Thirteen Little Known Secrets that Guarantee Holiness
All women have this wonderful capacity to be able to love, to enter relationally into union with God, to have that very, very special intimate union, that spousal kind of union with the Lord that men do not have and cannot have – but women do. Fr Altier
Catholics, especially Catholic women, have an awesome responsibility to deepen their spiritual life. We cannot be Priests, but we can love Our Lord in a way that men cannot. As spiritual Mothers of Priests, we are called to “transmit spiritual life”. That cannot be done by lukewarm souls! One of the easiest ways to advance in holiness is devotion to Our Sorrowful Mother. As Fr. Faber said “This devotion has a remarkable connection to great interior holiness” In addition to this powerful devotion, there are thirteen things that are common among all truly holy people. They are:
1) Desire for Holiness.
You cannot achieve what you don’t want.
2) Conformity to the Will of God.
Perfect abandonment to Divine Providence
3) Fidelity to Grace
Don’t waste the Grace of God
4) Practice of the Presence of God
Make Spiritual Communions often
5) Examination of Conscience
Do a daily examination of your faults and resolve to correct them
6) Confession
Weekly Confession to a good Confessor if at all possible
7) Mortification
Interior and exterior mortification ~ Never undertake big penances without a Director’s approval!!!
8. Willingness to make sacrifices
Don’t offer God sacrifices grudgingly
9) Plan of Life
Have set times to pray
10) Spiritual Reading
Study Scripture and the Lives of the Saints
11) Spiritual Direction
“He who has himself as a guide, has a fool for a client.”
12) Holy Friendships
Don’t associate with those who will drag you down
13) Mental Prayer
“All saints Became Saints because of Mental Prayer”
Mental Prayer is not an option!!
Working on personal holiness is the greatest thing lay people can do to save the Church. The holier we are, the more powerful our prayers are and that equals holier Priests. I will do a series of posts on these thirteen ways to advance in holiness and have links to sermons by FSSP Priests, quotes from Saints and suggestions for lectio divina.
Pope St Pius X once said that what the Church needs most is lay people who are virtuous, enlightened, resolute and apostolic. As we begin Lent in earnest, let us beg Our Mother of Sorrows to make us the lay people the Church so desperately needs.
“Who is going to save our Church? Not our Bishops, not our priests and religious. It is up to the people. You have the minds, the eyes, the ears to save the Church. Your mission is to see that your priests act like priests, your bishops like bishops and your religious act like religious”
Fulton Sheen
Continue to pray for Fr. Manel Pousa
