{"id":711,"date":"2014-03-23T11:00:09","date_gmt":"2014-03-23T16:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/?p=711"},"modified":"2014-03-21T11:59:36","modified_gmt":"2014-03-21T16:59:36","slug":"called-to-holiness-20140323","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/?p=711","title":{"rendered":"Called To Holiness — 20140323"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"holycross\"<\/a>Do you realize you are called to be holy <\/i>and to be a saint<\/i>? Many Christians don\u2019t realize that their Initiation into the Church<\/i> is meant to make this their life\u2019s goal.\u00a0 In fact most Christians feel that it is beyond their\u00a0\u00a0 ability to become holy<\/i> since it requires them to be perfect. In truth, holiness<\/i> and saintliness<\/i> are not the same as human perfection. No matter what we do we can never be perfect during this lifetime. Further, God doesn\u2019t expect us to be perfect<\/i> and there is only one who is holy and He is God<\/i>.<\/p>\n

So what does it mean to be holy<\/i>? What does it mean to be a saint<\/i>?<\/p>\n

During<\/i> the next several issues I would like to share my ideas about holiness<\/i> which leads to saintliness<\/i>.\u00a0 Some of the ideas I will present are taken from the Fathers of the Church and some will be from my own reflections and thoughts on the topic. Hopefully they will be of some value to my readers.\u00a0 I would hasten to add that just because I share ideas about holiness<\/i> and saintliness <\/i>it doesn\u2019t mean that I have any delusion that I have already achieved this goal. It only means that it is my goal.<\/p>\n

There are a number of different dimensions to holiness. The first is to recognize your own uniqueness<\/i> and to attribute this uniqueness to God. While biologists may argue that our uniqueness is due purely to chance, when we decide that our uniqueness is due to God\u2019s plan, then we are on the path to holiness. Although we may not always like everything about ourselves, we have to know that our uniqueness is given to us by life for our spiritual growth. To believe that life\u2019s uniqueness is given to us by God means that there is a Divine Plan for us. Life is planned to give us the opportunities and abilities to spiritually grow into God\u2019s children. In saying this I know that faith<\/i> is required. I must believe that God has given me this uniqueness so that I might have the opportunity to work towards greater union with Him. I am not an accident nor is my life. I am a thoughtful image in the mind of my Creator.
\nThis image is of all that I can come to be<\/i>!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Do you realize you are called to be holy and to be a saint? Many Christians don\u2019t realize that their Initiation into the Church is meant to make this their life\u2019s goal.\u00a0 In fact most Christians feel that it is … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-711","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\/711","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=711"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/711\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":713,"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/711\/revisions\/713"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=711"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=711"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=711"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}