Habits of the Saints
one
Now, let’s be clear and make no mistake. Two things must happen before you can get into Heaven:
I. You must become like God;
II. You must become holy.
Those are the prerequisites to get into heaven.
We become like God by receiving His divine life offered to us through Baptism and the Eucharist, which makes us truly sons and daughters of God who share in the very nature of God. God has his own ways of giving His divine life to those who through no fault of their own can’t receive the sacraments. But for those of us who can, unless we receive a share in his divine nature through the sacraments we cannot live in heaven.
We become holy by being purified of our vices and becoming virtuous.
Scripture tells us that nothing unholy may enter heaven, nothing that is evil. Therefore, to get into heaven we must be purified of all our vices like pride, vain-ambition, envy, sloth, anger, greed, gluttony, lust, gossip, resentment, bitterness and unforgiveness and so on.
And we must become virtuous: wise and prudent, people who are perfectly just, temperate – that is not controlled by any disordered desires, courageous, full of faith, hope and most of all people who love God not for what he gives us but people who love God for his sake.
Now, three facts:
You can’t do this on your own. God must give us His divine life and his constant help if we are to become like him. He offers both in super-abundance for all those who want it.
Second – because He is merciful, if we have not become holy by the time we die, God will help us finish the process in purgatory.
Third – God will not do this for you. You must do your part.
So if our goal is to get into heaven then we ought to be doing those things that make us like God and make us holy. Those things are the habits of the saints.
two
Let’s focus on four habits of the saints
The first habit is to foster the right desire, the desire to become a saint. When asked what it takes to become a saint, Thomas Aquinas said, “To want it.”
If we don’t want it or desire it, then it will never happen.
Recall that hope is to desire and strive after heaven as our ultimate happiness.
No one will strive after something they do not desire.
I want to become a saint. Do you?
Here is where self-doubt creeps in. Banish it! Self-doubt about holiness is a tool of the devil.
Learn about the saints and let them inspire you with a desire to become a saint yourself. But do not compare yourself to the saints. In fact, no two saints are alike. God makes you to become a saint in your own unique way.
God made you to become a saint and he is giving you everything you need to become one. The only way you won’t is if you choose not to. So desire it.
three
The second habit of the saints is a daily examination of conscience combined with frequent confession.
Every day take a few minutes to do a brief examination of conscience.
In your daily examine…
1. Begin with Gratitude
a. For what am I grateful?
b. To whom am I grateful? First, I am grateful to God.
c. All these things for which I am grateful are the concrete manifestations of his love for me.
d. Now, How have I corresponded to His love?
2. Then look back over your last 24 hours and acknowledge where you have thought, said and done things that were wrong or failed to do what was right…the things that left us empty and unhappy.
a. This honest assessment will cause us to grow in our desire and love for God, purifying our disordered desires
b. Then tell God you are truly sorry because you love Him above all things
3. Make a game plan to learn from this and live better today – this is part of your resolution flowing out of prayer – some simple concrete thing to put into practice today to be more happy.
4. Now – go to Confession, at least once a month, where Jesus can forgive and heal you of your vices and strengthen you to grow in virtue.
four
The next habit of the saints is the infallible means to grow in friendship with Jesus and conversion from vice to virtue - it is Daily Meditation and a Resolution.
The Catechism suggests two ways to do daily meditation through Lectio Divina, that is, to prayerfully read the Bible or through the Rosary.
Either way, in meditation we do three things:
A. We listen to God by reading or recalling His Word in Scripture, Tradition and the teaching of the Church. This is the way God speaks to us.
B. Then we reflect or think about what God has said and done to understand it, to love God for it and to form firm convictions.
C. We form a resolution to put into practice what God has said to us that day.
If we do this every day we will overcome our vices, our sinful habits. If we do not do this – we will not overcome them and they will overcome us.
five
Alone you cannot grow spiritually. We need others and they need us.
Teresa of Avila is one of the greatest masters of the spiritual life. Early on she did not have friends who shared her love of God and pursuit of holiness and she found it very difficult to make progress on her own. She writes: “A great evil it is for a soul to be alone in the midst of so many dangers. It seems to me that if I should have had someone to talk all this over with it would have helped me…For this reason I would counsel those who practice prayer to seek…friendship and association with other persons having the same interest… I believe that those who discuss the joys and trials they undergo will benefit themselves and those who hear them, and they will come away instructed; and even without understanding how, they will have instructed their friends.” (The Book of Her Life, Chapter 7:20.)
Then she found a handful of friends who had her same goal of union with God and holiness. She made a priority to spend time with them talking about their spiritual journey and from that time she made great progress and the journey was way more enjoyable.
We all need a small group of family and friends with whom we commit to share life regularly, ideally once a week. And when we gather, invite them to pray the Rosary and then ask them what struck them during the Rosary.
Build your team and commit to meet regularly.
Let’s reclaim Sunday as the day for relationship with God and others.