Pastors Corner Article for the Church of the Immaculate Conception, Stayton, - Sunday June 19, 2011 By Mark

Dol - Coordinator of Confirmation Formation & Youth Ministry for the Santiam Vicariate Parishes

Called to be a Saint
The most fundamental and yet the most often overlooked aspect of our lives as Disciples of Christ, is the call to Sainthood. This is not because we dont think holiness is good, but more often than not because we dont realize that as baptized Christians this is what we are called to. In our Catholic environment where we are familiar with the Saints, but have the tendency to set the Saints apart from our normal everyday lives, it is sometimes hard to grasp that what they achieved in their lives, we also are all called to achieve in ours; We are called to be holy as God is holy. That in essence is what a Saint is, someone who has achieved recognizable and tangible personal holiness in every aspect of their lives. The word Saint is the French word for holy. So what is this holiness that we are all called to achieve? Simply put according to Matthew Kelly*, holiness is the knowing when to say yes and when to say no. If we examine the lives of the Saints we see that they, through Gods grace active in their lives, have perfected ongoing conversion through their Yes to the will of God and at the same time, through that same grace, they have learned to say a clear No to sin and the sinful tendencies in their lives. It is through this growth and transformation that they became the role models of Christian life that we look up to today. No person is born a saint; they become saints through a persistent striving for holiness in their lives. Naturally the call to holiness is rooted in our personal relationship with the Father, through Christ Jesus, in the power of the Holy Spirit and therefore is not a duty but a response to his loving action in our lives. As we learn to build and deepen this relationship with God, we cannot but be changed by the very presence of His being. The Catechism (CCC 2013) also reminds us that holiness is not a calling of the select few but that ALL Christians in any state or walk of life are called to the fullness of Christian life and to perfect Charity (that is Love). All are called to holiness. (LG 40 2) Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect (Matt 5:48). It then goes on to remind us how we can achieve this holiness, because its one thing to say true holiness comes from learning to say yes or no at the right times and another thing to achieve it. The secret is a thing called grace, which is given to us freely and in abundance. Through our baptism into Christ we all have access to grace but the question is do we appropriate it and use it freely in order that we may grow in holiness. The use of any gift is always a choice of our freewill. We need to choose to use it and appropriate it in our. Like the manna in the desert it cannot be stored and used later but it is always available to us and there will always enough whenever we need it. God himself reminded St. Paul in 2 Cor.12:9 that His grace is sufficient for him in all situations. As a Church we have constant access to that grace through prayer and frequenting of the Sacraments especially the sacraments of the Holy Eucharist, and Reconciliation. For those of us that are married there is eternal grace available for us to strengthen our marriages through the sacrament of marriage we chose to enter into. Its the same for those called into holy orders or religious life, their vocational choice opens the floodgate of Gods grace in their lives. I believe that if more people really understood this and tapped into the grace of the sacrament appropriate to their state of life then when the going gets tough, maybe more of the tough wouldnt get going. This summer dont take a holiday from personal prayer and going to Mass, but do take a HOLY DAY and use that time to be more with God; pray more, contemplate his face more, frequent the sacraments more and for sure you will grow in holiness. Be the Saint which you are called to be! Have a great summer, God bless,

*Matthew Kelly, author of Rediscovering Catholicism