Foreword
“The Lord asks everything of us, and in return he offers us true life, the happiness for which we were created. He wants us to be saints and not to settle for a bland and mediocre existence.” – Pope Francis, Gaudete et Exsultate, 1
During my undergraduate studies at The Catholic University of America, I took an overview course in Canon Law taught by a Dominican Sister who was working on a licentiate in the subject at the time. One day, Sr. Waldia came into the class which was filled with young men and women who were studying various subjects at the University and wrote the following on the board:
“Whole person holy.”
She then went on to explain that holiness is not something seemingly unattainable, meant for a few. Instead, we are all called to holiness. We were challenged by her to look at all aspects of our life – spiritual, emotional, intellectual, and physical. Sr. Waldia called us to use these God-given aspects of ourselves, not simply for our own good, but also in service to God and neighbor. Through the grace of Jesus Christ and the recognition of our own shortcomings, we could orient ourselves toward becoming a whole person and, therefore, a holy person.
Pope Francis seems to agree with Sr. Waldia when he says in his new apostolic exhortation, Gaudete et Exsultate:
“Discernment is not a solipsistic self-analysis or a form of egotistical introspection, but an authentic process of leaving ourselves behind in order to approach the mystery of God, who helps us to carry out the mission to which he has called us, for the good of our brothers and sisters” (175).
St. Vincent Pallotti understood this as well in his belief that all are called to be apostles, but in the everyday things of life, not simply in the extraordinary. One need not perform extraordinary deeds to become a saint or live a life of true holiness. Instead, Pallotti says that ordinary people and everyday things of life can be apostles: