This weekend we celebrate the Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. She is a saint because she truly accepted who she was and who God chose her to be.
The following, from Bryce Lungren, Wyoming’s Cowboy Priest, writes about finding within your self the seeds of holiness.
Father Steve Adrian
Father Bryce Lungren cares for cattle, but he also cares for the souls of his Wyoming parish. He is known as “The Cowboy Priest”
He writes:
“My whole motto is sonship, and that means that God calls me, calls me by name and according to my nature. He calls me as ‘Bryce.’” When I first heard the call, I put away my boots. We have to be ready to sacrifice, and sacrifice radically, for the sake of a higher good. But sometimes we make the mistake of equating holiness with hurt. Yes, growing has its pains, but holiness should also bring us joy, and it should mean becoming ourselves.
How do I define holiness? Holiness is being fully the man or woman God has created you to be. Holiness looks like asking God what he desires and hearing back ‘I desire what you desire.’ That doesn’t mean anything you happen to want is the right thing; you have to be sure that your desires are in line with the truth. If you do that, then holiness can be driven from within. It’s not God sitting up there, just commanding things, but it’s the Spirit moving within the desires of our hearts.”
We think God’s will for our lives can’t be what we actually want, just as our desire for something does not necessarily mean it is good, it also doesn’t necessarily mean it is selfish or bad. God wants to work with our desires, our talents, our passions, our interests, to find what is good in them and to elevate them. This, he says, is particular to who we are. That’s why God calls us by our own name. There already was a Mother Teresa, you have to be your own saint!”
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