St. Thomas Moore and St. John Fisher- and mom

Today is the feast of St. Thomas Moore and St. John Fisher. St. Thomas is well known to us from the movie A Man for All Seasons, but St. John is an interesting saint as well. Last year I heard blogger and author Stephanie Mann on the radio talk about how St. John had been friends with Henry VII and with Lady Margaret Beaufort (Henry VIII’s grandmother). In fact, he said the funeral mass for both of them. He was very close to the family and knew young Henry from boyhood. It amazes me then that Henry VIII so could be so stiff necked in his views that he could have John Fisher executed! But he did. That would be like having one of our beloved parish priests killed over a difference of opinion – it’s unthinkable.

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Thomas Moore was the epitome of a loving husband and father, as well as having a faithfulness to his position and a love and respect for knowledge.  But most of all he was “the King’s good servant, but God’s first.”

This is my favorite scene from A Man for All Seasons. I love the wit and the great logic of Thomas Moore in these scenes. Please enjoy!

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Three years ago today my mother died.  I remember her today particularly because we are going to the homeschool convention.  Mom went with me to a couple of those.  She loved helping me with homeschooling and she loved talking to people and looking at books.  If she were with me today, she would be thrilled to be going. I still miss her every day.  So many times I still want to pick up the phone and talk to her about just anything.  Will that ever end?  or is that the bond between mother and daughter? I have saved voice mails from her and maybe once every six weeks ago I’ll listen to them.  I can’t bare to delete them.

It’s interesting to me that God took my mother home on this particular Feast day.  St. Thomas Moore and St. John Fisher really died for the sanctity of marriage and to uphold the supremacy of the pope. 

As I always try to find the reason for things and why they happen when they do, it finally  made sense to me why God would call my mother home on this day. Mom had not made a wise marriage choice and she did not have a happy marriage, in fact she spent more time alone than with my father. But she always loved him, she remained loyal to him, she never divorced, she took care of him when he got ill and she grieved his death. So if there was every anyone that suffered for marriage- she did!  I guess that gives her something in common with St. Thomas Moore and St. John Fisher.

And if one of the primary ends of marriage was to have children and raise them to love the Lord – she did that too, not only with her daughters, but with her grandchildren as well.  She truly was God’s good servant.