Everyone is called to be a ‘saint of today’

Everyone is called to be a ‘saint of today’

https://www.arkansas-catholic.org/news/article/6221/Everyone-is-called-to-be-a-saint-of-today

PUBLISHED: SEPTEMBER 26, 2019   
Sarah Duvall

 

I recently had the honor of taking a tour of the Holy Family Mission in Morrilton with my local Catholic faith group, Ignite.

On this tour, Luz Sandoval-Lord and Raymond Freyaldenhoven, also known as Brother Joseph, showed us what they do at the Mission, including retreats and conferences. They also taught us about the many saints they had statues of and had made videos about. While explaining who each statue represented, they kept returning to one message that really stuck in my mind: “The greatest saints are yet to come.”

Saints are pillars of our Catholic faith. They are the stories we look toward for guidance, advice and inspiration. They are examples of who we are meant to be as Catholic Christians.

Could people in the present and future truly be equal to or greater than the saints of the past? After thinking on this topic for a while, I came to the conclusion that the answer is yes, if we choose to be.

Could people in the present and future truly be equal to or greater than the saints of the past?

When we had finished the tour, we returned to the kitchen to discuss what we had taken away from the tour and how it inspired our faith lives. While discussing the different saints, they taught us about St. Gerard Majella’s journey to sainthood. He had been denied many times to join the religious life because of his health, but St. Gerard wanted very badly to become a priest. He discovered that the local priests were leaving on a mission trip, but they had informed his mother to lock him in his room to avoid him following them.

St. Gerard was dedicated, though, so he left his locked room during the night to join his local priests on a mission. He did this very spontaneously and left behind only a note for his mother stating: “I’ve gone to become a saint.” He made the difficult decision to leave behind his life to become a saint.

Although it sounds simple to simply choose to be saintly, making that choice is complex and strenuous. In every situation we cross in life, we have to make a choice toward sainthood. The right choice is almost never the easiest and the easiest choice is almost never the right one. We have to wake up every morning and steel ourselves to making smart, good, holy decisions.

It seems impossible at times but I believe sainthood is an achievable goal. No one is born a saint, they have to become one. Neither is anyone born perfect, it is our human nature to make mistakes and slip up.

Luckily, our Lord is a merciful and forgiving God. He knows our flaws and understands our hesitations. Forgiveness is always available for those who ask for it. That is the reason we can become saints. God forgives our mistakes and aids us in becoming holy.

The saints of today cannot be like the saints of yesterday nor can they be like the saints of tomorrow. Each and every one of us faces unique challenges and situations. Society is ever changing and so are the evils within it.

But the saints can change too. We can become the saints who deal with our present society’s sins. I can stand up for what I believe in and change the terrors happening around me. I can be a saint of today through my everyday decisions. Through my trip to the Mission and hearing the story of St. Gerard, I have realized sainthood is possible even for me.

Sarah Duvall is a senior at Sacred Heart School. She attends Sacred Heart Church in Morrilton.

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Reference link:

https://www.arkansas-catholic.org/news/article/6221/Everyone-is-called-to-be-a-saint-of-today

 

Prophecy of Saint Louis de Montfort

The reason we call Saint Louis Marie de Montfort a prophet of the last days, even though he lived between the last half of the Seventeenth Century and the first part of the Eighteenth century is because of what we read in his prophecies which deal with these last days:


“....towards the end of the world, ....Almighty God and His holy Mother are to raise up saints who will surpass in holiness most other saints as much as the cedars of Lebanon tower above little shrubs.”


“These great souls filled with grace and zeal will be chosen to oppose the enemies of God who are raging on all sides. They will be exceptionally devoted to the Blessed Virgin. Illumined by her light, strengthened by her spirit, supported by her arms, sheltered under her protection, they will fight with one hand and build with the other.

With one hand they will give battle, overthrowing and crushing heretics and their heresies, schismatics and their schisms, idolaters and their idolatries, sinners and their wickedness. With the other hand they will build the temple of the true Solomon and the mystical city of God, namely, the Blessed Virgin... “
“They will be like thunderclouds flying through the air at the slightest breath of the Holy Spirit. Attached to nothing, surprised at nothing, they will shower down the rain of God’s word and of eternal life. They will thunder against sin; they will storm against the world; they will strike down the devil and his followers and for life and for death, they will pierce through and through with the two-edged sword of God’s word all those against whom they are sent by Almighty God.”


“They will be true apostles of the latter times to whom the Lord of Hosts will give eloquence and strength to work wonders and carry off glorious spoils from His enemies. They will sleep without gold or silver and, more important still, without concern in the midst of other priests, ecclesiastics and clerics. Yet they will have the silver wings of the dove enabling them to go wherever the Holy Spirit calls them, filled as they are, with the resolve to seek the glory of God and the salvation of souls. Wherever they preach, they will leave behind them nothing but the gold of love, which is the fulfillment of the whole law.”

“They will have the two-edged sword of the Word of God in their mouths and the bloodstained standard of the Cross on their shoulders. They will carry the Crucifix in their right hand and the rosary in their left, and the holy names of Jesus and Mary on their heart.


“Mary scarcely appeared in the first coming of Christ...

But in the second coming of Jesus Christ, Mary must be known and openly revealed by the Holy Spirit so that Jesus may be known, loved and served through her.”

 

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