Called to be Saints
A man had trouble getting on his horse. He raised his eyes to heaven and prayed, “All you Saints help me.” This time he sailed right up on the horse and down the other side. “O.K.,” he said, “this time only half of you.”
Scripture tells us, “Be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect." ( Matthew 5: 43-48). And again, “To all the beloved of God in Rome, called to be saints” (Romans 1:7).
The call to perfection may make us nervous, but in Greek, the word telios is often translated as perfect. It refers to something being completed, brought to its full purpose, end and vocation. For example, a hammer is telios or perfect when it is hammering a nail. (Catholic Online).
Trying to live our lives according to God’s will is not beyond our grasp. Being faithful in prayer and choosing virtue over vice takes some practice, but we can keep trying, even on days when we feel more like the nail than the hammer.
We can make our everyday actions sacred by offering our works, activities and our very lives to the Lord daily and on Sunday mornings when we gather as a community to worship and offer prayers and sacrifices.
My parents’ generation had their fields, workbenches and bedrooms blessed. We prayed grace before and after meals, and some of our parents’ generation would go into a church to propose marriage.
The lives of Saints give us models of virtue to imitate. One day after communion Jesus asked St Teresa of Avila to build a Convent of St Joseph. "He wanted it to be dedicated to Saint Joseph who would guard one of its doors, Our Lady the other, and Jesus himself would stand in the middle. This monastery would be a star that would shine brightly," St Teresa wrote.
This wonderful metaphor can serve as our personal little house. When we have sinned, we can put our heads on the shoulder of Jesus and feel his arm around us. Christ is always near us. He does not abandon us.
This spiritual house we inhabit with Jesus, Mary and Joseph is real. Jesus is always with us. Mary, our mother, journeys with us, especially in the daily rosary and with every Hail Mary that asks her to be near us “now and at the hour of our death.”
We also have recourse to St Joseph, great patron of the dying. Here is a prayer to St Joseph for a happy death:
O Powerful St Joseph, great patron of the dying, you who breathed your last breath in the arms of Jesus and Mary, I implore you to stand by me at the hour of my death.
Remember at that time, how often I have called upon you. Obtain for me perfect contrition for my sins, firm confidence in the mercy of God, firm trust in the merits of my Saviour and the grace to breathe forth my soul while sweetly calling upon the holy names, Jesus, Mary and Joseph.
Obtain this favour for me through your Divine Foster Son, Jesus Christ, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns forever and ever. Amen.
Jesus, Mary and Joseph, I give you my heart and my soul!
Jesus, Mary and Joseph, assist me in my last agony.
Jesus, Mary and Joseph, may I breathe forth my soul at peace in your blessed company.
(574 words)
