The Call to Holiness

The Universal Vocation

Opening Prayer God our Father, source of all light, illuminate our

hearts and minds this day as we study your call to each of us to be holy as you are holy.

Bless our time together this day. Help us in this first year of formation to reflect on what it truly means to be an authentic Catholic in today’s world. Help us to focus on your will for our lives. We ask this through your Son, Jesus Christ

our Lord who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God forever and ever. Amen.

Overview• The Universal Call to Holiness?• Why called to Holiness?• What is Holiness?• Holiness – A Vocation• A Special Kind of Love• Our Longing for God• By Virtue of Our Baptism• An Indelible Spiritual Mark• An Exalted Vocation – the Vocation of

Man• Pope John Paul II on Holiness• All are Called to Sainthood• Is Holiness Difficult to Attain?• Spiritual Sacrifices Acceptable to God

• The Call to Holiness

• Strive for Sainthood

• First Among Saints

• Lay Witnesses

• Divine Charity – the Common Priesthood

• Special Task of the Laity

• Offered as Salvation

• A Plan of Action

• At the Beginning of the New Millennium

• Program for Training in Holiness

• Human Solidarity – The People of God

• Light of the Nations

• Revisiting Lumen Gentium

The Universal Call to Holiness• The Second Vatican Council• Lumen Gentium (Light of the Nations), The Dogmatic

Constitution on the Church, Chapter 5• Promulgated by Pope Paul VI on November 21, 1964

The Universal Call to Holiness• Because the Church is holy• By reason of her establishment by Christ• And the Gift of the Holy Spirit• So every member of the Church is endowed• With that same holiness belonging to the Church

What is Holiness?

• An attribute of God himself

• God alone is holy

• Shared with the Baptized

• As members of the Mystical Body of Christ

• A gift

• A vocation

Holiness – A Vocation

• A call to live out

• In the concrete circumstances of our lives

• Christ’s obedience

• Christ’s love

Be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.- Matthew 5:48

A Special Kind of Love

• The perfection of faith, hope, and sharing God’s very nature, which is love (I John 4:8)

• Not about what you do, but with how much love you provide.

• Love that gives freely of itself to another, that even lays down its own priorities, interests, and very life, for another.

No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.

- John 15:13

Our Longing for God• CCC 27– Desire written in the human heart– God never ceases to draw man to himself

You have made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless until they rest in thee.

- St. Augustine

By Virtue of Our Baptism

• Through Baptism we become the adopted children of God; a partaker of the divine nature, a temple of the Holy Spirit

• Through Baptism we are incorporated into the Church, the Body of Christ

• The sacramental bond of the unity of Christians existing among all who are reborn

An Indelible Spiritual Mark• Incorporated into Christ – Baptism seals the Christian

with the character of belonging to Christ

• Incorporated into the Church – Baptismal seal enables and commits Christians to serve God by vital participation (holy liturgy & holy lives)

• Marked with the sign of faith – the seal of the Lord for the day of redemption (eternal life) – seal must be kept by faithful living of the Christian life

An Exalted Vocation – The Vocation of Man

• CCC 1699 - Life in the Holy Spirit fulfills the vocation of man– Made in the image and likeness of God

• Life made up of divine charity

• And human solidarity

• Life graciously offered as salvation

In this life we cannot do great things. We can only do small things with great love.

- Blessed Teresa of Calcutta

Pope John Paul II on Holiness

• The dimension which expresses best the mystery of the Church.

• A duty of all the Christian faithful

• All states or ranks

• Necessary for the fullness of the Christian life

• Necessary for the perfection of charity

All Are Called to Sainthood

• “Be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:48)

• St Paul addresses his letters to those who are called to holiness or who are holy – the baptized are saints in the making

• “Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may prove what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” (Romans 12:2)

Is Holiness Difficult to Attain?

• No. It is impossible!• Counter-cultural, counter-intuitive

….BUT

• All things are possible with God• Invitation is ours – from God• Relationship with God through Jesus• Makes it possible to love with God’s love• Daily, ordinary things with extraordinary love

Spiritual Sacrifices Acceptable to God

“ ..the laity, dedicated as they are to Christ and anointed by the Holy Spirit, are

marvelously called and prepared so that even richer fruits of the Spirit may be

produced in them. For all their works, prayers, and apostolic undertakings, family

and married life, daily work, relaxation of mind and body, if they are accomplished

in the Spirit – indeed even the hardships of life if patiently borne – all these

become spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. In the

celebration of the Eucharist these may most fittingly be offered to the Father

along with the body of the Lord. And so, worshiping everywhere by their holy

actions, the laity consecrate the world itself to God, everywhere offering worship

by the holiness of their lives.”

Catechism of the Catholic Church 901Lumen Gentium 10, 34

I Peter 2:5

The Call to Holiness

• The laity

• Are marvelously called and prepared

• For all their works

• If they are accomplished in the Spirit

• Become spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ

• In the celebration of the Eucharist

• Offered to the Father

Strive for Sainthood• Bold idea, pretentious, presumptuous• We hesitate, fail to act• Do not believe sainthood is possible for us• What is the alternative?• Saints do exist – our heroes!• Many have become saints

before us – our inspiration!

First Among Saints

• Our Immaculate Mother• With the Holy Spirit, Mary brought forth the

greatest thing that ever was or ever will be:– God become man

• A housewife & mother• Formatter & Educator of other great saints• Queen of all saints, pray for us!

Lay Witnesses

• Models & encouragement for all

• Holiness not just for ordained and consecrated

• Manifested in ordinary circumstances

• Living the Gospel fully & faithfully in the world

• Necessary to bring secular society to Christ

Pope John Paul II:– Canonized 245 lay people– Beatified 215 lay people

Divine Charity – the Common Priesthood

Though they differ from one another in essence and not only in degree, the common priesthood of the faithful and the ministerial or hierarchical priesthood are nonetheless interrelated: each of them in its own special way is a participation in the one priesthood of Christ.

…the faithful, in virtue of their royal priesthood, join in the offering of the Eucharist. They likewise exercise that priesthood in receiving the sacraments, in prayer and thanksgiving, in the witness of a holy life, and by self-denial and active charity.

- Lumen Gentium “Light of the Nations”

(The Dogmatic Constitution on the Church)Pope Paul VI, November 21, 1964

Special Task of Laity

Laity have the “special task to order and to throw light upon these affairs in such a way that they may come into being and then continuously increase according to Christ to the praise of the Creator and the Redeemer”

– Lumen Gentium No. 31

Offered as Salvation

Therefore all the disciples of Christ, persevering in prayer and praising God, should present themselves as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God. Everywhere on earth they must bear witness to Christ and give an answer to those who seek an account of that hope of eternal life which is in them.

- Lumen Gentium “Light of the Nations”

(The Dogmatic Constitution on the Church)Pope Paul VI, November 21, 1964

A Plan of Action

• Becoming a saint not easy

• Road to heaven is narrow

• Demands training in ways of holiness

• Saints teach us to be saints ourselves

• Pope John Paul II summarized ‘training for holiness’ in his apostolic letter, Novo Millennio Ineunte

Novo Millennio Ineunte(“At the beginning of the new millennium”)

• Apostolic Letter of Pope John Paul II

• Addressed to the Faithful (Clergy & Lay)

• At the Close of the Great Jubilee of 2000

• Outlines priorities for the Church for the Third Millennium– Holiness– Basic means to arrive at holiness Prayer

Program for Training in Holiness• Life distinguished by Prayer– Expression of our total dependence on God and His grace– Fruit of constant prayer is union with God

• Regular participation in the Eucharist– Fundamental duty– Essential to be truly informed & consistent

• Regular Confession– No growth in holiness with sin– Call to repentance & conversion– Our sins always put us in need of God’s forgiveness

Human Solidarity – The People of God

God, however, does not make men holy and save them merely as individuals, without bond or link between one another. Rather has it pleased Him to bring men together as one people, a people which acknowledges Him in truth and serves Him in holiness.

- Lumen Gentium “Light of the Nations”

(The Dogmatic Constitution on the Church)Pope Paul VI, November 21, 1964

One in the Spirit

Lumen Gentium

Therefore, all the faithful of Christ are invited to strive for the holiness and perfection of their own proper state. Indeed they have an obligation to so strive. Let all then have care that they guide aright their own deepest sentiments of soul. Let neither the use of the things of this world nor attachment to riches, which is against the spirit of evangelical poverty, hinder them in their quest for perfect love Let them heed the admonition of the Apostle to those who use this world; let them not come to terms with this world; for this world, as we see it, is passing away.

The People of God….a witness and a living

instrument of the mission of the Church

Marvelously Called, Wonderfully Prepared

Review• The Universal Call to Holiness?• Why called to Holiness?• What is Holiness?• Holiness – A Vocation• A Special Kind of Love• Our Longing for God• By Virtue of Our Baptism• An Indelible Spiritual Mark• An Exalted Vocation – the Vocation of

Man• Pope John Paul II on Holiness• All are Called to Sainthood• Is Holiness Difficult to Attain?• Spiritual Sacrifices Acceptable to God

• The Call to Holiness

• Strive for Sainthood

• First Among Saints

• Lay Witnesses

• Divine Charity – the Common Priesthood

• Special Task of the Laity

• Offered as Salvation

• A Plan of Action

• At the Beginning of the New Millennium

• Program for Training in Holiness

• Human Solidarity – The People of God

• Light of the Nations

• Revisiting Lumen Gentium

Questions?

Closing Prayer God our Father, source of all light, you sent your

son to be a light to all nations and all peoples. Help us with your grace to reveal your light within us that we may share your love with all we meet in our everyday walk in this life.

Lighten our path that we may walk in faith and trust in the way of holiness until we come to the Light that shines forever. We ask this through your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God forever and ever. Amen.

References

• “Called to Be Holy”, Most Reverend Michael J. Sheridan, Bishop of Colorado Springs, CO, Lay Witness, November/December 2004 http://www.cuf.org/FileDownloads/LayWitness/ND04Sheridan.pdf

• Lumen Gentium, the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church

• Catechism of the Catholic Church 2nd EditionPublisher: Libreria Editrice VaticanaISBN-10: 0889972818, ISBN-13: 978-0889972810