Our Father, Who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy Name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen.

PATER NOSTER, qui es in caelis, sanctificetur nomen tuum. Adveniat regnum tuum. Fiat voluntas tua, sicut in caelo et in terra. Panem nostrum quotidianum da nobis hodie, et dimitte nobis debita nostra sicut et nos dimittimus debitoribus nostris. Et ne nos inducas in tentationem, sed libera nos a malo. Amen.

Today is the feast of Saints Maurus and Placid.  St. Maurus was St. Benedict’s first disciple. We see in the left half of the beautiful image above the instance wherein St. Benedict summoned St. Maurus and told him that his confrere, St. Placid, had fallen into the lake while fetching water, and was now about “the length of an arrowshot” away from the shore, drowning, and that St. Maurus should go save him.  St. Maurus took off running, ran out onto the surface of the lake, pulled St. Placid out of the water, hauled him back to shore – again, on the surface of the water the whole time. St. Maurus said afterward that he didn’t realize what he had done – namely walk on water – until after the fact. All he was thinking about was saving his friend per St. Benedict’s instruction.

He just did it.  He didn’t pull up at the water’s edge and stand there whining about how there was nothing he could do, and that he didn’t like swimming, and he couldn’t possibly be expected to go in the water, and maybe even risk his own life, and it was no use, and St. Placid should learn how to swim and save himself.  Nope.  He just did it.  And God provided a miracle – a miracle not seen since Our Lord walked with (a somewhat soggy) St. Peter on the Sea of Galilee.

Dear God, please let us be more like St. Maurus and just do what needs to be done, not pulling up at the shore and making whining, faithless excuses about why we can’t.