God calls different people to different missions and ministries. God gives us different gifts to use on our journey of faith. Throughout the Old Testament, the Lord called different prophets to bring particular messages to his people. As we hear from St Paul’s letter to the Galatians in our readings this week, we think of the particular calling that Paul received from God. Paul recounts how although he once very zealously persecuted the followers of the way of Jesus, he was converted and traveled long distance as a missionary to bring the Gospel to the Gentiles in far off lands.
We see particular callings in the lives of the saints. The saint we celebrate today followed God in a very particular unique path, uniting with Christ in the wounds he suffered. St. Mary Frances of the Five Wounds, born Anna Maria Gallo in 1715, was a deeply spiritual lay woman who lived according to the rule of the third order Franciscans. She was born in the Spanish quarter, a rough neighborhood in the city of Naples, Italy. She lived a life dedicated to prayer and to service to the poor. The "five wounds" refer to the stigmata of Jesus During her lifetime, Mary Frances exhibited external marks of the five wounds inflicted on Jesus during his crucifixion. She would wear gloves to cover the marks on her hands while she did her work. She chose her name to express her devotion to St. Francis of Assisi and to the Blessed Mother. She died in 1791. When St. Mary Frances was canonized in 1843, Pope Pius IX declared her to be a patroness of expectant mothers, women having difficulty conceiving, and those with chronic pain.
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