Lough Blue, a French spiritual writer said, “There’s only one real sadness in life: Not to be a saint.” In other words, not to be the person God wants you to be.
What does it mean to be a saint, to be holy? Robert Barron often talks about three paths to holiness, to sainthood (intentional lower case “s”). I briefly share them here for contemplation.
- Find the Center
Finding the center is about the coming together of wholeness, harmony, and radiance. The saint is one whose life is about one thing — following Christ and doing His will. In the process of becoming a saint, one must accept that “everything in me belongs to Jesus Christ” and all parts of a person must revolve around that center. The rose window at Notre Dame is a powerful image of this concept with Christ in the middle of the window around which all other parts of our life ideally arrange themselves.
- Know You Are A Sinner
A saint is one who turns their life towards the light, to Christ. Thus, the light shines brightly and illuminates the dirt and sin in our lives. When light is shining most directly on glass, the marks and smudges on it are most apparent. Understanding we are sinners is a consequence of placing God in our center. “To all of [us] sinners, every one of us is an addict but Jesus wants to set us free. Free for joy, fullness of life.”
- Be On Mission — Your Life Is Not About You
Now purified, we are ready to be sent. In the Bible, no one is ever given an experience of God without being given, subsequently, a mission. Christ wants to live His life in and through me. We are called to surrender our life and talents to God, realizing the real joy and spiritual adventure lies in giving some of ourself away for our being to grow and increase.
St. Ignatius of Loyola has a beautiful prayer that supports one’s path to sainthood that I recommend is prayed at the beginning of each day …
Take, Lord, and receive all my liberty,
my memory, my understanding,
and my entire will,
All I have and call my own.
You have given all to me.
To you, Lord, I return it.
Everything is yours; do with it what you will.
Give me only your love and your grace,
that is enough for me.
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
I luv this guy – I only recently found out about his blog and it’s blowing my mind – the whimsical drawings and the overall offbeat humor are really one of kind.Thanx for enriching the world with your crvtaieity, Marc !Keep rocking. And cool answers ,)
This is truly a great piece of writing. You are very good at making your points clear and interesting throughout your content. You leave your readers something to think about.
I once left the house in a bright blue blanket with legs and arms and a zipper up the stomach like one of those stuffed animals with the sound box in its belly, and even I wouldn’t want to wear scrubs to work.