Who is your Hero ?

Heroes

Everyone needs heroes--to look up to, to model their lives after, even from whom to request intercession. You can tell a lot about a person by the heroes they have. Young people many times choose animated superheroes, sports stars, rock stars, and/or Hollywood celebrities. As they grow older, those heroes may change to successful business leaders, politicians, and or military leaders. As they mature still further, clarifying just what it is that's really important in their lives (love, faith, courage, self-sacrifice, humility, and commitment over, say, fame and riches), then their heroes change yet again.

Certainly Jesus is the Ultimate Hero. As God-Made-Man, He is not only our Savior and the Savior of the Universe, but THE One we Christians through grace most seek to imitate. Apart from Jesus, who do you look up to? In my life, I'm listing ten heroes who inspire me by their lives to live a better life. 1. Mother Mary. Can our Spiritual Mother also be a model and a hero? I say, most definitely. Our Lady, throughout the ages, has shown a great desire to work through the power of her intercessions for the salvation of all her children. She is like "the Hound of Heaven" (Chesterton?) who never gives up on her children. Her perseverance inspires me greatly. As Our Lady of Medjugorje, she has shown patience, commitment, humility, and forebearance in her determination through her messages to the visionaries and to us to encourage people to turn back to God in prayer, repentance, fasting, and reconciliation. 2. Mother Teresa of Calcutta--she loved the poorest of the poor as Christ did and does. 3. Pope John Paul II--great love, great strength, great leadership, great energy--in travelling the world in an unprecedented way to spread the mesage of Christ to all peoples. 4. St Maximillian Kolbe--at Auschwitz, he gave his life so that a father of a large family could live (and eventually go back to that family after the war). 5. Anwar Sadat--he demonstrated incredible courage in hopes of peace between warring peoples. 6. St Peter Clavier--"The slave of the slaves" who for over three decades treated the wounds of those disembarking from the slaveships at Cartegena. 7. Harriet Tubman--At great risk to her life, she journeyed down to Virginia through the Maryland Eastern Shore to rescue untold numbers of slaves. 8. Simon Weisenthal--he never forgot. But he did so not out of vengenance, but out of love. He lived simply (had the same car for fifteen years and the same modest home for longer). 9. Abraham Lincoln--he worked wisely and patiently--among a number of people representing opposing interests--for the freedom of the most marginalized and oppressed. 10. George Washington--at the height of his power, he willingly gave up that power. On his deathbed, he freed his slaves. Who are your heroes? -- Author Vrichc