to
the world as much as it is now, as opposed
to when I was a hermit right and very sensitive,
(14:18):
and it it takes a big bird a toll on me.
Speaker 3 (14:22):
But I decided to become a He said, you know,
you have so many gifts for children and all this.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
So I became a nanny, a night nanny for triplets
downtown Chicago, and.
Speaker 3 (14:38):
I figured I could stay awake and.
Speaker 2 (14:41):
Be the soul one praying right sometimes on Michigan aff
the maybe others, but there probably aren't a lot up
all night long praying for the priests and the faithful
within that diocese. So I did that and it continues
ude kind of spiraled, and I've done a lot of
(15:06):
night nannying, and I do like being with the babies
at night. I've also done many large families during COVID.
It was helpful for several families who couldn't take a
break to have my help. You know, there were babies
I took care of whose parents worked in the food
and the the medical industry. And then another family and
(15:32):
she also was like some like a physical or occupational therapist,
and he was a psychologist, so.
Speaker 3 (15:40):
You know, they had to keep going.
Speaker 9 (15:42):
And and then.
Speaker 3 (15:46):
I came to see how it was not just the orphans.
Speaker 2 (15:51):
I took care of in the orphanages in Africa who
needed my motherly love. And it was not just the
poor of the street children in Russia or the children
in the trash dump of Smoky Mountain, but there was
a great spiritual poverty within the wealthiest of the wealthy.
Speaker 3 (16:16):
And I began to.
Speaker 2 (16:20):
Kind of be called to a place where I wasn't comfortable, right,
And I was able to bring Christ to children who
never would hear of them, and to kind of ground
them and to teach them some beautiful things about what
it means to be human and what it means to be.
Speaker 3 (16:37):
A person, lessons that are often.
Speaker 2 (16:41):
Skipped over when you are born into a fluency, but
are very important, you know, forms of education and.
Speaker 3 (16:54):
Creativity, and.
Speaker 2 (16:58):
Kind of teaching them to shake off the wealth a
little bit and to look at their little souls as
to the saints that God created them to be right,
and to try to help lead them and their families
closer to the Lord.
Speaker 3 (17:09):
And it did work.
Speaker 2 (17:12):
Many of the children I took care of have been
baptized enrolled in Catholic schools, and I have to trust
that the.
Speaker 3 (17:19):
Lord will carry them through. And I made my way
back here to Elkhart, and that's where I was born, right, Indianna.
Speaker 2 (17:28):
And I always knew the Lord wanted me to live
in a house of prayer by the poor, and I
thought it would be as a hermit. And you know,
people thought that that was a reckless or dangerous thing,
which the poor in the United States are absolutely not
more dangerous than the Muslims and the Communists.
Speaker 7 (17:49):
I love.
Speaker 2 (17:51):
But in a series of events, he entrusted this beautiful
home to me. It is more than anything I could
ever imagine. I can run this huge ministry that touches
the poorest of the poor all over the world.
Speaker 3 (18:05):
That is across the bridge from the poorest area of
the city. Right. I get the street children in my yards.
Speaker 2 (18:12):
I can help them where I can take in foster children,
and yet still be a presence to my nieces and
nephews who are able to witness since I'm here the
way I live, and to make this as a little
shrine to God. If no one ever stepped foot on
(18:34):
my property and I lived here fifty years alone, I
would be happy. But the Lord would see I made
one little corner of earth that he entrusted to be
beautiful for him and full of love, the love of beauty,
and of music.
Speaker 3 (18:53):
And of prayer, which is most important. But it's interesting
because he's really kept me in this nanny.
Speaker 2 (19:05):
I thought somebody would would be sent by him by
now and realize, understand my true vocation and offer to
pay for the house. You know, so I had somewhere
to live a more contemplate of life the way that
you know, sisters, so many convents I have watched raised
(19:25):
millions of dollars over the last few years, and like, oh,
Lord help you know.
Speaker 3 (19:32):
But you know, my dad said to me the other day, Mary,
he would not have changed all of these lives, look
at these children. And it's true. So I don't question
the motives of the Lord.
Speaker 2 (19:43):
I do pray daily that he sends very generous downers,
not only for the foundation, as we have incredible needs,
but for my own personal vocation here.
Speaker 3 (19:58):
But that's in his hands. And in the me time, he.
Speaker 2 (20:01):
Has opened up to me such a beautiful vocation as
a nanny, as a house manager, as somebody who enters
into the home, which is the most vulnerable place of
a person. And these families have welcomed me in. They
allow me to see the good, the bad, the ugly,
(20:22):
and to help regulate that and to place Christ. Not
just place Christ, but to plant Christ in the hearts
of these children that I take care of, and all
of them the people who surround them.
Speaker 3 (20:39):
And the other morning I was I'm always running.
Speaker 2 (20:44):
Sometimes I work extremely long days if I haven't worked
all night long, right, and Mass is mandatory. There were
times a few months ago where I would have to
go late to Mass, and I would only get there
the Gospel, and then in the evening because I didn't
hit the beginning.
Speaker 3 (21:03):
I would go to the beginning of.
Speaker 2 (21:04):
Mass again, but I would have to leave right after communion,
so I'd get a full Mass, even more than that.
But it was, you know, it wasn't the life of
luxury I had as a hermit, where I could go
an hour early and pray and stay after. Right, he
keeps me on my toes. But I was rushing into Mass.
(21:26):
I had had to get everything together for like a
thirteen hour day. And even when I'm on time, the
devil does something to get me late. So if I
have a foster, maybe they have a blowout. If I'm
you know, early, all the lights turn red and there's
a construction truck that backs into and won't let me through,
(21:49):
or a train stops on the track and I can't
turn around because they black me in, or like there's
always something. So I go running into mass and I'm
just you know, every morning it's oh, help me, Lord,
help me, Lord. I'm sorry, Lord, and I get up
earlier and earlier. It's four point thirty. At this point,
I'm like, I can't. I just have to surrender. There's
(22:11):
a lesson in this. And I went to church and
at communion he sent me, Mary, do you know how
beautiful you are doing? Because I always am like, I'm
so sorry, I'm so sorry. I'm trying so hard. And
it's like imagine somebody trying to run a marathon, but
like a perpetual marathon in life, and every time they
(22:33):
get up, somebody like tackles them and then they got
to get back up, and then they.
Speaker 3 (22:37):
Pull try to pull them down, and you get back up.
So I was like, I am trying so hard to
do this right.
Speaker 2 (22:43):
And he said, it's you know, you're named correctly, Mary Elizabeth.
Speaker 3 (22:50):
And he said, think of the.
Speaker 2 (22:51):
Mystery of the visitation I placed or the father placed
my presence.
Speaker 3 (22:58):
Within my mother.
Speaker 2 (23:00):
And then sent her to Elizabeth like a nanny, like
a housekeeper, like a help me.
Speaker 3 (23:06):
Right, so she went to do exactly what you do
every day.
Speaker 2 (23:11):
You're actually more like Mary right now in that mystery
than if you weren't doing this work.
Speaker 7 (23:19):
And what did she do? She made haste, She ran.
You know, it wasn't pretty.
Speaker 3 (23:24):
She was running.
Speaker 2 (23:25):
She was trying to hurry. And so your hurriedness doesn't
bother me, just you know, continue to try to live it.
Speaker 3 (23:34):
With our lady.
Speaker 2 (23:36):
And I thought, wow, it's really what I'm doing. I
make haste to go to these women who are expecting babies,
who have babies, and to help them, to help them
with their housework, to help them to love and raise
their children for the Lord. And so this vocation as
(23:57):
a nanny for one who doesn't really believe in nanny.
Speaker 3 (24:00):
I think moms should take care of their kids the
way we were.
Speaker 2 (24:03):
Raised, right, But in today's world it's not always possible.
And I think my mom probably, even though she had
no help raising us, it probably would have been nice.
Speaker 4 (24:16):
You know.
Speaker 3 (24:16):
It doesn't mean that others shouldn't have help, and so.
Speaker 2 (24:23):
It's really beautiful to be able to offer that as
a sister I come into the home as a sister
to this couple, and you know, is an aunt kind
of to the children, and to help them to do
what they need to do, and to show them the
face of God. And it's really a beautiful thing, right
(24:47):
to teach them to love the Lord. And so we'll
read here just to remind you of the visitation.
Speaker 3 (24:57):
I pulled out my big old Bible. Thereupon Mary set out,
proceeding in haste to the hell.
Speaker 2 (25:06):
Country, to a town of Judah, where she entered Zechariah's
house and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the
baby leapt in her womb.
Speaker 3 (25:18):
Elizabeth was filled with the Holy.
Speaker 2 (25:20):
Spirit and cried out in a loud voice, blessed are
you among women? And blessed is the fruit of your womb.
Who am I that the mother of my Lord should
come to me? The moment your greeting sounded in my ears,
the baby leapt in my womb for joy. Blessed is
she who trusted that the Lord's words to her would
(25:42):
be fulfilled. And then our lady prayed the magnificat my
soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord, and my spirit
rejoices in God, my savior, for he is looked upon
his servant in her lowliness all ages to she'll call
me blessed. God, who is mighty, has done great things
(26:05):
for me, and holy is his name. His mercy is
from age to age on those who fear him. He
has shown might with his arm. He has confused the
proud in their inmost thoughts. He has deposed the mighty
from their thrones, and he has raised the lowly to
high places. The hungry he has given every good thing,
(26:28):
while the rich he is sent away empty.
Speaker 3 (26:31):
He has upheld.
Speaker 2 (26:32):
Israel as servant, ever mindful of his mercy, even as
he promised our father's promised Abraham and his descendants forever.
And Mary remained with Elizabeth about three months and then
returned home. Mary didn't stay there, right, She had, you know,
to follow the will of God. I'm sure Elizabeth and
(26:53):
Zechariah and maybe John the Baptist would have wanted her,
but she had her real vocation. And I feel like
that a lot. It's hard for me to leave the
children that you take care of day and night, especially.
Speaker 3 (27:06):
The ones I'm there, you know. Fifty sixty seventy eighty
hours a week.
Speaker 2 (27:12):
Sometimes, but there's a time determined by God and then
you entrust them back. And what I do as a
nanny is part of what the Lord has asked me
to do. Yes, first because it's as well and I
love him.
Speaker 3 (27:28):
I do it all for love of him.
Speaker 2 (27:30):
Secondly, to bring these children to God. Thirdly, to be
able to provide money for myself. That's just prudent, right.
I'm in need a home. I never collected anything all
those years I was living as a missionary and a hermit,
and so I'm going to get old. I don't have
a husband to take care of me. I don't have,
(27:52):
you know, a retirement fund or something. So I'm just
hoping to get the house paid off and that the
Lord will provide as I continue to aid. But you know,
it's a means of making money. And then also you know,
I'm always adding extra work to try to provide for
these persecuted Christians all over the world, to be able
(28:16):
to give a little bit of light to them. Really,
it's a vocation to motherhood. When I was choosing my
confirmation name, I chose Anne because all I wanted was
to get married and have a Jillian children. But the
Lord has expanded my heart to truly be like a
mother to the world. Father Flanagin, who founded Salt, always
(28:40):
taught us information how.
Speaker 3 (28:44):
You don't just have a soul entrusted to you for
a period of time, but even after you leave, even
if you're not able to have contact with.
Speaker 2 (28:51):
Them, you carry them as a spiritual child for the
rest of their lives. And so all of these children
that I've taken care of from the time I worked
with children at CAPS, at the child abuse place here
in high school, and then in the different mission places,
and my own nieces and nephews, and all of these
(29:13):
these nanny children, they and.
Speaker 3 (29:17):
Then the persecutor Christian.
Speaker 2 (29:18):
I've got thousands children of the Cross, my foster children.
Speaker 5 (29:22):
You know.
Speaker 2 (29:22):
It just piles upond me and it's so heavy because
I actually I understand how a mother's heart expands and
it's never divided the more children she has.
Speaker 3 (29:34):
And I feel inept to love everyone enough.
Speaker 2 (29:40):
But if you're doing what you're doing, and you're loving
people for the sake of Christ, then it's measured differently.
It's not enough in a temporal time, like are you
giving this many minutes to someone?
Speaker 3 (29:54):
God makes even a little bit enough.
Speaker 2 (29:57):
Right, He takes our little loaves and fish and he
multiplies it in their lives, and so in that regard,
it's always enough, you know. I've learned from the saints.
I love the work that I do. It's very humbling.
Speaker 7 (30:23):
Here.
Speaker 2 (30:24):
I am a very educated person. I speak multiple languages.
I'm capable in many different ways, you know, And they
always try to throw extra different work at me, or
people try to get me away, and yeah, I got
my doctorate, but I'm not teaching at the college, and
maybe something would open up.
Speaker 3 (30:40):
In the future.
Speaker 2 (30:41):
But I choose to do what I do because I
actually believe it has the greatest worth, and it's extremely
important for these souls, and I think there's great merit
in taking care of children. Sometimes I'll be like, you know,
(31:05):
remind my sisters, my little sister especially, you know, when
she's running around trying to take care of all these
kids and it's so hard and it's overwhelming, and I'll say,
you know, do you realize what your job is worth?
You know, look at these job offers that I'm getting.
Look what people would pay me to do what you
(31:25):
do every day, you know, unnoticed.
Speaker 3 (31:30):
So never doubt the value of that.
Speaker 2 (31:32):
So in some ways I'm giving the voice and value
to motherhood right by choosing to have that as my profession, right,
I mean, I'm not just like a babysitter. I'm definitely
a professional nanny, you know, and you have to bring
you know, psychology and spiritual stuff and like pedagogy and
(31:54):
medical like all sorts of things, and especially the children
I've taken care of for I've different families of widows,
so children who've lost parents, children who've you know, been
exposed to to extreme life circumstances.
Speaker 3 (32:13):
But it's a very humbling thing.
Speaker 2 (32:17):
When you realize you choose to enter it as a
slave into somebody's home.
Speaker 3 (32:24):
Right, So I will do what you would like, how
you would like.
Speaker 2 (32:29):
Sometimes I think something would be better for the kids
or something you know would work better in a home,
But it's not my home, it's not my children.
Speaker 3 (32:37):
And so it's a job that.
Speaker 2 (32:39):
Helps me grow in humility to continually have to do
the will of other people. And when you work for
very difficult people, people who are irasciable or people who
are extremely wealthy and.
Speaker 3 (32:54):
Are used to like you know, throwing other people around
to humble yourself or.
Speaker 2 (33:01):
To be accused of you know, you know you put
the ketchup in the wrong fridge. Really it was you know,
two nannies ago. But okay, you know, you know, you
work in houses with multiple household staff and like it's
it's just complicated. But it's a continual choice every day
(33:24):
to lower yourself, to forget yourself, to just serve as
our lady right, to clean things, to fold laundry, to
wipe down a toilet or you know, clean a dirty diaper, or.
Speaker 3 (33:40):
You know, to wash up to the dishes, even though
that's not really your job, you know, or.
Speaker 2 (33:46):
It's it's been something that over these years, these seven
eight years that I've done, this has taught me so
many spiritual principles. And I focus in on what terres
of Lasue always taught, which were the littlest things, and
Mother Teresa right, the littlest things done with great.
Speaker 3 (34:05):
Love have immense merit.
Speaker 2 (34:09):
So you know, when the fire and the pressure is
on and you're trying to do everything, to know that
the littlest things I do every step. You know, there
was one house that I worked in and when I
was there, every day I would do ninety some flights
(34:29):
of stairs because they had that kind of house.
Speaker 3 (34:33):
There are actually several houses that I worked out.
Speaker 7 (34:35):
That were like that.
Speaker 2 (34:38):
And so I would just every step every time. I'll
never be lazy, right, I won't be like, oh, that's
on the first floor. No, like you know, you put
on your tennis shoes and you go. And I would, ever,
even when I'm tired, I would offer up every step, right,
everything I could do in love as a prayer, first
to glorify God, then to help these people.
Speaker 3 (34:59):
And they're are people you can work for who can
be really.
Speaker 2 (35:02):
Difficult and don't even notice the sacrifice you're doing or
any of that. But it doesn't matter, because you're doing
it for Christ, you know. And you know I will
do one more run through the house and pick up
all the.
Speaker 3 (35:15):
Dirty Kleenex for Christ.
Speaker 2 (35:17):
Right, writing mother Teresa, you know somebody founder cleaning a
bathroom in an airport. She was doing it for Christ,
and she was doing it for the next person that
would use that. And you teach these children human dignity too,
that you have dignity, and even if nobody sees your bathroom,
(35:39):
you have to pick it up and you have to
you know, maybe you'll be a home all day, but you.
Speaker 3 (35:43):
Need to wake up and get dressed.
Speaker 2 (35:46):
Right, You don't sit in your pajamas all day in
a dirty home and watch TV.
Speaker 3 (35:49):
Now we get up, we get dressed, we make our bet.
Speaker 2 (35:52):
You know, we find something fun to do. It can
be a craft, it can be a sport. It can
you know, be a new lane, which it can. You know,
it could even be learning some like computer game but
you know, baking, or you know what does it mean
to be human? And you do all of that in
(36:15):
love for God, and He in return uses you as
an instrument to permeate out to the people around you. I, oftentimes,
when I'm working with small children, pray to Therez with
her little heart that I can have that little heart
(36:36):
with them. And I pray to the saints that we're children.
If you go through my book The Children of the Cross,
I go through many saints that were children, and I've
missed some, you know that I've come to learn about later.
But I ask them to intercede for me, because these
children and trusted to me, are called to be saints,
(37:01):
and children aren't just like naturally virtuous. You have to
teach virtue. You have to teach them to share. You
have to teach them patients. You have to teach them respect,
you know. So it's just it's it's an interesting vocation,
our aspect of you know, the big vocation. God has
called me too, and I would never have traded for
(37:24):
the world what I've done here these years. It's impressively
difficult and yet very rewarding because I know that each
one of these families would not be near where they
were in their relationship with the Lord if God hadn't
(37:47):
sent me to them. Some of them aren't Catholic, some
aren't don't even go to Mass. But you know, I
know that I brought something into their home that they
didn't have. But I'm not alone in that, you know.
I always looked to the saints as examples for me.
(38:07):
And when I was first looking for my first nanny job,
and I was undergoing incredible.
Speaker 3 (38:15):
Persecution at the time.
Speaker 2 (38:20):
Just for seeking a radical life with the Lord, and
the people around me didn't understand, and so.
Speaker 3 (38:28):
It was unspeakable persecution.
Speaker 2 (38:30):
I was reading this book on Saint Edith Stein and
her companions on the way to Auschwitz. It was a
bunch of German, mostly women, and the different calls and
places of life who were killed in Auschwitz with Saint
Edith Stein, and they all could be canonized. But the
(38:51):
interesting thing that I saw over and over is I
was praying through this was I'm trying to think of
it was before or after I talked to that priest,
but was they're like I kept seeing how they were
called to be a nanny, and it struck me.
Speaker 3 (39:11):
And I even wrote a note in here, like, you know.
Speaker 2 (39:14):
Maybe that's what the Lord wants, like to give myself
as a domestic servant, and it would kind of get
me away from this area for a while and I
could focus on these children and build up, you know
something around me. Now I've got this fortress called Cedar Street,
and and it was really beautiful. There were three saints
(39:36):
in this book in particular who they're not canonized, but
who kind of called to me the first. The first
was Sister Judith Mendes DaCosta. And oh, I guess I
started in the back when I was typing this out,
(40:00):
and I'm going to tell you where she was from.
Speaker 3 (40:03):
She was Portuguese. She had Portuguese Jewish parents in Amsterdam.
Speaker 2 (40:10):
So she was the one that was not German, and
she was born Jewish and she was entrusted to a
Catholic nanny who didn't practice her faith even that strongly,
but had a great influence on Sister Judith.
Speaker 3 (40:28):
And later when she joined the.
Speaker 2 (40:31):
Catholic church and was, you know, kind of kicked out
of her own family, she became a nanny for a while.
So I remember praying to these three sisters asking them
to get.
Speaker 3 (40:43):
Me a job.
Speaker 2 (40:44):
So I believe, even though I don't remember all the
details of her life. Sister Judith Mendez da Costa, she
was a Dominican. She was both entrusted to a Catholic
nanny who influenced her, and then she was a nanny herself.
The second is Sister Miriam Michelis, and she lost her
(41:09):
parents when she was a young child, and the guardian
that took charge of her trained her in like home
economics and domestic work, and she.
Speaker 3 (41:18):
Became a nanny. And that is how she built up
this life around her and was able to sustain.
Speaker 2 (41:26):
Her human needs until she found eventually the convent that
she was called to. But someone also who was left
totally alone, and you know, the Lord brought her this work,
which was entering into other people's family and serving in
(41:47):
that spirit of the visitation right, and the last was
sister Maria Alyosha. Let's see if I can do this
German name Lovenfels. She was a poor handmaid of Jesus Christ,
but she was born into a Jewish family and when
she wanted to convert, her mom and her brother they
(42:08):
had all beat her and she was considered an apostate
once she left, and so she had to find work,
and she found work as a nanny.
Speaker 3 (42:18):
But then once her nanny.
Speaker 2 (42:19):
Job found out that she had converted to Catholicism, she
lost that job as well, and she was kind of
swooped up by another family that introduced her to the
poor Handmaids of Jesus Christ.
Speaker 3 (42:31):
So three sisters on their road to martyrdom. The lord
used to care for other people's children, which is really beautiful.
Speaker 2 (42:44):
I don't know if most people know this, but Carlos
acutis who everybody is so excited about being canonize.
Speaker 3 (42:52):
This fall, and everyone talks about how they want.
Speaker 2 (42:54):
To meet his parents, and I always say, I mean,
his parents are fine, but that why want on me?
Speaker 3 (43:01):
Is is Polish nanny. So Carlos Acutus' parents lived in
England at the time.
Speaker 2 (43:08):
And they were not practicing their faith, and they hired
a Polish nanny, which I'm one hundred percent Polish, so
I want to meet this woman if she's alive. And
then Polish nanny is the one that trained Carlosacutas and
set him on fire for the faith, and then he
converted his parents before they died, before he died. So
(43:31):
Carlos Acutus is going to be Saint Carlos Acutas, not
because of his parents. I mean, yeah, they gave birth thrown,
but it's really not that big of a deal. It's
because of this Polish nanny. So I was thought that
that was really interesting, you know, to look back.
Speaker 3 (43:49):
Upon Saint Zida.
Speaker 2 (43:53):
She is a patron saint of domestic workers, and she
was an Italian saint and she entered.
Speaker 3 (44:01):
Into domestic service as a nanny and a.
Speaker 2 (44:04):
Housekeeper, kind of like you know, some of the work
I've done at age twelve, and she wanted to be
a sister, but she did her work and then she
just prayed, and the family was kind of annoyed for
a while, but then they got used to it, right,
and then she go out and help the poor and
she ended up staying with his family for fifty years.
(44:27):
So of course if she was being a nanny, she
raised the helped raise the children. But she stayed as
a maid and as someone to help around the house,
and they provided her somewhere to live, and she lived alone,
sort of like a hermit, you know, for the Lord,
although she was around people a little more and would
go out and serve the poor. So Saint Zita is
(44:50):
a great saint for nannies. There is another more modern saint.
She's a servant of God who was a nanny, and
Matt is Julia Greeley. She is a black woman. She
(45:11):
was born into slavery here in the United States, and
her owners took her to Colorado, and then with the
Emancipation Proclamation she was freed. Well, she had a limp
from arthritis, and the slave owners had beat her as
a child, so she had all these this disfigurement and
(45:32):
these scars on her face, and her eye was swollen,
you know, really ugly, and she couldn't really see. But
she gave herself to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and
she belonged to a perish of the Sacred Heart. And
she would pull this little red wagon around the streets
of the city.
Speaker 3 (45:50):
Collecting things from the rich and taking them.
Speaker 2 (45:53):
To the poor and the needy, especially at night, so
that and leaving them outside their door so they wouldn't
be embarrassed or no who brought them. And she always
used to say, may the sacred hot at Jesus bless you.
Speaker 3 (46:09):
And she would not ever accept things for herself. When
they try to give her warm clothing or blanket.
Speaker 2 (46:17):
She'd say, the sacred hot at Jesus keeps me warm.
She didn't even know her birthday. She was, you know,
truly one of those born into slavery. But one of
the ways that she supported herself freed without an education,
was she became a babysitter and a nanny to a
little girl named Marjorie. And the only photograph that we
(46:40):
have of Julia Greeley is in her big black flappy
hat holding this little white baby that she took care of.
And the family was wonderful to her and tried to
provide for her in different ways and things.
Speaker 3 (46:57):
But another way that got used that service.
Speaker 2 (47:01):
And then she would clean the church. So you know,
what a beautiful vocation to keep a church clean.
Speaker 3 (47:11):
Right for the Lord. Someone who does not like dirt
at all.
Speaker 2 (47:18):
I understand how important it is to keep the place
of prayer clean for God right and some of the
other saints you might not know that had been a
nanny for a while. Saint Gemma Gilgani. When her parents died,
(47:39):
she became the caretaker of her own children, and then.
Speaker 3 (47:43):
She became a nanny for two different families. And it
was one of these families where she was living when she.
Speaker 2 (47:49):
Eventually would be got ill and had the stigmata, and
they allowed her to live there and they took care
of her. But Saint Jemma Gilgani is another one who
wanted to become a passionist, you know, just like you
know I love to be a hermit. Once she died,
the passionists claimed her, but they wouldn't take her when
(48:11):
she was alive. But she found a vocation deep with
Christ in union to the point of suffering the stigmata,
you know, in many ways, rejected by those that she
loved the most, but she did this all as a
(48:31):
nanny and a caretaker. Imagine the effect that See Jamma
Googani had on the children surrounding her.
Speaker 9 (48:38):
Right.
Speaker 3 (48:40):
Another one was Saint Miriam the Little Arab. I love her.
She was a Carmelite and she was born into a
family in Nazareth. Her parents had.
Speaker 2 (48:56):
Eleven I think sons who all died at Earth, and
they made a pilgrimage on foot from Nazareth to Bethlehem
to pray for a daughter, and they got her, and
then they also got a son. And then the parents
died and her uncle took her in and he was
very demanding, and he wanted her to get married, and
she knew she was called to live only for Christ.
(49:20):
And she was complaining about this to one of his servants,
who happened to be Muslim, and he.
Speaker 3 (49:29):
Offered to help her.
Speaker 2 (49:30):
But then he threatened her and said she had to
become Muslim, and she said he said, she said no,
So he slid her throat to kill her and threw
her in a ditch. And our lady appeared to her
as a nurse and nursed her back to health.
Speaker 3 (49:45):
And sewed her I mean there was you could see
the scar. Sewed her back and.
Speaker 2 (49:53):
Gave her the soup she said was the most delicious,
heavenly soup every day. And then once she was healthy,
she she sent her to a church and said go
speak to this priest and she disappeared. Well, the priest said,
you can't go back to your uncle, obviously, and got
her a job as a nanny with a family, and
they moved to France, and eventually she became a carmelite.
She came back to the Holy Land and founded all
(50:16):
the carmels in the Holy Land. And she had every
spiritual gift you could hear of. She was bilocated and
she would levitate, and she had the stigmata, and she's
really beautiful. But there was a long period of her
life where she supported herself by taking care of the
children of a family. Imagine the effect that she could
have on those children. Saint Josephine Paquita the same thing,
(50:41):
kidnapped in the Sudan, sold as a slave, taken by
a family back to Italy and entrusted with these children.
Speaker 3 (50:49):
And the little girl she took care of was so
attached to her. And eventually.
Speaker 2 (50:55):
The sisters that she met through this family offered for
her to become a sister if she was given her freedom.
And oh, this little girl was so sad and the
family didn't want to lose her, but they did eventually
go before the authorities and get the freedom of Bikita,
and she followed the sisters to their vocation and she
(51:19):
served the children in the.
Speaker 3 (51:20):
School where the sisters worked as well.
Speaker 2 (51:24):
So she was a beautiful example of one living a
spiritual motherhood and this work of servitude.
Speaker 3 (51:31):
But Bikita brought that servicutude.
Speaker 2 (51:34):
Up to a higher level, right Like I was talking
about that, Terrez would always show me every time that
you do something, you don't do it because the master
is demanding it or because you know. And there's been
some nicer families I've worked for too, but there's been
some pretty harsh people. And you do it because you
love Christ. You do it as a choice to lower
(51:55):
yourself and to become the servant of all.
Speaker 3 (51:58):
You know, just like Christ. And Bikita had to do
that to wicked masters.
Speaker 2 (52:03):
And then she said, oh, but now that I know
that I have a Master that died on the cross
to save me from how how could I not give
my whole life to him?
Speaker 3 (52:11):
So then she did that for him.
Speaker 2 (52:13):
But the children that they interviewed, you know, after she died,
had beautiful stories of how she affected their lives.
Speaker 3 (52:23):
She'd tell them stories and she would she would teach
them about.
Speaker 7 (52:28):
Jesus, right.
Speaker 3 (52:29):
And we have many saints that you might.
Speaker 2 (52:31):
Know about who were mothers or who were teachers, right,
that were in education of children, you know. And you
think of Catherine Dragsel and Mother Cabrini and Elizabethan Setan, and.
Speaker 3 (52:44):
But you might not think about these who were actual.
Speaker 2 (52:47):
Nannies that helped to take care of and raise other
people's children, say Edith Stein, there was a short time
in her journey where she was sent to help with
her sister's kids and then somebody else's kids. She loved
to be around the children, but what struck me the
most was her time in the concentration camp when mothers
(53:11):
were losing their minds.
Speaker 3 (53:13):
She would gather the children and she would care for them.
Speaker 2 (53:16):
Maybe not as a hired nanny that was paid, but
she's paid by the blood of Christ, and she did
that same work to bring Christ to them, especially in
their suffering. One of the biographies on her Road, it
was Edith Stein's complete calm and self possession that marked
her out from the rest of the prisoners and Auschwitz.
(53:40):
There was a spirit of indescribable misery in that camp.
Speaker 3 (53:45):
The New Angel, Oh.
Speaker 2 (53:47):
The prisoners especially suffered from extreme anxiety, and Edith Stein
went among the women like an angel, comforting, helping and
consoling them. Many of the mothers were on the brink
of insanity. They had sat moaning for.
Speaker 3 (54:05):
Days without giving any thought to their children.
Speaker 2 (54:09):
She immediately set about taking care of these little ones.
She washed them, she combed their hair, She tried to
make sure they were fed and that they were cared for.
So we asked Saint Edith Signed to pray for us
in this work. And lastly, I just found this out
this week. Did you know that Saint Fustina was a Nanni.
(54:31):
So she was raised in this beautiful family and she
wanted to become a sister, and they were poor and
they couldn't afford a dowry for the convent, and her
parents said no, and the Lord continued to call her,
and eventually she just ran away from home and she
got a job as a nanny, and several times she
(54:52):
got a good job, and then she quit it because
she was trying to go home and convince her parents
to let her go to a convent.
Speaker 3 (54:57):
Right and every time she left the children she cared
for they were heartbroken.
Speaker 2 (55:02):
Well, finally the Lord appeared to her at that dance
and said, how long are you going to leave me waiting?
Go to Warsaw And she went, and she found a
priest that arranged for her to work for a family.
And she found a convent that allowed her to come
every month when she got paid and give her salary,
(55:23):
and they collected it for a dowry, and then they
allowed her to join them, and the family she was
working for it became like her own family at that time.
Speaker 3 (55:34):
And her employer was just a few years older than her,
and she didn't want to let her go. She's like,
you're like a sister, and you know, the children loved
her and loved her, but she knew God was calling her.
How beautiful to.
Speaker 2 (55:51):
Think about this treasury of the Diary of Saint Faustina,
and this gift of divine mercy came from the heart
of somebody that was that great founded that they were
able to run a household, that they could raise children,
that you know, they would be very incarnate in the
(56:11):
world of the home and of families, just the way
we see our lady when she she went to Elizabeth.
So that's just what I wanted to share with you
this week. Just a little bit about the vocation to
be a nanny, to be a domestic worker, right.
Speaker 3 (56:37):
To serve people.
Speaker 2 (56:39):
You know, Mother Teresa, people used to she used to say,
you know, you couldn't pay me to do the work
that I'm doing. And what she meant is like, I'm
not doing it for money, And no amount of money
could cause her to want to go on the streets
(56:59):
and picked up you know, dying people with infested with
open wounds, with bugs and a smell throwing up on her.
Speaker 3 (57:06):
You know, you're in everywhere.
Speaker 2 (57:08):
You can't pay someone to do something like that, But
for the love of God, they can do it, and
they can do it like a saint.
Speaker 7 (57:14):
They can do it well.
Speaker 2 (57:16):
And so regardless if your job is at home as
a parent, or is out in the workplace, maybe not
as a nanny.
Speaker 3 (57:24):
Maybe you work in a store. Maybe you you know,
and don't ever fear to be demeaned at work.
Speaker 2 (57:31):
It's a great way to build character, to grow in
humility and obedience. And our Lord worked with his hands,
our lady served with her hands, and you can be
like them when you do this in humble.
Speaker 3 (57:46):
Love everything that you do right.
Speaker 2 (57:49):
This can kind of build on that last podcast I
had on the holiness of work. You know, we see
these examples of these great mystics who had the stigmata.
You know, they're saints, but they're not just like saints.
We haven't heard of some of them I mentioned. You
might not, but you know saints that, like you know,
(58:09):
are held up as like these these shining stars.
Speaker 3 (58:12):
In the church. They were nannies, they were you know, servants.
Speaker 2 (58:17):
And maybe God won't call you to clean your neighbor's home,
but this might inspire you to clean your own home
a little better. There's something very beautiful about not only
doing manual labor in silence and contemplation, but in caring
for and loving and forming souls to know and love
(58:39):
and serve Christ in the.
Speaker 3 (58:40):
Ordinary, right, in your daily duty right, and God will bless.
Speaker 2 (58:49):
You with spiritual friendships like Mary and Elizabeth had, like
these saints had with the people who they worked for.
You know, I think of Saint Christina so close to
that family, and it's a beautiful thing, right. It's another
way of bringing Christ to the smallest And the seeds
(59:12):
that you plant when they're little will grow to these
huge trees when they're older. Look at Saint Carlos Acutez right,
And there are others who lives their conversions were based
on a nanny.
Speaker 3 (59:25):
That they had when they were little. So know that
you can do great things in that way. Here at
the end, I just wanted to sing.
Speaker 2 (59:38):
The Magnificat one more time, and I asked you to
pray for me and my work, and to pray for
the providence of God to eventually provide enough so that
it's not that I don't love what I do, but
it's not my primal calling. And in order to spend
the time the Lord, it needs for me to in
silence and in prayer in order to write. In order
(59:59):
to help the poor in the farthest reaches of the world,
I need more time. And that comes with, you know,
having enough donations to pay the bills and do things
like that, so that I can give my life more
fully directly to Christ.
Speaker 3 (01:00:17):
But we entrust us.
Speaker 7 (01:00:18):
All to his hands.
Speaker 3 (01:00:19):
We pray, Hail Mary, full of grace.
Speaker 7 (01:00:22):
The Lord is with thee.
Speaker 3 (01:00:24):
Blessed art thou among women. Blessed is the fruit of
thy womb.
Speaker 2 (01:00:28):
Jesus, Holy Mary, Mother of God, Pray for us sinners
now and in the hour of our death.
Speaker 3 (01:00:35):
Then I'm sure.
Speaker 11 (01:00:37):
This one that's probably not perfect. Sorry, that's awful.
Speaker 7 (01:00:59):
I can't.
Speaker 3 (01:01:04):
It's really bad. Okay, I'm not doing this for a concert.
Speaker 7 (01:01:12):
My soul proclaims a greatness of the Lord, and my
spear and exhaltsing God. My say.
Speaker 9 (01:01:30):
For as.
Speaker 7 (01:01:34):
With mercy, on my lowliness.
Speaker 5 (01:01:41):
And my bame will be for aver exalted.
Speaker 9 (01:01:51):
For the money.
Speaker 7 (01:01:54):
God has done great things for me, and miss Mercy
will rage from age to a.
Speaker 9 (01:02:11):
And wholdly.
Speaker 7 (01:02:16):
Hold whold bes his name.
Speaker 6 (01:02:31):
He has merci every gana ration.
Speaker 7 (01:02:40):
He has refewed.
Speaker 5 (01:02:43):
Mis palands glory.
Speaker 7 (01:02:49):
He has cast down the Myanmaricans and must live up
the me gamble.
Speaker 5 (01:03:10):
He has called to help his Servandsrayan. He remembered his
primes to our Father.
Speaker 8 (01:03:30):
And toldly, Holy, Holy is his name, And toldly, Holy.
Speaker 7 (01:04:13):
God, bless you have a.
Speaker 3 (01:04:16):
Blessed today.
Speaker 1 (01:04:22):
Hello, God's beloved. I'm Annabel Moseley, author, professor of theology,
and host of then Sings My Soul and Destination Sainthood
on WCAT Radio. I invite you to listen in and
find inspiration along this sacred journey. We're traveling together to
make our lives a masterpiece and with God's grace, become saints.
(01:04:46):
Join me Annabel Moseley for then sings My Soul and
Destination Sainthood on WCAT Radio. God bless you. Remember you
are never alone. God is always with you.
Speaker 7 (01:05:05):
Thank you for listening to a production of w c
AT Radio. Please join us in our mission of evangelization,
and don't forget Love lifts up where knowledge takes flight.
So listening to WCAT radio, your home for authentic Catholic programming.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Hello, and welcome to the heart of Fiat crucified Love.
This week we are going to talk about the visitation.
We just had the feast day of the visitation on
May thirty first, and we're going to talk about the
(00:33):
spirituality and the saints that lived a life as a nanny,
as a domestic servant, and we'll talk a little bit how.
Speaker 3 (00:47):
The Lord pulled me into this form of.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
Ministry sanctity, right, this vocation to make me holy. But
I have been very surprised over the years here to
find so many of even my very favorite saints who
(01:16):
were called for a period of time to live as
a nanny and as a housekeeper, kind of similar to
what I do in the homes of the affluent as
a nanny house manager kind of a thing. And though
also the effect that nanny has nanny's have had on saints. Right,
(01:39):
So we're going to talk about all of that. I
just thought to be neat to share with you, and
especially in.
Speaker 3 (01:45):
Light of the visitation.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
I absolutely never play guitar anymore, and it's actually kind
of funny. This one is the one I've had for
twenty some years. It's been all over the world, and
every time I would go to play it, one of
the streams will have popped, which is kind of odd,
and the guys that could Guitar Center actually think it's weird.
(02:10):
But we thought we got the problem figured out and fixed,
and I actually prefer my other one, which is like
a classical acoustic fusion. And right when I got this
whole thing set up, I was going in the other
room and I hear this big bang, and I thought,
(02:30):
what in the world is this now?
Speaker 3 (02:31):
And I go and believe it or not, on the
other guitar, the stream popped and it just doesn't make sense.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
But thankfully I have this backup, and to me, those
little glitches are signs of just enough spiritual warfare where
I know what I'm doing actually is important enough to
have the evil one try to ruffle my feather. So
(03:02):
this has got to be an important podcast for somebody
out there. So let's start with a prayer and then
I'm gonna actually play a song.
Speaker 3 (03:15):
This is so courageous.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
I don't play guitar, and I certainly have not played
music that I wrote twenty years ago recently, but this
is a song on the Visitation that I wrote probably
in like two thousand and four ish, so yeah, like
twenty years ago. And then we'll read from the Gospel
(03:37):
of Luke, and then I'll share some reflections on that
and then on.
Speaker 3 (03:40):
Some of these saints.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
So in the name of the Father and of the
Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen, Come, Holy Spirit,
Come by the means of the powerful intercession of the
Immaculate Heart of Mary, the well beloved spouse.
Speaker 4 (04:00):
Siop, Hurry hurry, Mother Mary, run with your.
Speaker 5 (04:27):
Baby, proclaiming kids peace.
Speaker 6 (04:36):
Hurry hurry, Mother Mary, fly spearit.
Speaker 7 (04:52):
Cary cans love.
Speaker 8 (04:58):
Be ab.
Speaker 7 (05:00):
Chances.
Speaker 9 (05:03):
You must make cast Go to lizab three joys.
Speaker 7 (05:19):
He choosen.
Speaker 10 (05:24):
You must speedly, for all things are possible for God.
Speaker 7 (05:40):
Do not fear married. Do not we marry.
Speaker 5 (05:51):
Rejoice in the Lord Mary, for from you.
Speaker 10 (05:58):
Our saviors Column treasure him within. Mary. As you travel
through the.
Speaker 5 (06:08):
Hill country, go to your kinswoman.
Speaker 7 (06:18):
Bring his love.
Speaker 9 (06:23):
Alizsbths plasin you and blesssness the child with your wood.
Speaker 7 (06:45):
Alive sabaths at the side of your voice. Ben my
lot for joy who and I married, that you should
(07:14):
come to be married. For blessed or you believe the
word of God for me. For me, he said, behold Guy,
(07:43):
the head maiden the Lord, for for me reason, let.
Speaker 11 (08:03):
Be done.
Speaker 7 (08:05):
In my life.
Speaker 5 (08:07):
Fast you will, Oh, listen to the spirit Mary praying
in your heart. Mary crying out and fea Mary, and
(08:33):
surrender to as well. Listen you Mary, and bless it
is your son. Mary, pray with in my heart, married.
Speaker 7 (08:55):
Your head of my soul, proclaims.
Speaker 10 (09:06):
For the greatness of the Lord, and my speared.
Speaker 7 (09:15):
Exhalt, sing God, my save.
Speaker 9 (09:23):
For the many.
Speaker 7 (09:26):
One has done great things for me and told me his.
Speaker 6 (09:46):
Prey, Hoy, mother, Mary, run with.
Speaker 9 (09:58):
Your baby, do shame.
Speaker 7 (10:05):
His man lalie lulja.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
Since this just got really strong, I can hear just
as I played, and then I tuned in and I played,
and I tuned that this is that's off, sorry, And
I kept struggling to read this. This is the actual
piece of paper in an attic at a monastery in Poland.
Speaker 3 (10:58):
Where I wrote this.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
So as you see, I was like writing it and
scribbling it and trying to get the chords, and.
Speaker 3 (11:07):
I was not being nice to my future self in
the way. It's not very neat.
Speaker 2 (11:11):
So at the end, if I remember instead of praying,
we're gonna sing when we're some.
Speaker 3 (11:20):
But let's see here. So most of you know the
story of my vocation Zu the woman with multiple vocations.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
But I was a missionary for many years, and I
had lived as a hermit, so I kind of went
back and forth, and then I actually had temporary vows
as a diaceisan hermit. And my heart is still convinced
that was God's will. But he also allows people's free
will to mess things up.
Speaker 3 (12:01):
And it doesn't mean that.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
That he leaves you hanging right. He always comes up
with a plan B and a Plan C. Say what
if he determined you were supposed to marry someone and they.
Speaker 3 (12:15):
Didn't agree right, or you know, they chose a different path.
Speaker 2 (12:21):
Does that mean that like your vocation lists your whole
life now, like he brings you Plan B, Plan C,
Plan D.
Speaker 7 (12:27):
And so.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
He brings beautiful things out of brokenness when you give
them to him. And without having the support that I
needed within the church. It is a strange vocation to
pray in solitude all the time, and financially too, write
because you know, even more than a sister who can
(12:51):
be out in the world a little bit, you know
her community. They all kind of live together and support
each other. Son may teach, or they might have a
work they do, you know, and having those beautiful habits.
Everybody wants to support our sisters, so they send money there,
and you should. If you don't support the sisters, that's
not a good thing. But it's a little more tricky
(13:13):
to find that kind of support for a single woman
that is embracing a life even more extreme than one
in a religious community, because it's a life of total.
Speaker 3 (13:28):
Solitude, right, and dependence on God.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
But as I was kind of thrust back into the world,
God acted very creative, greed creatively with me. And I
had a good priest's friend who is a vocation director
of a large archdiocese, and he's familiar with vocations, right,
and he's familiar with me, and he said, you know,
(13:56):
why don't you try something like Saint Charles de Foucal
and the communities that came from them. They lived the
contemplative life, but they had to work in the world.
And and I'm still certain that I would. My kind
of a soul was not created to be exposed to
the world as much as it is now, as opposed
to when I was a hermit right and very sensitive,
(14:18):
and it it takes a big bird a toll on me.
Speaker 3 (14:22):
But I decided to become a He said, you know,
you have so many gifts for children and all this.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
So I became a nanny, a night nanny for triplets
downtown Chicago, and.
Speaker 3 (14:38):
I figured I could stay awake and.
Speaker 2 (14:41):
Be the soul one praying right sometimes on Michigan aff
the maybe others, but there probably aren't a lot up
all night long praying for the priests and the faithful
within that diocese. So I did that and it continues
ude kind of spiraled, and I've done a lot of
(15:06):
night nannying, and I do like being with the babies
at night. I've also done many large families during COVID.
It was helpful for several families who couldn't take a
break to have my help. You know, there were babies
I took care of whose parents worked in the food
and the the medical industry. And then another family and
(15:32):
she also was like some like a physical or occupational therapist,
and he was a psychologist, so.
Speaker 3 (15:40):
You know, they had to keep going.
Speaker 9 (15:42):
And and then.
Speaker 3 (15:46):
I came to see how it was not just the orphans.
Speaker 2 (15:51):
I took care of in the orphanages in Africa who
needed my motherly love. And it was not just the
poor of the street children in Russia or the children
in the trash dump of Smoky Mountain, but there was
a great spiritual poverty within the wealthiest of the wealthy.
Speaker 3 (16:16):
And I began to.
Speaker 2 (16:20):
Kind of be called to a place where I wasn't comfortable, right,
And I was able to bring Christ to children who
never would hear of them, and to kind of ground
them and to teach them some beautiful things about what
it means to be human and what it means to be.
Speaker 3 (16:37):
A person, lessons that are often.
Speaker 2 (16:41):
Skipped over when you are born into a fluency, but
are very important, you know, forms of education and.
Speaker 3 (16:54):
Creativity, and.
Speaker 2 (16:58):
Kind of teaching them to shake off the wealth a
little bit and to look at their little souls as
to the saints that God created them to be right,
and to try to help lead them and their families
closer to the Lord.
Speaker 3 (17:09):
And it did work.
Speaker 2 (17:12):
Many of the children I took care of have been
baptized enrolled in Catholic schools, and I have to trust
that the.
Speaker 3 (17:19):
Lord will carry them through. And I made my way
back here to Elkhart, and that's where I was born, right, Indianna.
Speaker 2 (17:28):
And I always knew the Lord wanted me to live
in a house of prayer by the poor, and I
thought it would be as a hermit. And you know,
people thought that that was a reckless or dangerous thing,
which the poor in the United States are absolutely not
more dangerous than the Muslims and the Communists.
Speaker 7 (17:49):
I love.
Speaker 2 (17:51):
But in a series of events, he entrusted this beautiful
home to me. It is more than anything I could
ever imagine. I can run this huge ministry that touches
the poorest of the poor all over the world.
Speaker 3 (18:05):
That is across the bridge from the poorest area of
the city. Right. I get the street children in my yards.
Speaker 2 (18:12):
I can help them where I can take in foster children,
and yet still be a presence to my nieces and
nephews who are able to witness since I'm here the
way I live, and to make this as a little
shrine to God. If no one ever stepped foot on
(18:34):
my property and I lived here fifty years alone, I
would be happy. But the Lord would see I made
one little corner of earth that he entrusted to be
beautiful for him and full of love, the love of beauty,
and of music.
Speaker 3 (18:53):
And of prayer, which is most important. But it's interesting
because he's really kept me in this nanny.
Speaker 2 (19:05):
I thought somebody would would be sent by him by
now and realize, understand my true vocation and offer to
pay for the house. You know, so I had somewhere
to live a more contemplate of life the way that
you know, sisters, so many convents I have watched raised
(19:25):
millions of dollars over the last few years, and like, oh,
Lord help you know.
Speaker 3 (19:32):
But you know, my dad said to me the other day, Mary,
he would not have changed all of these lives, look
at these children. And it's true. So I don't question
the motives of the Lord.
Speaker 2 (19:43):
I do pray daily that he sends very generous downers,
not only for the foundation, as we have incredible needs,
but for my own personal vocation here.
Speaker 3 (19:58):
But that's in his hands. And in the me time, he.
Speaker 2 (20:01):
Has opened up to me such a beautiful vocation as
a nanny, as a house manager, as somebody who enters
into the home, which is the most vulnerable place of
a person. And these families have welcomed me in. They
allow me to see the good, the bad, the ugly,
(20:22):
and to help regulate that and to place Christ. Not
just place Christ, but to plant Christ in the hearts
of these children that I take care of, and all
of them the people who surround them.
Speaker 3 (20:39):
And the other morning I was I'm always running.
Speaker 2 (20:44):
Sometimes I work extremely long days if I haven't worked
all night long, right, and Mass is mandatory. There were
times a few months ago where I would have to
go late to Mass, and I would only get there
the Gospel, and then in the evening because I didn't
hit the beginning.
Speaker 3 (21:03):
I would go to the beginning of.
Speaker 2 (21:04):
Mass again, but I would have to leave right after communion,
so I'd get a full Mass, even more than that.
But it was, you know, it wasn't the life of
luxury I had as a hermit, where I could go
an hour early and pray and stay after. Right, he
keeps me on my toes. But I was rushing into Mass.
(21:26):
I had had to get everything together for like a
thirteen hour day. And even when I'm on time, the
devil does something to get me late. So if I
have a foster, maybe they have a blowout. If I'm
you know, early, all the lights turn red and there's
a construction truck that backs into and won't let me through,
(21:49):
or a train stops on the track and I can't
turn around because they black me in, or like there's
always something. So I go running into mass and I'm
just you know, every morning it's oh, help me, Lord,
help me, Lord. I'm sorry, Lord, and I get up
earlier and earlier. It's four point thirty. At this point,
I'm like, I can't. I just have to surrender. There's
(22:11):
a lesson in this. And I went to church and
at communion he sent me, Mary, do you know how
beautiful you are doing? Because I always am like, I'm
so sorry, I'm so sorry. I'm trying so hard. And
it's like imagine somebody trying to run a marathon, but
like a perpetual marathon in life, and every time they
(22:33):
get up, somebody like tackles them and then they got
to get back up, and then they.
Speaker 3 (22:37):
Pull try to pull them down, and you get back up.
So I was like, I am trying so hard to
do this right.
Speaker 2 (22:43):
And he said, it's you know, you're named correctly, Mary Elizabeth.
Speaker 3 (22:50):
And he said, think of the.
Speaker 2 (22:51):
Mystery of the visitation I placed or the father placed
my presence.
Speaker 3 (22:58):
Within my mother.
Speaker 2 (23:00):
And then sent her to Elizabeth like a nanny, like
a housekeeper, like a help me.
Speaker 3 (23:06):
Right, so she went to do exactly what you do
every day.
Speaker 2 (23:11):
You're actually more like Mary right now in that mystery
than if you weren't doing this work.
Speaker 7 (23:19):
And what did she do? She made haste, She ran.
You know, it wasn't pretty.
Speaker 3 (23:24):
She was running.
Speaker 2 (23:25):
She was trying to hurry. And so your hurriedness doesn't
bother me, just you know, continue to try to live it.
Speaker 3 (23:34):
With our lady.
Speaker 2 (23:36):
And I thought, wow, it's really what I'm doing. I
make haste to go to these women who are expecting babies,
who have babies, and to help them, to help them
with their housework, to help them to love and raise
their children for the Lord. And so this vocation as
(23:57):
a nanny for one who doesn't really believe in nanny.
Speaker 3 (24:00):
I think moms should take care of their kids the
way we were.
Speaker 2 (24:03):
Raised, right, But in today's world it's not always possible.
And I think my mom probably, even though she had
no help raising us, it probably would have been nice.
Speaker 4 (24:16):
You know.
Speaker 3 (24:16):
It doesn't mean that others shouldn't have help, and so.
Speaker 2 (24:23):
It's really beautiful to be able to offer that as
a sister I come into the home as a sister
to this couple, and you know, is an aunt kind
of to the children, and to help them to do
what they need to do, and to show them the
face of God. And it's really a beautiful thing, right
(24:47):
to teach them to love the Lord. And so we'll
read here just to remind you of the visitation.
Speaker 3 (24:57):
I pulled out my big old Bible. Thereupon Mary set out,
proceeding in haste to the hell.
Speaker 2 (25:06):
Country, to a town of Judah, where she entered Zechariah's
house and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the
baby leapt in her womb.
Speaker 3 (25:18):
Elizabeth was filled with the Holy.
Speaker 2 (25:20):
Spirit and cried out in a loud voice, blessed are
you among women? And blessed is the fruit of your womb.
Who am I that the mother of my Lord should
come to me? The moment your greeting sounded in my ears,
the baby leapt in my womb for joy. Blessed is
she who trusted that the Lord's words to her would
(25:42):
be fulfilled. And then our lady prayed the magnificat my
soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord, and my spirit
rejoices in God, my savior, for he is looked upon
his servant in her lowliness all ages to she'll call
me blessed. God, who is mighty, has done great things
(26:05):
for me, and holy is his name. His mercy is
from age to age on those who fear him. He
has shown might with his arm. He has confused the
proud in their inmost thoughts. He has deposed the mighty
from their thrones, and he has raised the lowly to
high places. The hungry he has given every good thing,
(26:28):
while the rich he is sent away empty.
Speaker 3 (26:31):
He has upheld.
Speaker 2 (26:32):
Israel as servant, ever mindful of his mercy, even as
he promised our father's promised Abraham and his descendants forever.
And Mary remained with Elizabeth about three months and then
returned home. Mary didn't stay there, right, She had, you know,
to follow the will of God. I'm sure Elizabeth and
(26:53):
Zechariah and maybe John the Baptist would have wanted her,
but she had her real vocation. And I feel like
that a lot. It's hard for me to leave the
children that you take care of day and night, especially.
Speaker 3 (27:06):
The ones I'm there, you know. Fifty sixty seventy eighty
hours a week.
Speaker 2 (27:12):
Sometimes, but there's a time determined by God and then
you entrust them back. And what I do as a
nanny is part of what the Lord has asked me
to do. Yes, first because it's as well and I
love him.
Speaker 3 (27:28):
I do it all for love of him.
Speaker 2 (27:30):
Secondly, to bring these children to God. Thirdly, to be
able to provide money for myself. That's just prudent, right.
I'm in need a home. I never collected anything all
those years I was living as a missionary and a hermit,
and so I'm going to get old. I don't have
a husband to take care of me. I don't have,
(27:52):
you know, a retirement fund or something. So I'm just
hoping to get the house paid off and that the
Lord will provide as I continue to aid. But you know,
it's a means of making money. And then also you know,
I'm always adding extra work to try to provide for
these persecuted Christians all over the world, to be able
(28:16):
to give a little bit of light to them. Really,
it's a vocation to motherhood. When I was choosing my
confirmation name, I chose Anne because all I wanted was
to get married and have a Jillian children. But the
Lord has expanded my heart to truly be like a
mother to the world. Father Flanagin, who founded Salt, always
(28:40):
taught us information how.
Speaker 3 (28:44):
You don't just have a soul entrusted to you for
a period of time, but even after you leave, even
if you're not able to have contact with.
Speaker 2 (28:51):
Them, you carry them as a spiritual child for the
rest of their lives. And so all of these children
that I've taken care of from the time I worked
with children at CAPS, at the child abuse place here
in high school, and then in the different mission places,
and my own nieces and nephews, and all of these
(29:13):
these nanny children, they and.
Speaker 3 (29:17):
Then the persecutor Christian.
Speaker 2 (29:18):
I've got thousands children of the Cross, my foster children.
Speaker 5 (29:22):
You know.
Speaker 2 (29:22):
It just piles upond me and it's so heavy because
I actually I understand how a mother's heart expands and
it's never divided the more children she has.
Speaker 3 (29:34):
And I feel inept to love everyone enough.
Speaker 2 (29:40):
But if you're doing what you're doing, and you're loving
people for the sake of Christ, then it's measured differently.
It's not enough in a temporal time, like are you
giving this many minutes to someone?
Speaker 3 (29:54):
God makes even a little bit enough.
Speaker 2 (29:57):
Right, He takes our little loaves and fish and he
multiplies it in their lives, and so in that regard,
it's always enough, you know. I've learned from the saints.
I love the work that I do. It's very humbling.
Speaker 7 (30:23):
Here.
Speaker 2 (30:24):
I am a very educated person. I speak multiple languages.
I'm capable in many different ways, you know, And they
always try to throw extra different work at me, or
people try to get me away, and yeah, I got
my doctorate, but I'm not teaching at the college, and
maybe something would open up.
Speaker 3 (30:40):
In the future.
Speaker 2 (30:41):
But I choose to do what I do because I
actually believe it has the greatest worth, and it's extremely
important for these souls, and I think there's great merit
in taking care of children. Sometimes I'll be like, you know,
(31:05):
remind my sisters, my little sister especially, you know, when
she's running around trying to take care of all these
kids and it's so hard and it's overwhelming, and I'll say,
you know, do you realize what your job is worth?
You know, look at these job offers that I'm getting.
Look what people would pay me to do what you
(31:25):
do every day, you know, unnoticed.
Speaker 3 (31:30):
So never doubt the value of that.
Speaker 2 (31:32):
So in some ways I'm giving the voice and value
to motherhood right by choosing to have that as my profession, right,
I mean, I'm not just like a babysitter. I'm definitely
a professional nanny, you know, and you have to bring
you know, psychology and spiritual stuff and like pedagogy and
(31:54):
medical like all sorts of things, and especially the children
I've taken care of for I've different families of widows,
so children who've lost parents, children who've you know, been
exposed to to extreme life circumstances.
Speaker 3 (32:13):
But it's a very humbling thing.
Speaker 2 (32:17):
When you realize you choose to enter it as a
slave into somebody's home.
Speaker 3 (32:24):
Right, So I will do what you would like, how
you would like.
Speaker 2 (32:29):
Sometimes I think something would be better for the kids
or something you know would work better in a home,
But it's not my home, it's not my children.
Speaker 3 (32:37):
And so it's a job that.
Speaker 2 (32:39):
Helps me grow in humility to continually have to do
the will of other people. And when you work for
very difficult people, people who are irasciable or people who
are extremely wealthy and.
Speaker 3 (32:54):
Are used to like you know, throwing other people around
to humble yourself or.
Speaker 2 (33:01):
To be accused of you know, you know you put
the ketchup in the wrong fridge. Really it was you know,
two nannies ago. But okay, you know, you know, you
work in houses with multiple household staff and like it's
it's just complicated. But it's a continual choice every day
(33:24):
to lower yourself, to forget yourself, to just serve as
our lady right, to clean things, to fold laundry, to
wipe down a toilet or you know, clean a dirty diaper, or.
Speaker 3 (33:40):
You know, to wash up to the dishes, even though
that's not really your job, you know, or.
Speaker 2 (33:46):
It's it's been something that over these years, these seven
eight years that I've done, this has taught me so
many spiritual principles. And I focus in on what terres
of Lasue always taught, which were the littlest things, and
Mother Teresa right, the littlest things done with great.
Speaker 3 (34:05):
Love have immense merit.
Speaker 2 (34:09):
So you know, when the fire and the pressure is
on and you're trying to do everything, to know that
the littlest things I do every step. You know, there
was one house that I worked in and when I
was there, every day I would do ninety some flights
(34:29):
of stairs because they had that kind of house.
Speaker 3 (34:33):
There are actually several houses that I worked out.
Speaker 7 (34:35):
That were like that.
Speaker 2 (34:38):
And so I would just every step every time. I'll
never be lazy, right, I won't be like, oh, that's
on the first floor. No, like you know, you put
on your tennis shoes and you go. And I would, ever,
even when I'm tired, I would offer up every step, right,
everything I could do in love as a prayer, first
to glorify God, then to help these people.
Speaker 3 (34:59):
And they're are people you can work for who can
be really.
Speaker 2 (35:02):
Difficult and don't even notice the sacrifice you're doing or
any of that. But it doesn't matter, because you're doing
it for Christ, you know. And you know I will
do one more run through the house and pick up
all the.
Speaker 3 (35:15):
Dirty Kleenex for Christ.
Speaker 2 (35:17):
Right, writing mother Teresa, you know somebody founder cleaning a
bathroom in an airport. She was doing it for Christ,
and she was doing it for the next person that
would use that. And you teach these children human dignity too,
that you have dignity, and even if nobody sees your bathroom,
(35:39):
you have to pick it up and you have to
you know, maybe you'll be a home all day, but you.
Speaker 3 (35:43):
Need to wake up and get dressed.
Speaker 2 (35:46):
Right, You don't sit in your pajamas all day in
a dirty home and watch TV.
Speaker 3 (35:49):
Now we get up, we get dressed, we make our bet.
Speaker 2 (35:52):
You know, we find something fun to do. It can
be a craft, it can be a sport. It can
you know, be a new lane, which it can. You know,
it could even be learning some like computer game but
you know, baking, or you know what does it mean
to be human? And you do all of that in
(36:15):
love for God, and He in return uses you as
an instrument to permeate out to the people around you. I, oftentimes,
when I'm working with small children, pray to Therez with
her little heart that I can have that little heart
(36:36):
with them. And I pray to the saints that we're children.
If you go through my book The Children of the Cross,
I go through many saints that were children, and I've
missed some, you know that I've come to learn about later.
But I ask them to intercede for me, because these
children and trusted to me, are called to be saints,
(37:01):
and children aren't just like naturally virtuous. You have to
teach virtue. You have to teach them to share. You
have to teach them patients. You have to teach them respect,
you know. So it's just it's it's an interesting vocation,
our aspect of you know, the big vocation. God has
called me too, and I would never have traded for
(37:24):
the world what I've done here these years. It's impressively
difficult and yet very rewarding because I know that each
one of these families would not be near where they
were in their relationship with the Lord if God hadn't
(37:47):
sent me to them. Some of them aren't Catholic, some
aren't don't even go to Mass. But you know, I
know that I brought something into their home that they
didn't have. But I'm not alone in that, you know.
I always looked to the saints as examples for me.
(38:07):
And when I was first looking for my first nanny job,
and I was undergoing incredible.
Speaker 3 (38:15):
Persecution at the time.
Speaker 2 (38:20):
Just for seeking a radical life with the Lord, and
the people around me didn't understand, and so.
Speaker 3 (38:28):
It was unspeakable persecution.
Speaker 2 (38:30):
I was reading this book on Saint Edith Stein and
her companions on the way to Auschwitz. It was a
bunch of German, mostly women, and the different calls and
places of life who were killed in Auschwitz with Saint
Edith Stein, and they all could be canonized. But the
(38:51):
interesting thing that I saw over and over is I
was praying through this was I'm trying to think of
it was before or after I talked to that priest,
but was they're like I kept seeing how they were
called to be a nanny, and it struck me.
Speaker 3 (39:11):
And I even wrote a note in here, like, you know.
Speaker 2 (39:14):
Maybe that's what the Lord wants, like to give myself
as a domestic servant, and it would kind of get
me away from this area for a while and I
could focus on these children and build up, you know
something around me. Now I've got this fortress called Cedar Street,
and and it was really beautiful. There were three saints
(39:36):
in this book in particular who they're not canonized, but
who kind of called to me the first. The first
was Sister Judith Mendes DaCosta. And oh, I guess I
started in the back when I was typing this out,
(40:00):
and I'm going to tell you where she was from.
Speaker 3 (40:03):
She was Portuguese. She had Portuguese Jewish parents in Amsterdam.
Speaker 2 (40:10):
So she was the one that was not German, and
she was born Jewish and she was entrusted to a
Catholic nanny who didn't practice her faith even that strongly,
but had a great influence on Sister Judith.
Speaker 3 (40:28):
And later when she joined the.
Speaker 2 (40:31):
Catholic church and was, you know, kind of kicked out
of her own family, she became a nanny for a while.
So I remember praying to these three sisters asking them
to get.
Speaker 3 (40:43):
Me a job.
Speaker 2 (40:44):
So I believe, even though I don't remember all the
details of her life. Sister Judith Mendez da Costa, she
was a Dominican. She was both entrusted to a Catholic
nanny who influenced her, and then she was a nanny herself.
The second is Sister Miriam Michelis, and she lost her
(41:09):
parents when she was a young child, and the guardian
that took charge of her trained her in like home
economics and domestic work, and she.
Speaker 3 (41:18):
Became a nanny. And that is how she built up
this life around her and was able to sustain.
Speaker 2 (41:26):
Her human needs until she found eventually the convent that
she was called to. But someone also who was left
totally alone, and you know, the Lord brought her this work,
which was entering into other people's family and serving in
(41:47):
that spirit of the visitation right, and the last was
sister Maria Alyosha. Let's see if I can do this
German name Lovenfels. She was a poor handmaid of Jesus Christ,
but she was born into a Jewish family and when
she wanted to convert, her mom and her brother they
(42:08):
had all beat her and she was considered an apostate
once she left, and so she had to find work,
and she found work as a nanny.
Speaker 3 (42:18):
But then once her nanny.
Speaker 2 (42:19):
Job found out that she had converted to Catholicism, she
lost that job as well, and she was kind of
swooped up by another family that introduced her to the
poor Handmaids of Jesus Christ.
Speaker 3 (42:31):
So three sisters on their road to martyrdom. The lord
used to care for other people's children, which is really beautiful.
Speaker 2 (42:44):
I don't know if most people know this, but Carlos
acutis who everybody is so excited about being canonize.
Speaker 3 (42:52):
This fall, and everyone talks about how they want.
Speaker 2 (42:54):
To meet his parents, and I always say, I mean,
his parents are fine, but that why want on me?
Speaker 3 (43:01):
Is is Polish nanny. So Carlos Acutus' parents lived in
England at the time.
Speaker 2 (43:08):
And they were not practicing their faith, and they hired
a Polish nanny, which I'm one hundred percent Polish, so
I want to meet this woman if she's alive. And
then Polish nanny is the one that trained Carlosacutas and
set him on fire for the faith, and then he
converted his parents before they died, before he died. So
(43:31):
Carlos Acutus is going to be Saint Carlos Acutas, not
because of his parents. I mean, yeah, they gave birth thrown,
but it's really not that big of a deal. It's
because of this Polish nanny. So I was thought that
that was really interesting, you know, to look back.
Speaker 3 (43:49):
Upon Saint Zida.
Speaker 2 (43:53):
She is a patron saint of domestic workers, and she
was an Italian saint and she entered.
Speaker 3 (44:01):
Into domestic service as a nanny and a.
Speaker 2 (44:04):
Housekeeper, kind of like you know, some of the work
I've done at age twelve, and she wanted to be
a sister, but she did her work and then she
just prayed, and the family was kind of annoyed for
a while, but then they got used to it, right,
and then she go out and help the poor and
she ended up staying with his family for fifty years.
(44:27):
So of course if she was being a nanny, she
raised the helped raise the children. But she stayed as
a maid and as someone to help around the house,
and they provided her somewhere to live, and she lived alone,
sort of like a hermit, you know, for the Lord,
although she was around people a little more and would
go out and serve the poor. So Saint Zita is
(44:50):
a great saint for nannies. There is another more modern saint.
She's a servant of God who was a nanny, and
Matt is Julia Greeley. She is a black woman. She
(45:11):
was born into slavery here in the United States, and
her owners took her to Colorado, and then with the
Emancipation Proclamation she was freed. Well, she had a limp
from arthritis, and the slave owners had beat her as
a child, so she had all these this disfigurement and
(45:32):
these scars on her face, and her eye was swollen,
you know, really ugly, and she couldn't really see. But
she gave herself to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and
she belonged to a perish of the Sacred Heart. And
she would pull this little red wagon around the streets
of the city.
Speaker 3 (45:50):
Collecting things from the rich and taking them.
Speaker 2 (45:53):
To the poor and the needy, especially at night, so
that and leaving them outside their door so they wouldn't
be embarrassed or no who brought them. And she always
used to say, may the sacred hot at Jesus bless you.
Speaker 3 (46:09):
And she would not ever accept things for herself. When
they try to give her warm clothing or blanket.
Speaker 2 (46:17):
She'd say, the sacred hot at Jesus keeps me warm.
She didn't even know her birthday. She was, you know,
truly one of those born into slavery. But one of
the ways that she supported herself freed without an education,
was she became a babysitter and a nanny to a
little girl named Marjorie. And the only photograph that we
(46:40):
have of Julia Greeley is in her big black flappy
hat holding this little white baby that she took care of.
And the family was wonderful to her and tried to
provide for her in different ways and things.
Speaker 3 (46:57):
But another way that got used that service.
Speaker 2 (47:01):
And then she would clean the church. So you know,
what a beautiful vocation to keep a church clean.
Speaker 3 (47:11):
Right for the Lord. Someone who does not like dirt
at all.
Speaker 2 (47:18):
I understand how important it is to keep the place
of prayer clean for God right and some of the
other saints you might not know that had been a
nanny for a while. Saint Gemma Gilgani. When her parents died,
(47:39):
she became the caretaker of her own children, and then.
Speaker 3 (47:43):
She became a nanny for two different families. And it
was one of these families where she was living when she.
Speaker 2 (47:49):
Eventually would be got ill and had the stigmata, and
they allowed her to live there and they took care
of her. But Saint Jemma Gilgani is another one who
wanted to become a passionist, you know, just like you
know I love to be a hermit. Once she died,
the passionists claimed her, but they wouldn't take her when
(48:11):
she was alive. But she found a vocation deep with
Christ in union to the point of suffering the stigmata,
you know, in many ways, rejected by those that she
loved the most, but she did this all as a
(48:31):
nanny and a caretaker. Imagine the effect that See Jamma
Googani had on the children surrounding her.
Speaker 9 (48:38):
Right.
Speaker 3 (48:40):
Another one was Saint Miriam the Little Arab. I love her.
She was a Carmelite and she was born into a
family in Nazareth. Her parents had.
Speaker 2 (48:56):
Eleven I think sons who all died at Earth, and
they made a pilgrimage on foot from Nazareth to Bethlehem
to pray for a daughter, and they got her, and
then they also got a son. And then the parents
died and her uncle took her in and he was
very demanding, and he wanted her to get married, and
she knew she was called to live only for Christ.
(49:20):
And she was complaining about this to one of his servants,
who happened to be Muslim, and he.
Speaker 3 (49:29):
Offered to help her.
Speaker 2 (49:30):
But then he threatened her and said she had to
become Muslim, and she said he said, she said no,
So he slid her throat to kill her and threw
her in a ditch. And our lady appeared to her
as a nurse and nursed her back to health.
Speaker 3 (49:45):
And sewed her I mean there was you could see
the scar. Sewed her back and.
Speaker 2 (49:53):
Gave her the soup she said was the most delicious,
heavenly soup every day. And then once she was healthy,
she she sent her to a church and said go
speak to this priest and she disappeared. Well, the priest said,
you can't go back to your uncle, obviously, and got
her a job as a nanny with a family, and
they moved to France, and eventually she became a carmelite.
She came back to the Holy Land and founded all
(50:16):
the carmels in the Holy Land. And she had every
spiritual gift you could hear of. She was bilocated and
she would levitate, and she had the stigmata, and she's
really beautiful. But there was a long period of her
life where she supported herself by taking care of the
children of a family. Imagine the effect that she could
have on those children. Saint Josephine Paquita the same thing,
(50:41):
kidnapped in the Sudan, sold as a slave, taken by
a family back to Italy and entrusted with these children.
Speaker 3 (50:49):
And the little girl she took care of was so
attached to her. And eventually.
Speaker 2 (50:55):
The sisters that she met through this family offered for
her to become a sister if she was given her freedom.
And oh, this little girl was so sad and the
family didn't want to lose her, but they did eventually
go before the authorities and get the freedom of Bikita,
and she followed the sisters to their vocation and she
(51:19):
served the children in the.
Speaker 3 (51:20):
School where the sisters worked as well.
Speaker 2 (51:24):
So she was a beautiful example of one living a
spiritual motherhood and this work of servitude.
Speaker 3 (51:31):
But Bikita brought that servicutude.
Speaker 2 (51:34):
Up to a higher level, right Like I was talking
about that, Terrez would always show me every time that
you do something, you don't do it because the master
is demanding it or because you know. And there's been
some nicer families I've worked for too, but there's been
some pretty harsh people. And you do it because you
love Christ. You do it as a choice to lower
(51:55):
yourself and to become the servant of all.
Speaker 3 (51:58):
You know, just like Christ. And Bikita had to do
that to wicked masters.
Speaker 2 (52:03):
And then she said, oh, but now that I know
that I have a Master that died on the cross
to save me from how how could I not give
my whole life to him?
Speaker 3 (52:11):
So then she did that for him.
Speaker 2 (52:13):
But the children that they interviewed, you know, after she died,
had beautiful stories of how she affected their lives.
Speaker 3 (52:23):
She'd tell them stories and she would she would teach
them about.
Speaker 7 (52:28):
Jesus, right.
Speaker 3 (52:29):
And we have many saints that you might.
Speaker 2 (52:31):
Know about who were mothers or who were teachers, right,
that were in education of children, you know. And you
think of Catherine Dragsel and Mother Cabrini and Elizabethan Setan, and.
Speaker 3 (52:44):
But you might not think about these who were actual.
Speaker 2 (52:47):
Nannies that helped to take care of and raise other
people's children, say Edith Stein, there was a short time
in her journey where she was sent to help with
her sister's kids and then somebody else's kids. She loved
to be around the children, but what struck me the
most was her time in the concentration camp when mothers
(53:11):
were losing their minds.
Speaker 3 (53:13):
She would gather the children and she would care for them.
Speaker 2 (53:16):
Maybe not as a hired nanny that was paid, but
she's paid by the blood of Christ, and she did
that same work to bring Christ to them, especially in
their suffering. One of the biographies on her Road, it
was Edith Stein's complete calm and self possession that marked
her out from the rest of the prisoners and Auschwitz.
(53:40):
There was a spirit of indescribable misery in that camp.
Speaker 3 (53:45):
The New Angel, Oh.
Speaker 2 (53:47):
The prisoners especially suffered from extreme anxiety, and Edith Stein
went among the women like an angel, comforting, helping and
consoling them. Many of the mothers were on the brink
of insanity. They had sat moaning for.
Speaker 3 (54:05):
Days without giving any thought to their children.
Speaker 2 (54:09):
She immediately set about taking care of these little ones.
She washed them, she combed their hair, She tried to
make sure they were fed and that they were cared for.
So we asked Saint Edith Signed to pray for us
in this work. And lastly, I just found this out
this week. Did you know that Saint Fustina was a Nanni.
(54:31):
So she was raised in this beautiful family and she
wanted to become a sister, and they were poor and
they couldn't afford a dowry for the convent, and her
parents said no, and the Lord continued to call her,
and eventually she just ran away from home and she
got a job as a nanny, and several times she
(54:52):
got a good job, and then she quit it because
she was trying to go home and convince her parents
to let her go to a convent.
Speaker 3 (54:57):
Right and every time she left the children she cared
for they were heartbroken.
Speaker 2 (55:02):
Well, finally the Lord appeared to her at that dance
and said, how long are you going to leave me waiting?
Go to Warsaw And she went, and she found a
priest that arranged for her to work for a family.
And she found a convent that allowed her to come
every month when she got paid and give her salary,
(55:23):
and they collected it for a dowry, and then they
allowed her to join them, and the family she was
working for it became like her own family at that time.
Speaker 3 (55:34):
And her employer was just a few years older than her,
and she didn't want to let her go. She's like,
you're like a sister, and you know, the children loved
her and loved her, but she knew God was calling her.
How beautiful to.
Speaker 2 (55:51):
Think about this treasury of the Diary of Saint Faustina,
and this gift of divine mercy came from the heart
of somebody that was that great founded that they were
able to run a household, that they could raise children,
that you know, they would be very incarnate in the
(56:11):
world of the home and of families, just the way
we see our lady when she she went to Elizabeth.
So that's just what I wanted to share with you
this week. Just a little bit about the vocation to
be a nanny, to be a domestic worker, right.
Speaker 3 (56:37):
To serve people.
Speaker 2 (56:39):
You know, Mother Teresa, people used to she used to say,
you know, you couldn't pay me to do the work
that I'm doing. And what she meant is like, I'm
not doing it for money, And no amount of money
could cause her to want to go on the streets
(56:59):
and picked up you know, dying people with infested with
open wounds, with bugs and a smell throwing up on her.
Speaker 3 (57:06):
You know, you're in everywhere.
Speaker 2 (57:08):
You can't pay someone to do something like that, But
for the love of God, they can do it, and
they can do it like a saint.
Speaker 7 (57:14):
They can do it well.
Speaker 2 (57:16):
And so regardless if your job is at home as
a parent, or is out in the workplace, maybe not
as a nanny.
Speaker 3 (57:24):
Maybe you work in a store. Maybe you you know,
and don't ever fear to be demeaned at work.
Speaker 2 (57:31):
It's a great way to build character, to grow in
humility and obedience. And our Lord worked with his hands,
our lady served with her hands, and you can be
like them when you do this in humble.
Speaker 3 (57:46):
Love everything that you do right.
Speaker 2 (57:49):
This can kind of build on that last podcast I
had on the holiness of work. You know, we see
these examples of these great mystics who had the stigmata.
You know, they're saints, but they're not just like saints.
We haven't heard of some of them I mentioned. You
might not, but you know saints that, like you know,
(58:09):
are held up as like these these shining stars.
Speaker 3 (58:12):
In the church. They were nannies, they were you know, servants.
Speaker 2 (58:17):
And maybe God won't call you to clean your neighbor's home,
but this might inspire you to clean your own home
a little better. There's something very beautiful about not only
doing manual labor in silence and contemplation, but in caring
for and loving and forming souls to know and love
(58:39):
and serve Christ in the.
Speaker 3 (58:40):
Ordinary, right, in your daily duty right, and God will bless.
Speaker 2 (58:49):
You with spiritual friendships like Mary and Elizabeth had, like
these saints had with the people who they worked for.
You know, I think of Saint Christina so close to
that family, and it's a beautiful thing, right. It's another
way of bringing Christ to the smallest And the seeds
(59:12):
that you plant when they're little will grow to these
huge trees when they're older. Look at Saint Carlos Acutez right,
And there are others who lives their conversions were based
on a nanny.
Speaker 3 (59:25):
That they had when they were little. So know that
you can do great things in that way. Here at
the end, I just wanted to sing.
Speaker 2 (59:38):
The Magnificat one more time, and I asked you to
pray for me and my work, and to pray for
the providence of God to eventually provide enough so that
it's not that I don't love what I do, but
it's not my primal calling. And in order to spend
the time the Lord, it needs for me to in
silence and in prayer in order to write. In order
(59:59):
to help the poor in the farthest reaches of the world,
I need more time. And that comes with, you know,
having enough donations to pay the bills and do things
like that, so that I can give my life more
fully directly to Christ.
Speaker 3 (01:00:17):
But we entrust us.
Speaker 7 (01:00:18):
All to his hands.
Speaker 3 (01:00:19):
We pray, Hail Mary, full of grace.
Speaker 7 (01:00:22):
The Lord is with thee.
Speaker 3 (01:00:24):
Blessed art thou among women. Blessed is the fruit of
thy womb.
Speaker 2 (01:00:28):
Jesus, Holy Mary, Mother of God, Pray for us sinners
now and in the hour of our death.
Speaker 3 (01:00:35):
Then I'm sure.
Speaker 11 (01:00:37):
This one that's probably not perfect. Sorry, that's awful.
Speaker 7 (01:00:59):
I can't.
Speaker 3 (01:01:04):
It's really bad. Okay, I'm not doing this for a concert.
Speaker 7 (01:01:12):
My soul proclaims a greatness of the Lord, and my
spear and exhaltsing God. My say.
Speaker 9 (01:01:30):
For as.
Speaker 7 (01:01:34):
With mercy, on my lowliness.
Speaker 5 (01:01:41):
And my bame will be for aver exalted.
Speaker 9 (01:01:51):
For the money.
Speaker 7 (01:01:54):
God has done great things for me, and miss Mercy
will rage from age to a.
Speaker 9 (01:02:11):
And wholdly.
Speaker 7 (01:02:16):
Hold whold bes his name.
Speaker 6 (01:02:31):
He has merci every gana ration.
Speaker 7 (01:02:40):
He has refewed.
Speaker 5 (01:02:43):
Mis palands glory.
Speaker 7 (01:02:49):
He has cast down the Myanmaricans and must live up
the me gamble.
Speaker 5 (01:03:10):
He has called to help his Servandsrayan. He remembered his
primes to our Father.
Speaker 8 (01:03:30):
And toldly, Holy, Holy is his name, And toldly, Holy.
Speaker 7 (01:04:13):
God, bless you have a.
Speaker 3 (01:04:16):
Blessed today.
Speaker 1 (01:04:22):
Hello, God's beloved. I'm Annabel Moseley, author, professor of theology,
and host of then Sings My Soul and Destination Sainthood
on WCAT Radio. I invite you to listen in and
find inspiration along this sacred journey. We're traveling together to
make our lives a masterpiece and with God's grace, become saints.
(01:04:46):
Join me Annabel Moseley for then sings My Soul and
Destination Sainthood on WCAT Radio. God bless you. Remember you
are never alone. God is always with you.
Speaker 7 (01:05:05):
Thank you for listening to a production of w c
AT Radio. Please join us in our mission of evangelization,
and don't forget Love lifts up where knowledge takes flight.
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal
Gregg Rosenthal and a rotating crew of elite NFL Media co-hosts, including Patrick Claybon, Colleen Wolfe, Steve Wyche, Nick Shook and Jourdan Rodrigue of The Athletic get you caught up daily on all the NFL news and analysis you need to be smarter and funnier than your friends.
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.