A New Normal - A New Year

2017 began like any other year.  I expected good things.  Dad would turn 90 in January, Mom would turn 85 in June, and they would celebrate their 65th wedding anniversary in October.  A year to remember!

There was no herald, announcing that this year would be difficult and painful. 

There was no fanfare, suggesting there would be a final family gathering.

In reality, it was just another year.  In reality, it was . . .  life.

January 8, 2017, we celebrated Dad's 90th birthday.  Friends and family gathered together.  It was the party he requested, with plenty of food and lots of smiles and laughter.  We did group pictures, sibling pictures and more.  

There was love and laughter.

There was happiness and smiles.

I'm happy to say that had we known then, what was coming, I don't think much would have changed. 



Fast forward to Lent, 2017.  Mom's final journey on earth coincided with our Lenten journey.  She spent the weeks before Easter between the care center and the hospital.  April 1 was an incredibly difficult day; the day Mom entered hospice care.  April 11, 2017 was even harder to accept; the day Mom entered her eternal life. 

In the midst of great sadness and sorrow, there was hope.

Among the tears, we felt love.

As my expectations for 2017 changed - there would not be an earthly party for Mom's birthday in June, nor a typical anniversary party in October - my fundamental beliefs did not.  Mass continued to be a salve to my soul.  My prayers, although more sorrowful at times, continued in music and writing.  Even with a shaken reality, I could claim a greater confidence in eternity. 

So now it is 2018.  The new year typically heralds anticipation, the promise of new beginnings, a chance to start fresh.  All opportunities to change for the better, typically stated through a resolution.  Sadly, most resolutions do not last, for a variety of reasons.  So, in this first month of the new year, I  would like to propose not just a resolution, but a new way of life.  It's something that should/could impact every aspect of our lives.  Most importantly, it will guide us to our ultimate goal - Heaven.  What is this lofty quest?  Well, it comes in many forms and paths but they all point to the same goal:  SAINTHOOD.  Lest you need more convincing and inspiration, read on:

Become a saint, and do so quickly. ~Saint John Paul the Great

Do you know any better way to make saints than to be one yourself? ~Peter Kreeft

Be not afraid! Open wide the doors to Christ! ~Saint John Paul the Great

If you are what you should be, you will set the world on fire. ~Saint Catherine of Siena

The saints are the only really happy people on earth. ~Father John Hardon, S.J.

The great saint may be said to mix all his thoughts with thanks. All goods look better when they look like gifts. ~G.K. Chesterton

Take courage! Fix your gaze on our saints. ~Pope Benedict XVI

Think well. Speak well. Do well. These three things, through the mercy of God, will make a man go to Heaven. ~Saint Camillus de Lellis

The real heroes, the real celebrities, are the saints. They’re the only ones worth imitating. ~Father John Riccardo

Saints didn’t set out to have everyone follow them. Saints set out to follow Jesus, and others followed them in their pursuit of Him. ~Mark Hart

How monotonously alike all the great tyrants and conquerors have been: how gloriously different the saints ~C.S. Lewis

It is a dangerous thing to be satisfied with ourselves. ~Saint Teresa of Ávila

Those who risk all for God will find that they have both lost all and gained all.~Saint Teresa of Ávila

Be a saint – What else is there? ~Patrick Coffin

You cannot be half a saint. You must be a whole saint or no saint at all. ~Saint Thérèse of Lisieux

The Lord delights in every little step you take. ~Saint Francis de Sales

To begin is for everyone. To persevere is for saints. ~Saint Josemaría Escrivá

Follow the saints, because those who follow them will become saints. ~Pope Saint Clement I

There is no saint without a past, and no sinner without a future. ~Saint Augustine

If He isn’t Lord of all, He isn’t Lord at all. ~Curtis Martin

Do not be satisfied with mediocrity. ~Saint John Paul the Great

To be saints is not a privilege for the few, but a vocation for everyone. ~Pope Francis

A fish will never be freer and happier than when it swims in the ocean, because that’s what it was made for. You will never be freer and happier than when you live like a saint, because that is what you were made for. ~From the book Theology of the Body for Teens: Middle School Edition

If we let Christ into our lives, we lose nothing, nothing, absolutely nothing of what makes life free, beautiful, and great. ~Pope Benedict XVI

God will give me everything I need to get to Heaven, not everything I want to live a comfortable life. ~Father Kevin Finnegan

I will attempt day by day to break my will into pieces. I want to do God’s Holy Will, not my own. ~Saint Gabriel Possenti

God has great plans for you today… creative and unexpected means by which He will make you a saint. He needs only your joyful submission to His plan. ~Mark Hart

He will provide the way and the means, such as you could never have imagined. Leave it all to Him, let go of yourself, lose yourself on the Cross, and you will find yourself entirely. ~Saint Catherine of Siena

You will not see anyone who is truly striving after his spiritual advancement who is not given to spiritual reading. ~Saint Athanasius of Alexandria

Our perfection does not consist of doing extraordinary things, but to do the ordinary well. ~Saint Gabriel Possenti

May we know You more clearly, love You more dearly, and follow You more nearly, day by day. ~Saint Richard of Chichester 

All the science of the saints is included in these two things: To do, and to suffer. And whoever had done these two things best, has made himself most saintly. ~Saint Francis de Sales

Holiness consists simply in doing God’s will, and being just what God wants us to be. ~Saint Thérèse of Lisieux

Where most men work for degrees after their names, we work for one before our names: Saint. ~Mother Angelica

One earns paradise with one’s daily task. ~Saint Gianna Molla

There’s nothing more beautiful than a soul alive in Jesus Christ. As Pope Benedict XVI said, “The ultimate apologetic (that is, answers to people’s questions about faith), is saints…” When we meet people who are truly alive—when we encounter saints—all our questions seem to fade. We just want what they have. ~Chris Stefanick

My vocation is love. ~St. Thérèse of Lisiuex

The two kind of people that go around seeing the world as absolutely fascinating are children and saints. ~Fr. Mike Schmitz

In the ways of God, he who does not progress loses ground. ~Father Reginald Garigou-Lagrange

The only difference between the saints and us is that they took action. ~Father Mike Schmitz

The biggest lie we tell ourselves: “Holiness is for someone else”. ~Matthew Kelley

A holy person is not whoever does the greatest thing. A holy person is whoever does the task right before him or her out of love. ~Father Kevin Finnegan

Be often reading the lives of saints for inspiration and instruction. ~Saint Philip Neri

All of us are called to come and die one way or another: Some bloody martyrdom 40 years from now or it might be to just go home and die to my own ego and ask for forgiveness from my family. Jesus invites everyone to come and die. ~Jason Evert

The most powerful people in the Church are not priests but saints. ~Bishop Robert Barron

If you do this one thing you will become a saint. If you don’t do it, you never will. The one thing is this: Let Jesus interrupt your life. ~Father Mike Schmitz

(Props to https://catholicquotations.com/becoming-a-saint/ for compiling an amazing list of quotations!  Visit the site for even more quotes!)

So, give it some thought, and resolve to do the next right thing on your path to sainthood.  Join me, won't you?