Br. Jordan Zaja, O.P., on Individualism - God’s Way

"Spiderman, not St. Stephen. Batman, not St. John the Baptist. The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, not the North American martyrs.

"I grew up knowing plenty about both superheroes and saints, but the comic book characters I dressed up as each Halloween were more real to me than any saint the Church honors . . . on All Saints’ Day.

"On too many holy cards and in too many stained glass windows the saints all looked the same: doe-eyed, fair-skinned, more angelic than human. Their life stories melded together into a single, fantastic shape. They all seemed to have discovered some secret way to get on God's good side, as He made Himself known to them in extraordinary ways- often performing all sorts of wild miracles for and through them - and they made it effortlessly to Heaven. The end.

"Into my adult life, the saints continued to feel distant. What I heard in homilies and read in biographies served to encase them in a thick ice of piety. I did understand that they suffered trials and temptations, but their imperviousness to them rendered them impervious to me. Even trying to imagine how they spoke and behaved while alive, I couldn't see how they would make for interesting dinner company. And forget about meeting a saint at a bar for a beer after work."

In a recent commentary, Brother Jordan Zajac, O.P., reflected on the lives of the saints and on how they became true to themselves and with God.

To access Br. Jordan's complete reflection, please visit:

Dominicana: Individualism God's Way (31 OCT 14)