Happy feast of St. Apollinaris, bishop & martyr. From Milestones, Card. Ratzinger's memoir, which is not only interesting, but filled with little aphorisms and points to ponder along the way. Describing the atmosphere of the town in which he spent his early childhood, he talks about the impact the canonization of their local saint, Konrad, had on them. The passage concludes:
I have often reflected since then on this remarkable disposition of Providence: that, in this century of progress and faith in science, the Church should have found herself represented most clearly in very simple people, in a Bernadette of Lourdes, for instance, or even in a Br. Konrad, who hardly seemed to be touched by the currents of the time. Is this a sign that the Church has lost her power to shape culture and can take root only outside the real current of history? Or is it a sign that the clear view of the essential, which is so often lacking in the "wise and the prudent" is given in our days, too, to little ones? I do think that precisely these "little" saints are a great sign to our time, a sign that moves me ever more deeply, the more I live with and in our time.
