The Call To Sainthood

Note:  Time got away from me yesterday as I was preparing to leave Wheeling, WV where I was visiting the Marist Community and catching up with alumni from over 50 years ago...Amazing to hear former students say they are 71!...
so it was too late for cutting a slice of Daily Bread.  Sincere apologies
 
Yesterday we celebrated the memorial of St. Dominic and today, St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, both of whom had a profound impact during and after their lifetimes and provide motivation for us to settle for nothing less than being a saint.
Dominic de Guzman responded to the heresies of his day and as a near contemporary of St. Francis of Assisi, set out to preach vehemently against them. He founded the Order of Preachers, whose spirituality can be summed up in the words of one of their most famous members, St. Thomas Aquinas, "To contemplate and to give to others the fruits of contemplation."  Dominic was also instrumental in promoting the Rosary, which is very much a powerful prayer used today, encouraged by Mary, the Mother of God, herself.
Edith Stein was an atheistic Jew in her adolescent years and young twenties, but reading the works of St. Teresa of Avila, was moved to convert to Catholicism and later join the same Order as St. Teresa, the Carmelites.  She died at the concentration camp at Auschwitz, offering her life for her people.
Bishop Robert Barron has recently published a Letter to A Suffering Church, us, with a compelling plea to all to hold steadfastly to Christian ideals and beliefs and not to leave the Church, despite the scandals and corruption becoming more and more evident in high places, but to reform our own convictions and lives, to realize the TREASURE we have been given, and not to forsake it because of the dalliance and weakness of some of its leaders. He challenges us all to strive toward living out the message of Jesus with all our might, yes, indeed, to become saints.  That's what will drive the devil back to hell and renew the face of the earth. It is a short book very much worth reading
Bro. Rene