Holy Imperfection
Many of us have the desire to become holy. We all would like to become saints, and rightly so, because that is why we were created! But what many of us do not realize is that in order to become a great saint, we must not try to ascend to Heaven by our own will power and virtues that we have acquired for ourselves. Rather, we must descend and become very little. To descend, we must realize our own sinfulness and, in humility, we will be filled with hope and trust in God that He, and only He, will be strong enough to bring us to our Heavenly home.
When St. Therese talks about becoming "little" like in her "Little Way," she is referring to becoming poor. More specifically, poor in spirit. If we know how very weak we are, then we will empty ourselves of all our pride and self-sufficiency and in trust, make room in our souls for God to come in and do His will through us. This is what true holiness is- to be so poor in spirit that we have nothing of ourselves but have complete trust in our Lord and His power to do all things through us.
This is great news for all of us "normal" people! We may think that we have not mastered or "perfected" our character enough yet to become a saint. We may remember past sins and with regret succumb to the idea that we are too far from holy to reach Heaven. But what St. Therese proposes is that we don't have to strive for sainthood by our own will power or even be completely perfected in all our thoughts and actions- but by the power of God we will become holy. God says: "My grace is enough for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness."(2 Corinthians 12:9) We need only to recognize our weakness and invite Our Lord to come into our souls amongst this weakness so that by His strength, we will be made perfect. Our wills will be aligned completely with His. We can be holy right now! We can be holy even without being perfect!
Saint Therese says, "Your anguish, your fears, your weakness, your temptations can become the way to God." St. Therese invites us to become very little, poor in spirit little, so that all of us may become holy by the power of God.
Our littleness can be seen as a Mercy of God in our lives. If we truly know that we cannot do anything good without God's grace, then we will be small enough for our Lord to carry us in His arms to Heaven (what St. Therese calls an elevator) and bypass trying to climb the stairway to Heaven all on our own merit.
"Let us humbly take our place among the imperfect." ~St. Therese
If you would like to learn more about this topic, check out "The Way of Imperfection" by Andre Daigneault. It is a great book and can be found on Amazon. My parish priest recommended it in one of his homilies and this is where I learned about this Holy Imperfection!
Please share your thoughts on this topic in the comments section at the bottom of this post at www.songofmercy.blogspot.com
When St. Therese talks about becoming "little" like in her "Little Way," she is referring to becoming poor. More specifically, poor in spirit. If we know how very weak we are, then we will empty ourselves of all our pride and self-sufficiency and in trust, make room in our souls for God to come in and do His will through us. This is what true holiness is- to be so poor in spirit that we have nothing of ourselves but have complete trust in our Lord and His power to do all things through us.
This is great news for all of us "normal" people! We may think that we have not mastered or "perfected" our character enough yet to become a saint. We may remember past sins and with regret succumb to the idea that we are too far from holy to reach Heaven. But what St. Therese proposes is that we don't have to strive for sainthood by our own will power or even be completely perfected in all our thoughts and actions- but by the power of God we will become holy. God says: "My grace is enough for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness."(2 Corinthians 12:9) We need only to recognize our weakness and invite Our Lord to come into our souls amongst this weakness so that by His strength, we will be made perfect. Our wills will be aligned completely with His. We can be holy right now! We can be holy even without being perfect!
Saint Therese says, "Your anguish, your fears, your weakness, your temptations can become the way to God." St. Therese invites us to become very little, poor in spirit little, so that all of us may become holy by the power of God.
Our littleness can be seen as a Mercy of God in our lives. If we truly know that we cannot do anything good without God's grace, then we will be small enough for our Lord to carry us in His arms to Heaven (what St. Therese calls an elevator) and bypass trying to climb the stairway to Heaven all on our own merit.
"Let us humbly take our place among the imperfect." ~St. Therese
If you would like to learn more about this topic, check out "The Way of Imperfection" by Andre Daigneault. It is a great book and can be found on Amazon. My parish priest recommended it in one of his homilies and this is where I learned about this Holy Imperfection!
Please share your thoughts on this topic in the comments section at the bottom of this post at www.songofmercy.blogspot.com
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