Twenty-third Sunday after Pentecost

Thoughts for the Week - Fr. R. Taouk 
12th November 2017

God Wants You to Be a Saint!
by Rev. Fr. M. Raymond O.C.S.O. 

Perfection is a matter of habit; that habit is a matter of conscious repetition; that conscious repetition depends on deliberate thought and firm determination. You acquired the habit of walking, thinking, and talking by repeated acts. Now what is so clearly true in the realm of nature is every bit as true in the realm of grace. You must cultivate the habit of walking with God, talking to God, thinking like God, if you are to mature as Christ. Baptism, with its breathless endowment, was only birth. The newly born must grow! It takes years for him to attain his full stature. So, too, with your soul. It will take time for you to grow in the likeness of Christ. But all the time you must grow!

Leon Bloy once said: "We become nothing, not even a blockhead". Consequently, to stay sane, you must know not only your abilities, but also your liabilities. To become holy, you must accept both gratefully from God. Christ told you this truth in parable form more than once. He, the Infallible One, has cautioned you not to begin to build a tower until you are sure you have enough bricks and mortar, not to set out for war against an enemy who is far superior. Christ was really saying: Never attempt the impossible! And let it be stated clearly; there are many, many goals that are absolutely impossible for certain individual humans - and meant to be so by the God who gave them their limitations as well as their assets. But there is one goal no one need ever miss; for it is one God has made possible for every human He has created. The goal is sanctity. And sanctity is very much a matter of having the Mind of Christ; for that will mean thinking the thoughts of God, then doing His all-holy will.

Yet a caution must be issued. You have your limitations in the supernatural order just as truly as you have them in the natural. Get to know them and you will never overreach! Einsteins are rare in the natural order; so are Joan's of Arc in the supernatural. An Edison comes once in every three or four lifetimes; so does a Cure of Ars. If you have not been called to become a great saint - a St. Dominic, a St. Bernard, etc, you have undeniably been called to become a saint - and that is greatness enough for any man, woman, or child.

Time will make you acquainted with your supernatural limitations, just as it did, with your natural ones. It is highly probable, that you will never be able to pray as did St. Teresa of Avila. Yet, so long as you have a mind and a will, you can always do your particular kind of praying and that, indeed, is the only kind by which you can praise your God! Pray as you can; don't pray as you can't! Love your God as you can; don't try to love Him with somebody else's heart! Live with your loving God as you can!
 

Taken from You, p. 100.