Saturday, January 29, 2011

Transformation in God

St. Joseph Freinademetz was the first Divine Word Missionary sent to China.  He was canonized along with our founder in 2003 and today is his feast day.

For me, Saint Joseph Freinademetz gives me hope that I can change and grow in holiness.  He greatly desired to be a missionary to China but once there he found the Chinese culture and people were not to his liking. He found little in the Chinese character that appealed to him as a European.  But he truly believed it was God's will for him and so he strove to love those whom he served and to adapt to the culture.  By the time of his death he even looked Chinese!  He prayed that in heaven he would be Chinese.  The people loved him greatly and on the 100th anniversary of his death the government even allowed the people to celebrate! 

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