Holiness

“To uncover your unique brand of holiness, you have to sift your God-given quirks and talents from you sins.”

~Jennifer Fulwiler

I began reading a book last night called Style, Sex, and Substance: 10 Catholic Women Consider the Things That Really Matter. I’ve only made it through the first 2 chapters, but what I’ve read so far is absolutely amazing! The quote that I posted above is from the first chapter of the book and I think it is spot on.

After reading two chapters last night I can’t stop thinking about what it means to be holy in this day and age. How many of us haven’t gone to church and seen that perfect family that is dressed well, groomed well, and behaved well throughout all of mass? I am always looking at other Catholic moms who seem to have it all put together and I try to be more like them. If you’ve seen my family in mass it’s almost laughable to think that we’ll ever get through mass without something going wrong. We are the family that tends to entertain those around us. How do I become holy when I’m dealing with this every Sunday? I can’t even remember the last time I made it through all of mass and actually listened to a homily. How do I become a saint when making it through mass is more of a survival skill than a reflective time to better myself?

Have you ever stopped to think what all those saints were really like? All you have to do is pick up a book about saints and the stories are sometimes quite shocking. There are some saints like St. Margaret of Scotland who had wonderful marriages and others like St. Monica who had difficult marriages even some like St. Helena who was divorced. Our first thought when it comes to the saints is that they all lived these happy, quiet, prayerful lives. However, many saints had lives that were just as wild as some of our lives today. Some had large families like St. Jeanne de Lestonnac who not only raised her 5 children by herself, but took care of the entire estate by herself after her husband died. St Margaret of Scotland and St Bridget both had 8 children. I grew up in a household with 8 children and there weren’t very many moments where my mom got quiet time.

Holiness does not mean that you become more like Christ and less like yourself. Holy people are not just carbon copies of one another. In fact, there is not a one-size-fits-all template for being a good Catholic. Holy people do not try to be someone else. They simply try to be the holiest they can be. We are all called to be Christ-like. God did not give us the impossible task of being exactly like Christ. He created us to be just who we are. So quit looking at all those people who you see as “holy” and start looking at how you can discover your unique type of holiness. As Jennifer so eloquently puts it “Embrace the one-of-a-kind brand of holiness that God has chosen for YOU. Reject your sins, but love your quirks.”