My mother's family, the Ramsey family, is from Scotland and Ireland. My 5xGreat Grandfather James Ramsey came from Scotland to Derrykeighan, Co. Antrim, Northern Ireland and there had at least 3 sons Matthew, John and Ambrose. These 3 sons eventually made it to Chatham Co., North Carolina where all 3 served in the Revolutionary War. My lineage comes from Matthew. From humble, very humble beginnings, they came to America, fought for freedom and became quite successful. This was the hope of all who left Ireland to come to the states.
Today in my devotional reading I came across another Ambrose. St. Ambrose (339 AD-397 AD). He was a layperson who loved his community. At the death of a bishop, the local church was struggling. Ambrose, a local political leader, came in and tried to talk all the church into resolving their differences with peace. Much to his surprise, the people started calling for him to be the new bishop. He wasn't a priest, in fact he wasn't even a baptized member of the church. He was just a man with faith and hope in his heart.
Feeling the calling of God, Ambrose set out to learn quickly. He gave away all his his property, gave himself to prayer and immersed himself in scripture. Within a week he was baptized, confirmed, ordained and consecrated as bishop of Milan. Unheard of.
He was responsible to taking care of many of the poor and needy. He was also responsible for many conversions and baptisms, including a very famous one. He personally instructed and baptized St. Augustine.
Here is a quote from St. Ambrose "The difference between good and bad rulers is that the good love freedom, the bad slavery." Wow.
The calling of God is strong and sure. We must act when we feel it or hear it. St. Ambrose is proof that amazing things can happen when we act out of faith and hope.
Because the name Ambrose means something to me, today I did a little digging to find out more about this man, St. Ambrose. It made me smile when I read that there is a book called "Ambrose-The Early Church Fathers".....written by Boniface Ramsey.
Ramsey. Wow. I love when God gets in the details of my study.
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