I am a checklist person, and when learning something new, I like to watch and physically do the task alongside the person showing me. My checklists help me keep track of the important steps and lead me to know for certain in which order to complete the task. So when falling in love more with my Catholic faith, I wanted a “How to Become A Saint” checklist. Obviously, I was disappointed when such a thing did not exist. I started looking around in my small group, at Mass, and at coworkers to look for clues on how to achieve sainthood.
I was introduced to the Saints Alive podcast, which creates radio theatre episodes about a saint. It is like a movie for your ears! And geared toward children! Driving to visit my folks with the kids in the car, we queued her up and off we went! We listened to the stories of St. Nicholas, and St. Joan of Arc. That was all it took for the kids and I to get hooked.
The more saints I learned about, the more I realized why a checklist would be impossible… they all lived such different lives! St. Cecelia accepted her parent’s demand that she marry, despite committing herself to Jesus in her prayer. She ended up converting her husband, who converted his brother. They all participated in the ministry of burying the dead, when it was illegal to do so. All three of them were tortured and martyred for their work. While St. Cecelia went along with her parent’s wishes for her to get married, St. Catherine of Siena did not. She cut her hair to prove the point that she was adamant about NOT getting married. She is a doctor of the Church, so all of that turned out for her. Completely different routes with the same destination of sainthood.
I found that different saints had different devotions. Pope John Paul II had an obvious devotion to the rosary – he prayed it constantly throughout the day and gave us the Luminous Mysteries, now prayed on Thursdays. St. Mother Teresa had a devotion to Our Lady and taught us about the Flying Novena when she didn’t have 9 days to wait for an answered prayer! (You pray 10 Memorares. Nine imploring the help of Our Lady and the tenth is in thanksgiving for her answering the prayer promptly.) St. Margaret Mary had a devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus through her Divine Revelation. St. Faustina Kowalska shared the Divine Mercy Chaplet with the rest of us. All of these examples prove to me that there is not a prayer or devotion required for sainthood – simply prayer and devotion toward God.
There has been one common thread: suffering. Whether it is St. Patrick being sold into slavery by pirates, St. Joan being shot in the shoulder (or burned at the stake), St. John Bosco living in dilapidated abandoned homes/catching pneumonia, being shot, being beat up by thugs, Philomena being thrown into the river/being flogged, St. Carlo who suffered and died from cancer, or St. Therese of Lisieux who suffered the loss of her mother and the emotional loss of her sisters as they entered the convent… All these saints suffered.
Logically, this makes sense because saints are humans and humans have original sin. What took a long time for me to understand on more than a logical level, is that these saints used their sufferings to bring themselves closer to God. It sounds so simple, but to put this in checklist form… the execution of this is muddy. I am not a graceful sufferer. I feel better about my bruised ego or inconveniences when I complain. I take the pebble out of my shoe whenever possible, as quickly as possible. These typical first reactions are not how I would describe a meek and humble heart. So this month, I am praying with the saints to suffer like the saints. I am asking for their help to suffer better, to suffer with a heart toward Christ, and encourage you to join me!