Image via Wikipedia
Each day offers new and exciting opportunities, one never knows what one may fine tomorrow. That’s what I love about life, everyday can is new and can be exciting, if we only allow it.
One of the splendors of the Catholic Church are the Saints, ordinary people who offers us an extraordinary life as an example of how we are to live in Christ. The Church in Her wisdom knows that life is a struggle and God in His mercy has given us Saints to emulate and learn from.
Many Catholic websites offer a Saint of the Day email that can be used to help remind us of how we are to act. What I like about the saint of the day concept is this, each and every day a new and exciting offering is in my inbox. A new world to explore or a new name to read about. The lives of the Saints are anything except boring. Most Saints seem to have lived very hard lives and a few, well ok lots and lots of them lives what one might call a life of sin until their conversations.
You can read about child saints and saints who came along reluctantly. Sainthood is no cake walk and all to often it seems that the saints suffer more persecution than you and I could ever dream of. Yet the Church sees the glory in the suffering the redemption and the holiness. the Church, through the eyes of Jesus knows the souls of the saints and understands their power on us, here today, even thought they themselves may have passed on hundreds of years before.
We believe in the communion of saints, a line we pray, or as in most cases we just say, each week at Church. But do we really understand this one simple statement from the credo? Do we truly understand the power of that one line, do we truly believe in the communion of saints?
God has established for us a communion of saints, He has given us a gift of living examples in times passed and yes, even in our own times. But not only has God given us people living in this world, but He has also given us the living souls in the after world. Remember God is the God of the living, living here in the material world as well as those living in the spiritual world.
Saints, the gift of examples offered to us all…
What an exciting world indeed, who knows the next person I talk to could be the next St. Thomas or St. Faustian or even The Venerable Pope John Paul II. Every person has the ability to become a saint, the only difference between St. Francis and you or I is choice. They chose to trust in God, they chose to suffer, they chose to follow in Jesus’ footsteps. We, well we give lip service to it all, we say we want to follow, but the path is to hard, we want to suffer but the pain is to much, we want to trust but we have been let down to often. Sainthood is not a live of ease, rather it is a life of earthly discontent and a prayer of submission.
I thank God for the likes of Mother Teresa and Pope John Paul II, modern day suffers along with Padre Pio and Fr. Solanus Casey along with Archbishop Fulton Sheen. Souls that seem to be made to sing the praises of the Lord. Each one of the modern day examples given to us by God offers a life time of refection and study. Each soul brings a new and exciting ingredient to the mix, creating a “Saint Stew” of sorts with in the Catholic Church. Each adding a flavor that is uniquely theirs yet at the same time ours. The communion of Saints, a gift of love is ever I saw one.
God Bless
Paul
 |
Holy Terrors and Gentle Souls: Stories About the Saints |
| Luke 9:23-24“Then he said to them all: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it.”
Brought to you by BibleGateway.com. Copyright (C) . All Rights Reserved. |
Related articles by Zemanta
An American Point of View 
[…] Saints (staticyouth.wordpress.com) […]
LikeLike