Saint Veronica

By: Joy Frystak

    After my husband and I found out the sex of our second child, we began the rigorous task of picking out a name. We dug out the name book and began with the A’s. We turned each page with nothing grabbing our attention. Somewhere around letter T, I was beginning to worry that our second daughter would be named “Girl Frystak” as that was sounding better than any names we were finding, or should I say, any names we were agreeing on. At letter V, I really started to panic. Varda, Varuna, Velvet, the sweat was beading on my forehead.

    Veronica!  I spoke the name out loud and its meaning, “Veronica, true image.” My husband and I googled Veronica where we relearned the story of Saint Veronica. How this woman, compassionately cleaned the face of Jesus when he fell beneath the load of His cross. In doing so, His image was left in her veil. She traveled to Rome and brought with her this image of Christ, which was then exposed for public veneration.  

    Her story is a lesson in kindness and true compassion. She acted when no one else would, for no other reason than she cared. In our current “me” world, we rarely take the time to look around us to see where we can show simple kindness. My daughter Veronica serves as a daily reminder to me, to live my life being kind and compassionate to others.  In return, my young Veronica, is living her life in the true image of her name.