I just finished reading the life of Saint Louis and Zelie Martin, the parents of St. Therese of Lisieux. The specific book I read was called A Family of Saints: The Martins of Lisieux.  Both her parents offered up their entire life to God, and what was the fruit of that offering?   “5 perfect lilies” – five daughters who became religious sisters. They also offered up four young children who died early in life.

It was from such sacrificial parents that St. Therese learned her way of “offering up little suffering and writing them down in her little book.” St. Therese knew that it is only love that gives value to our sacrifice. God doesn’t look at how big that action is – God looks at the love that moves the action. St. Therese would say “picking up a pen for love of God has more value than a big action such as giving up your life without love.”

With this in mind, we want to create a Silent Army where we can imitate St. Louis, St. Zelie, and St. Therese in recording the little sacrifices that come to us each day. If you would like to join our Silent Army, then write your little offering in the comment section below, for the intentions of vocations in the Arlington Diocese, or other intentions. Our offering of little thorns, when offered up, becomes a beautiful rose.

We are currently working on a way to formalize enrollment in the Silent Army, so stay tuned….

While the Diocese pays for our work at Inova Fairfax Hospital, we must rely on donations to expand our mission to reach the rest of the Diocese (and beyond). If you would like to help with the various costs involved in organizing a Silent Army (partly by developing and maintaining this website), then please consider donating to the Hospital Ministry at https://secure3.arlingtondiocese.org/Donate/Donate/Hospital_Ministry/Donate.aspx.