St. Bridget of Sweden
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In the jubilee year of 2000, Pope St. John Paul II proclaimed St. Bridget of Sweden Co-patroness of all of Europe.
To become a saint, you don’t have to be a monk or a nun, walled up in a cloister. We can do it right here, right now, where we live, by belonging totally to God and live a life of deep prayer and virtue. This is why St. Bridget is so important. Her love of our Lord’s passion and of Our Lady opened in her heart a remarkable ability to bridge (no pun intended) aspects of her life that we think are opposed. She was a mother and a wife, but also lived as a single consecrated woman and a mystic. She traveled much through Europe but established a monastery in Sweden. She was wealthy but relied on God’s providence and so was extremely generous. She was humble but strove for greatness; docile but energetic. Indeed, hers was a life full of apparent contradictions—the apparent contradictions of a saint! She loved the Lord above all things. The Lord told her in a mystical vision, and through her to all of us, “Birgitta, I am speaking not only to you but to all Christians. You will be my bride…and it shall be through you that I will speak to the world. My spirit will dwell in you until your death!” He dwells in us! Let us be attentive.
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Jesus speaks to all of us through her because she united the active life with prayer and solitude. This is what we’re supposed to do: even if we’re married, we are to love God above all things. If we’re wealthy, we’re to take care of others. Jesus spoke to her to let us know what He wants to do in all of us. Grace enables us to live in balance between the extremes like her. We can reach holiness in our state in life; there is no excuse. What seems contradictory or inconsistent to us is usually the result of living an imbalanced life in a fallen world. What is impossible according to human effort is possible according to divine. Use the gifts God has given you, and be creative, like St. Bridget.
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St. Bridget courageously traveled through Europe on several pilgrimages, including her final one to Rome for one reason: to love Jesus. She hoped to meet with the Pope and receive approval for her community that she was founding but died before the Pope returned from Avignon. It was in Rome, in the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls where she received the prayers from Jesus known as the Prayers of St. Bridget. She accomplished these travels because of her great belief that God had complete charge and care over her life. For her, God was not distant or removed from the practical details of life but was her loving and heavenly Father in whom she could place all her trust. Her special and deep devotion to Our Lady shaped her spirituality so that she demonstrated heroic levels of humility, purity, obedience, and charity.
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St. Bridget used the trials, sorrows, and limitations of her life and united them with faith to the sufferings of Christ, making the most of each situation to become united with Jesus and console his heart more. She was deeply devoted to Our Lord’s passion, even receiving mystical visions about His suffering. In one of these visions, our Lord revealed to her that what made him suffer most was the ingratitude of men’s hearts. Since she was intensely devoted to Our Lord’s passion, she wanted to know the number of blows He received. He revealed, “I received 5,840 blows on my body.” He then gave her “the Prayers of St. Bridgett” to console His suffering. We can live our lives in such a way that our daily prayer, our offering of our sufferings and acts of self-denial for others, and our seeking to lead others to Jesus through friendship will honor and console those sacred wounds like St. Bridget. Lord, you received 5,840 wounds from my sins, help me to receive the trials and sufferings from this day and tomorrow to console your Sacred Heart.
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Fr. Lawrence Lew O.P. offers this insight for our last reflection: “Some have noted that St Bridget could well also be patron saint of failures or disappointments. For much of what she’d set out to do remained unfulfilled.” Many of us define ourselves by our achievements, which are so often worldly in nature. Money, pleasure, big houses, cars, promotions, accomplishments etc. create the illusion of self-importance. Yet here’s Bridget, stranded in Rome, dying before receiving approval for her religious community. She never saw her mission accomplished. She failed.
But hers can only be called failure in the way the world might regard the Crucifixion of Christ a failure. In fact. St. Bridget failed only in a fallen, human sense. For the Kingdom of Christ, she succeeded! All her love and actions were ordered toward God. What is true success? We should strive to be excellent, but our goal is to love Jesus above all things. This is success! Here’s to the successful final outcome to all of our apparent human failures, for the love of Jesus!