For all the saints who from their labors rest, who Thee by faith before the world confessed; Thy name, Jesus, be forever blest. Alleluia, Alleluia!
Thou wast their Rock, their Fortress, and their Might;Thou, Lord, their Captain in the well-fought fight; Thou, in the darkness drear, their one true Light. Alleluia, Alleluia!
“Strive to enter through the narrow door; for many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able.” Luke 13:24
We are all called to be saints! This is something I didn’t learn until two years ago! Being born and raised Catholic, I got the “basics” as a child, but when I fell away from the faith I obviously stopped learning. Since coming back, I have learned more than I could have imagined and I realize how much there is to learn about our faith every day! There is such a wealth of knowledge it is simply never-ending! Sometimes I get overwhelmed thinking about how we are called to be saints. I think of some of my favorite saints, such as St. Maximilian Kolbe, St. Mother Teresa, St. Dymphna, St. Maria Goretti, St. Jacinta, St. Therese of the Little Flower, and of course our queen bee Mama Mary, and I feel so far away!
They all have virtues I want to grow in and entire lives I would like to try to emulate. Although I recently read a quote that gave me some perspective, and it said something similar to, “there is a already a St. Mother Teresa, you are called to be your OWN saint”. Which gets me thinking how true! Of course their lifestyles are “saintly” but we need to make our OWN lifestyles saintly. How am I doing on that one sisters? Well compared to two years ago I have turned my soul around for the better (I hope) but I still have a long road ahead! I have said before in my writings, and I’ll continue to say, that I think “baby steps” are so key. Everyone who is involved at Heart of Mary and who follows Heart of Mary are all on their own faith journeys.
For those of you who may not be as far along as someone else, I will speak to you! I love the scapular (any of them you wish to pick I like, as there are different ones) but in being honest, I find it sometimes very daunting to wear and follow, especially the brown one. So what did Mama Mary do for me? She eased me in with baby steps! First I “randomly” learned about the green scapular and happily got to wearing that, and saying the simple prayer it required daily (while hoping for a cure for migraines ha). That was very doable for me. It just required me to lean on her and say a short prayer.
Once I got my feet wet with that, I wanted to give another try to the brown scapular and I went to a nearby blessing my parent’s parish offered. The priest was very kind and stated we essentially need to strive to do good while wearing it (there are of course promises attached that are more strict) but I think he wanted us to feel hopeful and welcome and do the best we can! The goal is never to push anyone away, and like the scripture verse in Matthew that says, “if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you”. Since then I have been wearing my two scapulars faithfully and trying to lead a more saintly life.
My point is this; it can be very daunting to think about leading full saintly lives, but if we try one step at a time and continue to grow (and even just maintain sometimes to make sure we can manage where we’re at), then we’re still headed in the direction of Heaven!
So let’s keep striving, sisters, to lead lives like our favorite saints so we can get ourselves and everyone in the world to Heaven! It’s a tall order but little by little and with Mama Mary holding our hands we can get there! There are so many ways to grow in your faith, even simple small steps if you’re not at the “bigger” ones yet, I encourage you this weekend, especially if you’ve been thinking about it, to find one and go with it and see where God takes you!
Have a fruitful weekend :) - Ally
