November 1, 2020

October 29, 2020

Everyday Saints
Growing up I thought saints were larger than life people with extraordinary stories. The thought that I could one day be revered as a saint by anyone seemed crazy. I wrote my essays on different saints every year in Catholic school right around All Saints Day. These were stories about people I had never met, and I assumed I would never meet anyone like them going forward.

Now that I am older, I realize that I was wrong back then and my immaturity of both mind and heart did not allow me to see that there are saints among us all the time. I have met many people in my life that I would call living saints. They are holy people who give of themselves to God and others in profound ways. Their relationship with Jesus is evident and they live their lives in ways that people witness the transformative power of love.

As a child I was wrong about saints, but even more importantly, I didn’t fully realize that all of us are called to be saints! Me, a saint? Holiness is not something simply studied in books. It is the way of life we are all called to live. The call comes from Jesus Christ and each of us must respond. If we are still thinking like children, we may choose to stay silent and live accordingly. If we are more mature in our faith then we might not only respond, we might one day have a school child write a report about us.— Tracy Earl Welliver, MTS