Ministry Tip of the Week
by Seth Evangelho
| "Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ." (1 Corinthians 11:1) These words of St. Paul to the early Church capture a crucial insight into the Christian walk. We need examples. Real, living, and genuine examples of what it means to live a life of Catholic discipleship. Too often holiness gets distorted as a lofty ideal, or a pie-in-the-sky fantasy for everyday Joe's. A chasm of practical reality gets in the way of our life in Christ and we find ourselves up against a secular wall of responsibility, expectation, and... well (sadly), preference. |  |
That's why a witness to the Saints is so critical. It is possible, and even preferable, to be a saint. Holiness is a happier life, it's both more human and - simultaneously - more divine, and we have thousands upon thousands of examples to prove it. How well do we know our brothers and sisters in Christ? How many of those thousands are we familiar with at all? The more we discover and reflect upon the lives of the saints, the more we ourselves begin to grow in our spiritual lives. What they did, what they said, how they lived and often how they died, become for us doorways of understanding and channels of grace.
First, we must bring the witness of the Saints into our own hearts, and then we must learn to tell their stories. There are saints for all occasions: teaching saints like Thomas Aquinas, Catherine of Siena, and John Bosco, political saints like Gregory and Leo, mothers like Monica and Elizabeth of Hungary, fathers like Louis IX, lawyers like Thomas More, doctors like Giles and Gianna, and the list goes on.
Have you heard about the heroic life of Gianna Molla? Or Chiara Luce Badano? Or Pier Georgio Frassati? How well, even, do we understand the more popular saints like Francis of Assisi or Ignatius of Loyola, Dominic or Teresa of Avila? These are stories that will change your life, by their examples but also through their intercession. Learn their stories. Pray for their intercession. Share their witness. Most important of all, be imitators of them as they are of Christ.
First, we must bring the witness of the Saints into our own hearts, and then we must learn to tell their stories. There are saints for all occasions: teaching saints like Thomas Aquinas, Catherine of Siena, and John Bosco, political saints like Gregory and Leo, mothers like Monica and Elizabeth of Hungary, fathers like Louis IX, lawyers like Thomas More, doctors like Giles and Gianna, and the list goes on.
Have you heard about the heroic life of Gianna Molla? Or Chiara Luce Badano? Or Pier Georgio Frassati? How well, even, do we understand the more popular saints like Francis of Assisi or Ignatius of Loyola, Dominic or Teresa of Avila? These are stories that will change your life, by their examples but also through their intercession. Learn their stories. Pray for their intercession. Share their witness. Most important of all, be imitators of them as they are of Christ.
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