The difference between Sr. and St.!

Thank God for auto-correct! How often have I signed myself off in an email or a text message as ‘St.’, that is, Saint, instead of ‘Sr.’, that is, 'Sister'.  Though yesterday some kind person actually texted me as ‘St. Louise’! Whilst I giggled, it was also a moment of reflection on the huge commitment I have to become a saint. Yes, I aspire to be a saint. It may sound proud for someone to say out loud that one aspires to be a saint. I am convinced that I have lived with and live with saints, holy people who aspire to ‘be’ completely for Christ, for to be a saint to is be holy, in the footsteps of Jesus who is Holy.  They are ordinary people, to say it somehow, without a visible heroism, but in their everyday goodness I see the truth of the faith. This goodness, which they have matured in the faith of the Church, is for me a sure defence of Christianity and the sign of where the truth is.
I came across this blog from Neal Obstat  which had a post entitled: “We need saints!’ It resonated with me a lot.

          "We need saints!

We need saints that aren’t afraid to be different. 
We need saints that don’t fit some pre-conceived notion of holiness or some humanly orchestrated mold of perfection.

We need saints that aren’t afraid to live in the paradox of Christianity, the kind of saints that don’t just pass over suffering, but instead choose to faithfully live through it. 

We need saints that love their families, however dysfunctional they may seem to be. 

We need saints that aren’t afraid to be misunderstood or forgotten, and yet understand the pain of Christ when they do feel this way. 

We need saints who are free to laugh until their sides hurt or to cry until they can’t cry anymore. 

We need saints who refuse to rob from others the gift of joy or the gift of suffering, the kinds of saints who live faithfully in the mess of a broken humanity won over ultimately by Love Himself. 

We need saints who aren’t afraid to be weak in the eyes of the world while silently building up the world by their prayers and faithfulness in their everyday lives. 

We need saints who aren’t afraid to let prayer and play or prayer and work exist as one and the same. 

We need saints who have their own likes and dislikes, even when they differ from those closest to them. 

We don’t need another St. Therese or St. John of the Cross, but instead we need the saints that have been created for this time and place in history. 

We need saints who allow their relationship with the Lord to be the lens through which they see the world, others, and even themselves. 

We need saints who are simply trying to be exactly who they are. We need saints who are fully alive!  …saints who embrace the Sacramentality of the present moment:  whether that’s running in the rain, watching the sunrise, eating s’mores, singing your newborn baby to sleep, or simply washing dishes or driving kids to soccer practice for the hundredth time. 

We need saints who aren’t afraid to learn from children how to see everything as new and beautiful, even the most mundane of activities. 

We need saints who realize that they stand on the shoulders of giants, constantly being strengthened by the prayers of silent, hidden saints throughout the world. 

We need saints who are not afraid to be found broken in their weakness.  We need saints who are courageous enough to be humble and to offer the gift of themselves tirelessly without ever seeing or understanding the end of such a gift. 

In all, we need saints who are authentic, who are exactly who and what they’ve been created to be.  We need saints who aren’t afraid to be fully human.  We need saints.”

Yes, as the Catechism reminds us: “The saints in heaven establish the whole Church in holiness. Their merits are offered through Christ, the one Mediator. By their concern, our weaknesses are helped. "Do not weep, for I shall be more useful to you after my death" (St. Dominic). "I want to spend my heaven in doing good on earth" (St. Therese of Lisieux). Our union with the saints in heaven joins us to Christ. "We love the martyrs. May we also be their companions and fellow disciples" (Martyrdom of Polycarp)”(Catechism 957-958).

We continue in the month of November to pray for our dead. Again, we return to the Catechism which reminds us that “the Church has always had great respect for the dead. "It is a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead that they may be loosed from their sins" (2 Macc 12:45). By our prayers, we help them and make their intercession for us effective.”

So read the lives of the saints. Every day. All year. Every year. They are the actual “cloud of witnesses” (Heb. 12:1) that surrounds us. When we ask them to, they pray for us. When we strive spiritually, they cheer. Like our guardian angel, they are ever present if we nurture our relationship with them; thereby we are never, ever alone. Christ stands at the door of our heart and knocks, the Holy Spirit is in all places and fills all things, and the saints, in likeness to God, accompany us also if we so desire.