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Wednesday 9 January 2013

On Meeting Saints, PT Cruisers, and Loti

Thanks, wiki
Part of the pattern of my life seems to be running into saints. This is for my own benefit, as I need to become a saint and seeing and meeting saints is becoming a habit of mine.

God has led me to the most wonderful people in Ireland, England and Malta.  I feel so honoured to run into holy people who know the Indwelling of the Trinity. This realization of the Holy Trinity dwelling within each Catholic from baptism and given increased graces at Confirmation is the key to beginning the life of holiness.

The knowledge that God is in each Catholic who is in communion with the Catholic Church gives power and insight, allowing for a deeper prayer life.  This openness to grace provides spiritual power and clarity. It is the difference from driving about in a PT Cruiser and a Lotus. Now, I had two PTs in my lifetime, and my second one looked the one above, a 2006 limited edition, only in champaign. There is nothing wrong with driving a  Cruiser, and it was fun and useful having one with a boy with sports equipment and pets in kennels in the back. But, a PT is not a Lotus.

The saint I met today is slightly younger than I am and she has finished the Ignatian Spiritual Exercises, plus the Life in the Spirit seminars, without the charismatic hype.

Her life has been changed not so that she is an obviously Spirit-filled person, but God has led her to quiet, deeper prayer and the way of purification. She understands the purgative and the illuminative states and this has all happened in two years in her life.

God is good.

What is the key? Giving Him sovereignty over one's soul and being humble form the basis for such graces.

St. Publius of Malta
We receive grace according to our ability to receive grace. God waits for us to ask. He waits for us to give Him time and energy.

I was so happy to re-meet her after a year. I could see the change. It is so humbling to be around a saint.

Lay people, we are called to be saints, and not one good work means anything until we are in the age of the virtues in our spiritual life. Only the works done by God through us count for anything.

Good works flow from God through us. We can waste a lot of time running around doing what we think are good works only to discover the time and energy were wasted, as the work was not of God, but our own strivings.

This happened to me. Only when we totally surrender to God's Life in us, the Indwelling of the Holy Trinity, do we actually start to do good works-the works of God and not ourselves.

St. George Preca of Malta
I hope you all know and meet some saints. St. Bernard was moved to tears and humility by observing the saints in his monastery. Saints are in the world as well. I hope you meet some saints.


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