How difficult is it to become a saint?

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PelagiathePenit

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I am deeply saddened after reading the news. People say nuns are crazy for living the way they do. I would love to live somewhere where I feel free and safe. It seems like it would easier to be sinless as a cloistered nun. Who knows? Maybe then I could find peace. I want to die like sister Cecilia maria from Argentina or blessed chiara.
 
It is difficult to become a saint, but with God’s grace it is possible and made sweet. A higher degree of perfection is expected of religious by God, and they endure temptations just like us who live in the world. If becoming a religious is your vocation, that is how God wants you to become a saint.
 
Confiteor_Deo said:
It is difficult to become a saint, but with God’s grace it is possible and made sweet. A higher degree of perfection is expected of religious by God, and they endure temptations just like us who live in the world. If becoming a religious is your vocation, that is how God wants you to become a saint.
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That is what scares me. God will hold me to a higher standard then the rest of the world. I assume God is more merciful to those who do not know him.
 
God’s mercy is a wide and deep ocean for everyone, of this I am sure. Isn’t it Mother Angelica that says God wants us to be great saints, so don’t miss the opportunity!? I think it is both the easiest thing in the world to be a saint and yet the hardest of tasks. Love God, do good. A real challenging thought, thank you for this thread.
 
Important aspect to note:

Saint Paul referred to Christians - as saints.

Christians on earth – who are living “in Christ” – are saints.

From the Catechism of the Catholic Church 823 :

"The Church, then, is “the holy People of God,” and her members are called “saints.”

And from Pope Benedict XVI:

“In his First Letter to the Corinthians, St Paul addresses “those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints together with all those who in every place call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ” (I Cor 1: 2). Indeed, Christians are already saints because Baptism unites them to Jesus and to his Paschal Mystery…”

(and then discussing becoming --more holy --more conformed to Christ he continues…)

“…but at the same time they must become so by conforming themselves every more closely to him.”

Saint Paul uses the term ‘saint’ in various places to simply refer to Christians. Those living on earth…see his various letters.

“Sometimes, people think that holiness is a privileged condition reserved for the few elect. Actually, becoming holy is every Christian’s task… The Apostle writes that God has always blessed us and has chosen us in Christ “that we should be holy and blameless before him… in love” (Eph 1: 3-5). … The “Way” is Christ, the Son, the Holy One of God: “no one comes to the Father but by me [Jesus]” (cf. Jn 14: 6).”

~ Pope Benedict XVI 1 November 2007

Now over the centuries yes another use of the term saints developed. Saints has been yes used for those who have lived as saints in a heroic way (by the grace of God of course).

And yes later a process of canonization developed to recognize them, honor them and propose them as special models for the Christian faithful in following Christ.

Thus one can say there are saints and also Saints in the canonized sense or at least the recognized sense (they were recognized long before the process of canonization developed…especially Our Lady, the Apostles and Martyrs).
We are ‘saints’ via faith and baptism - via the death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth…via the Holy Spirit…and yes we are to become more and more so.
So when someone says to me “oh well I am not a saint” say “you better get to confession then” and the explain what I mean …
 
PelagiathePenit said:
That is what scares me. God will hold me to a higher standard then the rest of the world. I assume God is more merciful to those who do not know him.
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He will hold you to a higher standard, but not without giving you more than enough grace to meet those standards. God doesn’t expect us to do the impossible.
 
Confiteor_Deo said:
He will hold you to a higher standard, but not without giving you more than enough grace to meet those standards. God doesn’t expect us to do the impossible.
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Those who much is given, much is expected
 
“What is impossible for man is possible for God.” - Jesus Christ, after being asked by the apostles, “Then who can be saved?” in response to Him saying, “It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter Heaven.”

Seriously, being saintly is impossible for anyone without allowing God’s Grace to work within oneself. We can’t do it by ourselves, but God can make any of us saints. We just have to let Him.
 
Define “sainthood” please. I know of individuals that others think of a “sainltly” but are not too far removed from being the devil’s handy little helpers and then there others that are truly good and faithful, spreading the word of God in action, word and deed. And then there are the silent saints that no one knows of or gives recognition, living THE WORD the best they know how through suffering, want, deprivation-with out complaint. Show me a good mother or parent and I will point to a good saint. It takes all kinds of people trying to follow the foot steps of the Lord. Nun or sisters are not by definition “Saints.” I’ve known a few that were meaner than snakes and just as toxic. Not everyone is called to be a monk, brother, nun or sister.

If you wish you to become a saint-you can do so. You can be a “little Saint,” a big saint or a quite saint, depending on which call you chose to follow and how you walk the journey.

Most saints do suffer in one way or another and most saints are “silent” saints and we are seldom aware of them. Eveyone should desire to become a saint and be diligent in the quest.

Let us know how you chose to journey. Peace and prayers.
 
Mary_Estelle said:
Define “sainthood” please. I know of individuals that others think of a “sainltly” but are not too far removed from being the devil’s handy little helpers and then there others that are truly good and faithful, spreading the word of God in action, word and deed. And then there are the silent saints that no one knows of or gives recognition, living THE WORD the best they know how through suffering, want, deprivation-with out complaint. Show me a good mother or parent and I will point to a good saint. It takes all kinds of people trying to follow the foot steps of the Lord. Nun or sisters are not by definition “Saints.” I’ve known a few that were meaner than snakes and just as toxic. Not everyone is called to be a monk, brother, nun or sister.

If you wish you to become a saint-you can do so. You can be a “little Saint,” a big saint or a quite saint, depending on which call you chose to follow and how you walk the journey.

Most saints do suffer in one way or another and most saints are “silent” saints and we are seldom aware of them. Eveyone should desire to become a saint and be diligent in the quest.

Let us know how you chose to journey. Peace and prayers.
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Perception. Perception. I guess I imagine sisterhood being filled with peace and simplicity. I cannot runaway from suffering as is life. Want-deprivation is difficult. God, I know too much about God to turn my back away now but that does not mean I do not face worldly temptations. Peace & God Be with us.
 
PelagiathePenit said:
Is it truly that simple but yet challenging at the same time?
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More simple than difficult. Many say difficult :confused: 🤷

There is someone somewhere sitting on a couch growing wider by the moment. He says it is SOO hard bc his leg hurts sometimes.

There is someone somewhere competing in olympic style games… this man has no legs…

Ever complain something is hard and then one day you are just like “ahhhh w/e it isnt that hard I will do… done!”

Yeah, things are easier, people are just lazier…
 
“The only real sadness, the only real failure, the only great tragedy in life, is not to become a saint.” (Léon Bloy)

*In the end, the only worthwhile project for human life taken as a whole is tending to be good like God is good, to participate in God’s goodness to the greatest human measure—in a word to be a saint. Léon Bloy wrote, “The only real sadness, the only real failure, the only great tragedy in life, is not to become a saint.” “What is the Church,” wrote a Church Father, “if not the assembly of all the saints?” (Nicetas, Expl. Symb. 10: PL52:871B). To become a saint does not depend entirely or even principally on what we do: it is first and foremost the work of God’s grace. But we can and must collaborate in this great undertaking. Whether in regard to the Church as a whole or with respect to our personal sanctification, we must strive every day to achieve this seemingly impossible task: becoming the saints of today, tomorrow, and forever. Amen. Alleluia. *

Full article: clearcreekmonks.org/feast-of-all-saints-november-2nd-2015/
 
Mary_Estelle said:
Define “sainthood” please. I know of individuals that others think of a “sainltly” but are not too far removed from being the devil’s handy little helpers and then there others that are truly good and faithful, spreading the word of God in action, word and deed. And then there are the silent saints that no one knows of or gives recognition, living THE WORD the best they know how through suffering, want, deprivation-with out complaint. Show me a good mother or parent and I will point to a good saint. It takes all kinds of people trying to follow the foot steps of the Lord. Nun or sisters are not by definition “Saints.” I’ve known a few that were meaner than snakes and just as toxic. Not everyone is called to be a monk, brother, nun or sister.

If you wish you to become a saint-you can do so. You can be a “little Saint,” a big saint or a quite saint, depending on which call you chose to follow and how you walk the journey.

Most saints do suffer in one way or another and most saints are “silent” saints and we are seldom aware of them. Eveyone should desire to become a saint and be diligent in the quest.

Let us know how you chose to journey. Peace and prayers.
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God wishes for all of us to be saints. We have to say to Him, “Thy will be done.”

After that we ask for Grace knowing how weak we are.

Fortunately we have help in the form of the Sacraments of the Church such as Reconciliation.
 
I highly doubt that cloistered nuns are sinless, since the Fall, everyone on Earth is a sinner. One would have to love God and love their neighbor as themselves 100% of the time. No mortal sin, no venial sin. That’s a pretty tall order. However, there is going to be something (even if it is only one thing) that makes someone a sinner.

Have you read The Diary of St. Faustina? I have begun reading it and it is a very good book. She was a cloistered nun and sinned.
 
Graceful_Lamb said:
I highly doubt that cloistered nuns are sinless, since the Fall, everyone on Earth is a sinner. One would have to love God and love their neighbor as themselves 100% of the time. No mortal sin, no venial sin. That’s a pretty tall order. However, there is going to be something (even if it is only one thing) that makes someone a sinner.

Have you read The Diary of St. Faustina? I have begun reading it and it is a very good book. She was a cloistered nun and sinned.
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damn it. God loves us anyways right?
 
PelagiathePenit said:
I am deeply saddened after reading the news. People say nuns are crazy for living the way they do. I would love to live somewhere where I feel free and safe. It seems like it would easier to be sinless as a cloistered nun. Who knows? Maybe then I could find peace. I want to die like sister Cecilia maria from Argentina or blessed chiara.
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Forgive but I’ve looked through many of your posts in many threads and they are all about doom and gloom and pessimism.
Maybe you should have a talk with your priest or spiritual director.
 
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