Being a Saint Isn’t Out of Reach

If you asked a random person on the street to name a saint, chances are they’d come up with someone like:

• St Francis of Assisi, who lived in radical poverty.
• St Teresa of Calcutta, who cared for thousands of the poor.
• St Peter, who led the early Church and was crucified for his faith.

These are giants of the faith. But if we only look at them, we might get the wrong idea about sainthood.

We can start to think: “To be a saint, I’d need to do something huge. I’d need to be super poor like Francis or famous like Mother Teresa.”

But that’s not quite how the Church (or God) sees it.

There’s really just one thing needed to join the saints in Heaven:

Do the will of God, and, through the sacraments, remain in a state of grace.

That’s it.

God calls some people to do great and visible works. But He calls everyone to holiness. And holiness doesn’t always look flashy. Sometimes it looks surprisingly ordinary.

Sainthood isn't made up of just doing great acts. But in doing even small acts with great love.

 

Carlo Acutis: Ordinary and Extraordinary

Blessed Carlo Acutis is a great example of this.

He wasn’t a monk who prayed 20 hours a day. He loved Spider-Man, he played Xbox, and he went to school. He looked like a regular teenager in the early 2000s.

But behind the ordinary was a deep love for Christ. It was his love for the Eucharist that raised this teenager into extraordinary virtue.

Take even something relatively simple, like making a website. Carlo, in his life, created a website to catalogue the Eucharistic miracles.

Plenty of people make websites, but Carlo used his talents for God. What made it holy wasn’t the website itself, but the love behind it.

He rejected the idea that holiness is for the few or for a forgotten time. Blessed Carlo, soon to be St Carlo, is a beacon for us all. And so too is St Therese.

 

St Thérèse: The Little Way

St Thérèse of Lisieux thought like many people alive today.

When she looked at the great saints, she felt tiny in comparison. Sainthood, for someone like her, felt almost impossible:

“I have always noticed that when I compared myself to the saints, there is between them and me the same difference that exists between a mountain whose summit is lost in the clouds and the obscure grain of sand trampled underfoot by passers-by.”

From the outside, her life looked very unremarkable. She didn't go on any missionary journeys. She didn't start a religious order. She didn't do much.

And she died at the age of 24.

Yet her belief in doing small things with great love is now one of the most treasured spiritual paths in the Church.

So profound was her spirituality that the Church later named her a Doctor of the Church, one of only a handful of saints given that title.

 

What Sainthood Really Means

When we hold up Carlo and Thérèse, we see something important for us.

Sainthood isn’t about doing the “biggest” or “loudest” thing.

It’s about the greatness of love, no matter how small the act.

Whether we get a little St. in front of our names is one thing. But to be with God forever, burning with charity is another. To have that holy or 'sanctus' is a must.

St Paul teaches us that without love, even the grandest actions are empty. But with love, even the smallest act means so much to God.

And I think this should, especially now, give us a certain degree of hope.

 

Hope In The Possible

The Second Vatican Council made it clear that holiness is a universal call. 

But many people simply don't know what that looks like.

For some, God is calling you to a more perfect lifestyle, like in the seminary. But being real, most people God calls are just going to live ordinary lives.

And there is nothing wrong with that. It is exactly here where God intends to sanctify you.

If God calls you to motherhood or fatherhood, he will sanctify you through that. The same God who came down to earth for you will condescend to your ordinariness to raise you up.

Where you are is exactly where God wants to meet you. For some, he will raise them up so high that they will do great things. But for all who accept his grace, they will be made holy through their great love.

St Thérèse helped people realise this in her time. And today, the life of Blessed Carlo Acutis does the same, especially for millennials and Gen Z. He shows that holiness is possible without giving up your normal life.

And this is exactly why Carlo’s canonisation is so powerful. He stands as a witness to a generation that you don’t need to be extraordinary in the world’s eyes; you just need to love extraordinarily.

By dealing with difficult colleagues, giving your spouse a glass of water, or spending some more time with the kids. You're taking one step closer to sainthood.

 

For Us Today

Carlo once said, “All people are born as originals, but many die as photocopies.”

He believed God calls each person to a unique path of holiness.

So what does that mean for us?

It means the word saint shouldn’t intimidate us. It should invite us.

This canonisation gives us hope. And where hope resides in faith, there love is strengthened. And with great love, great saints are made.

The mission of Carlo Acutis and St Therese is exactly what Virtue Books is about: helping create a generation of loving Australian saints. And I genuinely believe that this is possible.

It is our hope that Acutis is the first among many. And that within the many, you are present.

To help inspire even more Catholics, Carlo's mum put together a book. As the person who knew him best, it gives a unique insight into his youth and even the final moments of his death.

It’s rare to hear directly from the parent of a future saint, which makes Carlo’s mother’s testimony very special.

You can get 'My Son Carlo: Carlo Acutis Through the Eyes of His Mother'
here for 20% off with code: VIRTUE. 

 

Let us remember to do small acts with great love like Carlo.

God bless,

Virtue Books