{"id":3357,"date":"2015-11-22T10:00:30","date_gmt":"2015-11-22T15:00:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/?p=3357"},"modified":"2015-11-18T11:06:26","modified_gmt":"2015-11-18T16:06:26","slug":"called-to-holiness-20151122","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/?p=3357","title":{"rendered":"CALLED TO HOLINESS&#8211; 20151122"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/Capture.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-349\" src=\"http:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/Capture.jpg\" alt=\"Capture\" width=\"151\" height=\"253\" \/><\/a>It is interesting how this weekly article has changed over the months. It began with my attempting to share the vision of our Patriarchal Synod for all parishes \u2013 that is revitalize and reenergize Ukrainian Greek Catholic parishes. The Synod has asked each Eparchy and parish to look at what it means to be <em>vibrant <\/em>and <em>relevant<\/em> in our modern world. It seems that this is the task of all Catholic Churches. In the West there is the great effort of <em>Evangelization &#8211; <\/em>that is the Church being a vibrant force in the world for good by sharing the Good News.<\/p>\n<p>It is my contention that before we can spread the Good News of Christ, we have to be engaged in <em>becoming holy. <\/em>Of course I think this, unfortunately, frightens most people since they don\u2019t believe they have it within them to become saints. And yet if we are baptized into Christ, if we say we are Christians, we have been called to be saints.<\/p>\n<p>The first big question is: <em>What does it mean to be a saint<\/em>? To be a saint can\u2019t mean being <em>perfect <\/em>since there is only one Who is perfect, God! It can\u2019t mean being <em>without sin<\/em> since there is only One Who is without sin, God!<\/p>\n<p>The second big question is: What is holiness?<\/p>\n<p>One interesting definition for holiness is the state of being whole, that is really understanding who you truly are in God\u2019s creation. As a human being, therefore, it means being aware that a part of you is spiritual and a part of you is material! It means that you must support the development of both dimensions of your life. Being called to holiness means being called to develop the spiritual dimensions of your life.<\/p>\n<p>All religions claim that it is their purpose to help people focus on the development of their spiritual nature. Christianity offers us a model for our spiritual development, namely Jesus Christ Who we believe is none-other-than God incarnate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It is interesting how this weekly article has changed over the months. It began with my attempting to share the vision of our Patriarchal Synod for all parishes \u2013 that is revitalize and reenergize Ukrainian Greek Catholic parishes. The Synod &hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/?p=3357\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3357","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-called-to-holiness"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3357","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3357"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3357\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3358,"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3357\/revisions\/3358"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3357"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3357"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3357"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}