Lenten Practice Leads to Holy Life
While in the seminary I was introduced to a well-known radio program entitled “Prairie Home Companion.” The brand of humor on that program was enjoyable to many people because it was able to grasp the very essence of what it means to live in small-town America and present this in each characterization of life there so that the most common and the most familiar of people and day to day activities became significant and remarkably meaningful to the listening audience.
This ability to distinguish the merit, import and value of the ordinary, routine and unexalted is especially important to all those who would strive to live a good and holy life in this world. We might even look to the saints in heaven as a model for our lives. Many of them are not
officially recognized by the church but are known only by the Lord God. This one small fact may help us to better accept the life to which we
have been called and perhaps even help us to live our spiritual lives with greater vigor during this Lenten season.
Sometimes we imagine that there is no great virtue except in some extraordinary gift, talent or ability. Yet, when we look to the Saints, we find that many of them received no extraordinary favors and appeared to be much more ordinary people than we imagined them to be.
In the 19th century Cardinal Henry Edward Manning wrote in his book The Eternal Priesthood that holiness consists not in doing uncommon things, but in doing all common things with an uncommon fervor. Countless numbers saints performed nothing but the most common of actions while living faithful lives in the midst of the world.
Sometimes we become too concerned about what is done rather than how it is done. We might recall the thought of Thomas Aquinas expressed in his Summa that sanctity is that whereby a person’s mind and its acts are applied to God. This is the area in which the saints excelled. They were able to perform actions which to the world might seem insignificant and unimportant, with devotion to God. In this way their actions became grace filled and helped them to gain holiness and salvation.
This should help us to appreciate the fact that it is not impossible to become holy and that holiness may be found in all that we do with the help of God.
Our daily prayer during this Lenten season might include a petition that God grant us the spiritual strength we need to live our lives and perform every action with a thirst for sanctity so that we may live in a manner that promotes holiness within ourselves.