Do you want to be a saint?

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I’ve heard this a lot in my travels in Catholic life. I have to say I love it. The more I have thought about it, the more my heart is absolutely set on being a saint. Question I keep asking myself is, am I being prideful in wanting it? I suppose the answer is probably related to what I mean by becoming a saint.

I mean becoming as holy as it is possible for me to be. Every day I am reminded that I have a mountain to climb in that ambition. But it know it is absolutely what we are called to do.

I find myself so frustrating because I do well for a time, and then life crowds out my desire for holiness and I don’t exactly fall into sin, but into carelessness.

What about you? Does any of that make sense to anyone?
 
Every bit of it made sense to me. And I’m with you–wanting to be a saint, though I know I’m not worthy… lot of work and prayers needed… 🙂
 
I’m pretty sure that every saint in history did not set out to be one.
 
You mean you think you could be a saint by accident? Martyrs maybe?
 
I don’t want to be a saint but I want to have the faith of a saint.
 
I would like to be a saint, but I fear that it is primarily for the wrong reason. I want very much to have posthumous fame and admiration, for people who live centuries from now to read about my life and consider me a role model. But I am trying to purify my motives for becoming a saint. It should not matter whether I am ever canonized, after all, if I make it to Heaven in the first place 😉
 
Yes, Truly! I really do just mean becoming as holy as possible in this life, but I always find myself checking my motives, hence my posting. I suppose I’m essentially a big chicken who wants to avoid purgatory!! In my better moments my motives are better than that.
 
To the extent that “being a saint” means trying to grow in holiness and eventually ending up in Heaven with God, I’d like to be one. I don’t need or want my name up in canonization lights.

I always wanted to do something heroic for God like Bl. Miguel Pro or Bl. Jerzy Popieluscko. Aside from them being men and priests, neither of which I could be, we never know how we will act when the chips are down. I used to have a Jewish work colleague who would ask us things like if the Holocaust happened today, would we work against it or hide Jewish people in our homes. I’d like to think I would, but I don’t know for sure and wouldn’t know unless something like that happened, and we all hope it just doesn’t happen. And some of the things martyrs went through like being tortured to death, I doubt my ability to do.

I think we all go through phases of doing all the holy stuff right and then losing momentum and falling off track. The trick is to keep fighting your way back on track.
 
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The 2 are not in conflict. If you have the faith of a saint, then you likely behave as a saint, and if you die in a state of grace you ARE a saint in heaven.
That’s what the phrase “communion of saints” means. Everybody in heaven. A canonized Saint (with a capital S) is recognized for its sanctity, heroism, and miracles by the church and gets all the trimmings: Date on the calendar, holy cards, prayers & devotions composed, etc. You may never have your picture on a holy card or be the patron of a parish, but if you live in heaven…you’re a saint.
 
There are millions in heave that no one ever heard of. Sainthood is not akin to fame.
 
I recall a young friend back in my evangelical church days who went on a mission trip to an African country and came back absolutely on fire for God. She was amazing. And then suddenly she stopped and went back to being quite lackadaisical about faith. She confided in me that she had been taken to one side by some friends and told she was ‘being too holy’ and she had just felt crushed. I tried to encourage her that being holy was entirely good and that she shouldn’t be ashamed of it, but she never quite recaptured that fire she had. It made me sad that even fellow Christians would see holiness as a negative.
I think this incident informs what I mean by being a saint. Being unafraid to be holy in this life before the next.
 
When someone in the midst of everyday people suddenly appears to be trying to be an exceptional person, just, high morals, and genuinely kind, it makes people uncomfortable because it’s far easier to just not care. Far easier to ignore the poor, the disenfranchised, far easier to just “forget” to pray or go to Church, or volunteer. It’s their selfishness that reacts to the face of holiness. Like the prince of lies, the shirk away in fear at true goodness.
It’s a pretty good barometer, really. As Christ Himself said 'If they hate you all because of ME…blessed are you!"
 
@Jamie5, Actually, some saints did have the goal to be saints. Maybe not recognized/canonized saints but saints just the same. I’m fairly certain that was the case with St. Therese of Lesieux.

To the OP,
In answer to your Topic Question, yes, I want to be a saint because only saints get to heaven.

No, it is not prideful to want to be holy as long as we strive to be as holy as God wants us to be - that’s even part of the Litany of Humility.

Yes, what you wrote makes sense to me. I try to be holy and fall frequently - that’s why I go to Confession every week!
 
Abandonment to Divine Providence
by
Jean-Pierre de Caussade

… SECTION III.—The Work of our Sanctification.
All you who strive after perfection and who are tempted to discouragement at the remembrance of what you have read in the lives of the saints, and of what certain pious books prescribe; O you who are appalled by the terrible ideas of perfection that you have formed for yourselves; it is for your consolation that God has willed me to write this. Learn that of which you seem to be ignorant. This God of all goodness has made those things easy which are common and necessary in the order of nature, such as breathing, eating, and sleeping. No less necessary in the supernatural order are love and fidelity, therefore it must needs be that the difficulty of acquiring them is by no means so great as is generally represented.

Peace
 
To be a saint simply means that one is in Heaven.

Do I want to be in Heaven? ABSOLUTELY.

Do I want to be a Saint in the people-pray-for-my-intercession known the world-wide? Meh. Makes no difference to me.
 
If it’s to imitate Jesus and to the Glory of God, it’s a good fruit.

If it’s for fame, I can’t see sainthood being conferred until a stint in Purgatory.

We all become Saints in heaven. So one day, we will be Saints…
 
ABSOLUTELY. You can’t go to heaven unless you’re a saint. I also believe each and every one of us should strive to become saints worthy of canonisation. Christ told us that we must be perfect.
 
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