MY KIND OF SAINT

I spent my retreat last week with some very wise people, while reading a book (Becoming Who You Are) by Father James Martin, SJ. Given the fact that sanctity is God's goal for each of us, Thomas Merton's advice is good: "The problem of sanctity is finding out who I am, and discovering my True Self." And "we cannot become ourselves unless we know ourselves..."

The call to be your True Self is the call to be a saint (Who, ME? -- thinking of apostles and martyrs.) God would not call us to something impossible, like being Saint Michael the Archangel, for example. There's a picture of him in case you have not been introduced. I'm not even called to be a saint like Angela Merici or Ursula or Mother Teresa or Pope John XXIII, but like myself--my BEST self. We don't have to be someone else to be holy. We are led to our own brand of holiness by our desires, by what attracts us, by what we like.

Mother Teresa was talking to an idealistic young man who had come to Calcutta to be like her. She told him, "Find your own Calcutta!"