Today, tomorrow, and Wednesday and then it’s all over. I shall miss Lent Madness — it has really helped shape a different sort of Lent for me. I’ve learned a lot and had fun along the way and have enjoyed hearing others’ stories both in person and online about how they’ve responded to LM.
Hilda encouraged Caedmon to write a song, thus giving birth to English poetry
Today is the first day of the Faithful Four, tomorrow will be the last. Frances Perkins goes up against Hilda of Whitby and then tomorrow Luke the Evangelist and Oscar Romero square off. One of these four will win the Golden Halo. I really encourage you to read what the “Celebrity Bloggers” have written about Frances and Hilda today as they are in the process of making their closing arguments. They have delved deeply into the lives of their saints and have really come to know them — and have made them come alive for the rest of us.
I’m sure it comes as no surprise, but I’m once again voting for Frances Perkins. And I see that the voting is extremely close at this point. I am still bewildered as to how Hilda took out Harriet Tubman, but so it goes. I’ve read opinions to the effect of “why should Frances Perkins even be considered a saint — she’s just a liberal do-gooder.” It is really clear from the research her LM champion has done that Frances’ life and work was rooted in her Christianity. She understood what we tell our day school children and their parents quite frequently: that God has created each one of us in God’s image and has given us each gifts and talents to make the world a better place. Pretty much sums up our Gospel imperative, and it was what Frances lived by. She also happened to be an Episcopalian (as was, by the way, FDR also. He even served as senior warden at St. Thomas, Dupont Circle before he was elected president).
To vote, go here.
Saintly Shenanigans 