This is one hero we need to emulate

Today, Mother Teresa will be Canonized by Pope Francis and officially becomes a saint. I had to look that up as many of you might have as well.

Thankfully, it’s as simple as it sounds. Canonization is the process by which the Catholic Church solemnly proclaims that a holy person becomes inscribed on the list (i.e. the canon) of those persons who may be venerated publicly in the liturgy of the Catholic Church. In the case of Mother Teresa she will receive her own feast day with a Mass and a liturgical office constructed to offer due veneration to her.

Of course many of us already unofficially consider her at the highest level a human being could attain in displaying the virtues of a life of service to others. A true hero, a life to emulate.

Mother Teresa is perhaps “the best” example for us of living a life in the real, postmodern world, and trying to serve as the “salt and the light” improving our communities, home, schools and workplace. Although she was clearly a holy person, her life service was primarily given to non-Christians and those not normally of the church. In fact, if you take a few minutes to study her life more carefully you will find that she often acted out her mission without the help we might expect a saint to have surrounded themselves with. She shared how she often found no encouragement in prayer and “had a bewildering sense of absence of God; finding little but dryness in her encounter with scripture.” (Cunningham, Vatican, 9/3/2016)

Many of my friends have confided this very reality to me and I can say prior to 5 years ago when I went deeper in my faith that this was often true of me as well. What’s important to me here is that she was doing ordinary life, and to her doing ordinary things, and had no idea that what she was doing was truly extraordinary. The message to me is to keep reading scripture, keep praying, keep serving, keep digging deep and God will reveal the EXTRAORDINARY IN YOUR LIFE.

Have a week that is blessed beyond. My bold prayers for you all!

(Photo creds: We Heart It, Ruthie Stark Photography)