St. Alfred Has Chosen Us

When people come to confirmation, they often have trouble deciding which saint to choose for a patron.

Most people say, we do not choose the saint, the saint chooses us.

I easily chose a confirmation saint who was instrumental in my conversion--St Mary Magdalene.  But saints DO choose us, and many people even follow a practice allowing a particular saint to choose us for a year.

I didn't set out looking for St. Alfred, but he was whispering to me, sometimes in strange ways, but whisper he did.  First it was with an "accidental" discovery that he was honored by many as a saint--he didn't show up in the usual patron's list. 

Then it was an obsession to see again the old movie "Alfred the Great".  Forget it that he probably didn't look like David Hemmings, but he was as likely to look like David Hemmings as any of the other portrayals of him in statues and portraits, none of which was contemporary. If I had picked a face  for the young Alfred, that would have probably been the face--ascetic, gentle, compassionate, passionate, courageous. 

Particularly forget that part about his wife and the Dane.  No matter how attractive the young Michael York was, Alfred's wife, Ealhswith, was herself a saint, so I am sure she is gritting her teeth on this one.  Sacreligious?  Absolutely, and a pandering to the turbulent times in which the movie was made. 

What that movie DID do, though, was to keep in our memories a young man with passion and faith in his beautiful face, a man in his 20s who gave us England, and all England's children (such as the US).  In the real world, he and his wife were both saints; they had children and grandchildren that were also saints.  One would think that St. Alfred also did honor thus to the Holy Family, showing us what could be on earth as well as in heaven. 

Ever since that movie, Alfred has whispered to me in my life, even when I didn't really know it.  I was never motivated for power, just as he was not .  I loved service, education, justice as he did.  I was also a warrior in a passionate cause, feeling that one must indeed fight for the right.  Yep, Alfred was always there for me and in me.

In this time, Alfred is choosing all of us, to help him continue his work. His gifts of wisdom, truthtelling, justice, courage, love of learning and common sense are needed as much or more now in this world as in his.  Let us pray for his intercession and protection against terror, faithlessness, ignorance and deception that he fought so well in his earthly life.

Alfred has chosen us--let us, too, choose him now, for the greater good of our world.

On a side note, Mr. Hemmings has gone now, to join the saints.  I like to imagine St. Alfred greeting him, in the humble way he was described to have in this life in maturity, thanking Mr. Hemmings for his memorial that keeps his name alive.