Today the Church celebrates the Feast Day of St Frances Cabrini. Her life is one of holiness, mercy and the virtue of magnanimity. As St Thomas Aquinas rightly points out, when the virtue of magnaminity is joined with humility, God can accomplish great things for the sake of the kingdom.
Her willingness to live in union with Christ was a witness to what happens to the human person when the intellect and will are properly ordered and surrendered to God. This is how a woman who outwardly seemed frail and weak was able to oversee orphanages, schools, and homeless shelters, and establish a religious order.
When she entered religious life, she faced a very difficult period in which she was bullied and harrassed by her religious superior. Like St Thérèse of Lisieux, she responded be entering into the the Sacred Heart of Jesus. She wrote in her journal,
“Give me the desire to humble myself for your love. Enlighten me how to do so when humiliating occasions present themselves. When I do not feel inclined to follow your holy inspirations, help me to do so.”
May God grant us today the help of Mother Cabrini when we experience hardship, disappointment, and the indifference of others. May we unite these sufferings to Jesus and seek to surrender our intellect and will more perfectly to His.
© 2026, Lawain McNeil, Mission Surrender, LLC.