In researching blog post ideas, I frequently come across blog post prompts. These can be anything from " You won't believe how easy it is to make_________!" to "Do these 5 things every day and you will__________" One of the most common types of blog posts is
"(number) steps to _______" So that's what this blog post is all about! Just 9 steps to becoming a saint.* We are not too young to become saints! With God, all things are possible! Just look at Venerable Carlo Acutis, the modern Italian teenager and computer whiz who is going to beatified in 6 days! He was a normal teenager with an extraordinary faith, and we can be just like him!
1. Be open to grace.
Being open to grace is arguably the most important part of becoming a saint. If we are not open to God's working in our lives we are never going to make it to Heaven. Without Him, we are nothing and we can do nothing. Without the grace of God, there is absolutely no possible way that we can make it to Heaven. We can't do it on our own, which is why God gives us grace! Are you open to God's grace and His working in your life?
Challenge: Tell God that you are open to His grace in your life.
Learn more about God's amazing grace here!
2. Frequent the sacraments.
The sacraments and prayer are the closest we can get to Heaven while still on earth. In the Eucharist we receive Christ's body and blood, soul and divinity and our hearts are united with Him. In the sacrament of reconciliation, God wipes our souls clean when we confess our sins to Him through the priest who is in the person of Christ. In the sacrament of Matrimony, we see Christ's marriage to His one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church. In the sacrament of Baptism our sins are wiped away and we are welcomed into the family of God. These are only 4 of the seven sacraments, but what they all have in common is that they more fully unite us to God and give us even more grace to get to Heaven! They help us to remain united with Jesus so fully that we become one with Him.
Challenge: Come back to the sacraments! Even if you were just at Mass last weekend, go again as soon as you can! Get to confession! If you're not baptized, go to your priest and ask how he can make that happen!
3. Pray, pray, pray!!
As I mentioned before, the sacraments and prayer are the closest we can get to Heaven while still on earth. As St. Teresa of Avila said, "Prayer is a friendly conversation with the One we know loves us." That's what prayer is. Simply talking with someone you love nd who loves you in return. God is our friend, He's our lover, and He's our savior. Just as a friendship can't survive without god communication, our relationship with God cannot survive without prayer because prayer is our communication with God!
Challenge: Use the P.R.A.Y. (Praise, Repent, Ask, Yield) acronym to talk to God. You can write out your prayers in a journal. Just write letters to God like you would to friend.
4. Stay close to the Blessed Mother.
Mary is amazing. She is the Mother of God and our spiritual Mother too. She cares for us and loves us and wants more than anything for us to be in Heaven with her Son. She is also a wonderful example of accepting God's will for your life, which is another essential part of sainthood. Ask Mary to intercede for you and help you to become a saint! If there is a certain sin you are struggling with, ask Mary for help. If you are in a rough situation, ask Mary for help. If you don't know what to do, ask Mary for help. She will always lead you closer and closer to Her son, Our Lord Jesus Christ.
Challenge: Pray the Rosary! Talk to your Heavenly Mama!
5. Ask your Guardian Angel and Patron Saints to help.
Along with the Blessed Mother, the saints and angels are wonderful in helping us get to Heaven. They are there to help us! "Beside each believer stands an angel as protector and shepherd leading him to life." (St. Basil, Adv. Eunomium III, I: PG 29,656B.) Our Guardian angels are shepherds leading us to life. This means that they are here to protect us in this life and lead us to eternal life in the next. (yay!!)
Challenge: Pray the Guardian Angel Prayer and look up a prayer to your favorite saint.
6. Don't be afraid.
Don't be afraid! Remember that "...neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." And because of that, we have no reason to be afraid. God is in control. As St. Therese says, “A soul in the state of grace has nothing to fear from the devil, who is a coward, and will even fly from the gaze of a little child.”
Challenge: Step out of your comfort zone- do not be afraid! Do something for God that you would not ordinarily be comfortable doing.
7. Read the Bible.
Simply stated, the Bible is God's love story. Reading and praying the Bible will help you to come to know and serve the Lord more fully in this life so that you can be happy with Him in the next.
Challenge: Read 1 book of the Bible. Start with one of the Gospels! (Don't try to read it from Genesis to Revelation)
8. Love.
Love your neighbor. Love your friends. Love your teachers. Love your parents. Love that homeless woman on the street. Love the political candidate that you don't agree with at all. Love that little girl on the playground. Love Jesus. Love everybody.
Love is willing the good of another. Love is sacrificial. Love is complete. God is Love.
Challenge: Read John 13:34-35
9. Acknowledge that it's difficult.
Becoming a Saint is not going to be easy. The saints follow in the footsteps of Christ, and while Christ walked a way of love and truth and light, He also walked to the cross. Be open to suffering. Embrace it, just as Jesus did His cross. We will be persecuted for our faith, people might not like us or understand us. But they didn't like Jesus either. All the saints that have gone before us have had numerous crosses which they bore with grace and dignity, relying on the mercy and love of God to give them strength.
Challenge: Help someone else who has a heavy cross. Thank someone who has helped you carry yours.
Jesus loves you immensely and He wants you to be a Saint. To achieve sainthood, all you have to do is get to Heaven. Becoming a canonized saint, well, that's a topic for another blog post :-) Know that we, by the grace and power of God, can become saints!!We can do it! I believe in us, the Church believes in us, and most of all, God believes in us. We shouldn't be afraid. These times that we are living in are giving people tons of crosses to bear. Know that it is in these times of tribulation and struggle that God raises up the next generation of amazing saints!
“Do not be afraid. Do not be satisfied with mediocrity. Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.”
- Saint Pope John Paul the Second
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