How do you become a saint?

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You yourself do not become a saint.

Rather, God makes you a saint.

Jim
 
Do the will of God in everything.

But that is hard to do when you don’t know what it is for certain. And even when you do know what it is, it is still sometimes very hard to do.

Here are 50 maxims for becoming a saint from St. Alphonsus Liguori:
  1. To desire ardently to increase in the love of Jesus Christ.
  2. Often to make acts of love towards Jesus Christ. Immediately on waking, and before going to sleep, to make an act of love, seeking always to unite your own will to the will of Jesus Christ.
  3. Often to meditate on his Passion.
  4. Always to ask Jesus Christ for his love.
  5. To communicate often, and many times in the day to make spiritual Communions.
  6. Often to visit the Most Holy Sacrament.
  7. Every morning to receive from the hands of Jesus Christ himself your own cross.
  8. To desire Paradise and death, in order to be able to love Jesus Christ perfectly and for all eternity.
  9. Often to speak of the love of Jesus Christ.
  10. To accept contradictions for the sake of Jesus Christ.
  11. To rejoice in the happiness of God.
  12. To do that which is most pleasing to Jesus Christ, and not to refuse him anything that is agreeable to him.
  13. To desire and to endeavor that all should love Jesus Christ.
  14. To pray always for sinners and for the souls in purgatory.
  15. To drive from your heart every affection that does not belong to Jesus Christ.
  16. Always to have recourse to the most holy Mary, that she may obtain for us the love of Jesus Christ.
  17. To honor Mary in order to please Jesus Christ.
  18. To seek to please Jesus Christ in all your actions.
  19. To offer yourself to Jesus Christ to suffer any pain for his love.
20 To be always determined to die rather than commit a willful venial sin.
  1. To suffer crosses patiently, saying, “Thus it pleases Jesus Christ.”
  2. To renounce your own pleasures for the love of Jesus Christ.
  3. To pray as much as possible.
  4. To practice all the mortifications that obedience permits.
  5. To do all your spiritual exercises as if it were for the last time.
  6. To persevere in good works in the time of aridity.
  7. Not to do nor yet to leave undone anything through human respect.
  8. Not to complain in sickness.
  9. To love solitude, to be able to converse alone with Jesus Christ.
  10. To drive away melancholy.
  11. Often to recommend yourself to those persons who love Jesus Christ.
  12. In temptation, to have recourse to Jesus crucified, and to Mary in her sorrows.
  13. To trust entirely in the Passion of Jesus Christ.
  14. After committing a fault, not to be discouraged, but to repent and resolve to amend.
  15. To do good to those who do evil.
  16. To speak well of all, and to excuse the intention when you cannot defend the action.
  17. To help your neighbor as much as you can.
  18. Neither to say nor to do anything that might vex him. And if you have been wanting in charity, to ask his pardon and speak kindly to him.
  19. Always to speak with mildness and in a low tone.
  20. To offer to Jesus Christ all the contempt and persecution that you meet with.
  21. To look upon [religious] Superiors as the representatives of Jesus Christ.
  22. To obey without answering and without repugnance, and not to seek your own satisfaction in anything.
  23. To like the lowest employments.
  24. To like the poorest things.
  25. Not to speak either good or evil of yourself.
  26. To humble yourself even towards inferiors.
  27. Not to excuse yourself when you are reproved.
  28. Not to defend yourself when found fault with.
  29. To be silent when you are disquieted.
  30. Always to renew your determination of becoming a saint, saying, “My Jesus, I desire to be all Yours, and You must be all mine.”
 
JimR-OCDS said:
You yourself do not become a saint.
Rather, God makes you a saint.
Jim
Click to expand...
Thru your co-operation… remember free choice 🙂
One has to want to be a Saint and then Co-operate with God’s will… even though he could “make” us a saint - he loves us enough to let us, thru his grace, become a saint.
 
I believe that to become a saint is to love God with all your soul, heart, mind and strength. And to love your neighbor as yourself. Taken at face value, which is how I tend to interpret it,it’s extremely difficult in the world of today. But it’s something I strive to do, and I confess my continual failures during confession.
 
z_0101 said:
Thru your co-operation… remember free choice 🙂
One has to want to be a Saint and then Co-operate with God’s will… even though he could “make” us a saint - he loves us enough to let us, thru his grace, become a saint.
Click to expand...
this is the most difficult list I have seen. Further highlights my imperfections. Who is going to go to heaven with all of this? Why is following God so hard? I thought the burden was light. What is this? There is so much to change. Why do I have to know the truth? Why me? Why now? I am whining again. Whatever. I will start somewhere. It is not worth trying because I fear I will fail.
 
z_0101 said:
Thru your co-operation… remember free choice 🙂
One has to want to be a Saint and then Co-operate with God’s will… even though he could “make” us a saint - he loves us enough to let us, thru his grace, become a saint.
Click to expand...
God calls, we follow.

Jim
 
CRATUS said:
this is the most difficult list I have seen. Further highlights my imperfections. Who is going to go to heaven with all of this? Why is following God so hard? I thought the burden was light. What is this? There is so much to change. Why do I have to know the truth? Why me? Why now? I am whining again. Whatever. I will start somewhere. It is not worth trying because I fear I will fail.
Click to expand...
  • RELAX!
    Cratus, you really need a spiritual advisor here, someone that will get to know you and help you thru all of these anxieties.
  • God knows our imperfections, he made us, he loves us
    One of the most well known passages: John 3:16
    [16] For God so loved the world, as to give his only begotten Son; that whosoever believeth in him, may not perish, but may have life everlasting. [17] For God sent not his Son into the world, to judge the world, but that the world may be saved by him.
  • Something simple isn’t always easy. In this same way, a burden, though lite, can be difficult to carry… that’s the nature of a burden. No mater how lite the burden, it’s still a difficult task to deal with - otherwise it wouldn’t be called a burden !
    (Read the definition here )
    One of my favorite poems is “Footprints in the Sand” (read it here (three versions!) )
    One of my favorite books in the Bible is the Book of Job (DR Version here)
These all talk about the burdens of life and how, even in our darkest times, we are not alone, we are still loved by God.

I expressed some doubts to my Pastor just after converting to the Catholic faith, Father’s reply was basically; the Devil plays upon your doubts and your fears and it is in these times when you need to turn more fully to your faith in God and know that he Loves you.
(mind you I am distilling about a 5 hour conversation into one sentence here - this is why I keep harping on the spiritual advisor!)

+There is so much to change
RELAX - Once again, find a good spiritual advisor. One can become scrupulous and, imho (with all sincerity and charity) it really sounds as though you are on the verge being overly scrupulous. God doesn’t expect the impossible from us!
  • Why do I have to know the truth? Why me? Why now?
    To see the light and the love of God, because he loves you, when else?
  • It is not worth trying because I fear I will fail
    In science, failure is another opportunity to learn. In fact, quite often, it is in the failures that science has made its greatest discoveries.
    Failure is, in part, how we learn. When it comes to our spiritual growth, God knew we would fail, hence the Sacraments, so that he could give us the strength we need, and as a means to reconcile our spiritual faults with his will.
One more parable here, the Parable of the Talents
Matthew 25: 14 - 30 (DR version here)
Do you not think that the servants that invested the Talents given them failed upon occasions with their works, and yet, thru their efforts they returned to their master more than what was given them; however, the one servant that did not try out of fear of failure was punished - IMNSHO, better to try and fail than to not try at all! When I stand before the Lord, though I may have failed at what he has asked, it will not be thru lack of effort on my part - I trust in his mercy and his love.
(follow the Divine Mercy link in my sig 🙂 )
JimR-OCDS said:
God calls, we follow.
Jim
Click to expand...
  • God called Lucifer, Lucifer chose not to follow… 🤷
  • But if it seem evil to you to serve the Lord, you have your choice: choose this day that which pleaseth you, whom you would rather serve, whether the gods which your fathers served in Mesopotamia, or the gods of the Amorrhites, in whose land you dwell: but as for me and my house we will serve the Lord. (Joshua 24:15)
as for me and my house we will serve the Lord.
 
The life of a Carthusian is a sound way. (cf. Pope Pius XI, Apostolic constitution, Umbratilem) transfiguration.chartreux.org/

I agree with all the answers, except the regard for spiritual direction. Although, any legitimate priest may fulfill the role of spiritual direction, says the Congregation for the Clergy. Let the priest teach you by your questions and supplement your knowledge with his practical words. Nevertheless, heed this from the Catechism "According to St. John of the Cross, the person wishing to advance toward perfection should “take care into whose hands he entrusts himself, for as the master is, so will the disciple be, and as the father is so will be the son.” And further: “In addition to being learned and discreet a director should be experienced. . . . If the spiritual director has no experience of the spiritual life, he will be incapable of leading into it the souls whom God is calling to it, and he will not even understand them.” (CCC 2690)

Saint Augustine says, “Man is a beggar before God”. (CCC 2559)

I cannot place herein a number of interpretations of the Gospel: ask, seek, and knock. (For it would be too lengthy) Those from Bonaventure’s Commentary on Luke available online to purchase. But they are useful in what you ask. I will end only with his quote on Augustine: “But how can this happen, except, as the Lord himself says, by asking, seeking, and knocking, that is, by praying, reading, and weeping” - Letter 21, n. 4

as far as reading start with this - thomasaquinas.edu/a-liberating-education/popes-st-thomas
 
The priest in my parish told me that the one and only way to sainthood is participation in the sacrifice of the cross through sacrifice of oneself.

To offer ones ego to be killed and allow Gods grace to rebuild you into a living icon of Christ.

The common thing about saints is that like holy mother Mary, each of them eventually point to some aspect of Christ.

Get to know Christ and through discernment and prayer find out what kind of icon he wants you to be, and most importantly do the actual work of shaping yourself inton that mould.

Easier said than done, i imagine that it takes daily conversion, and constantly seeking ways to sacrifice yourself. It is something that is beyond me, and requires supernatural grace, fasting, guidance, friendship and prayer.

We so badly need God’s mercy for the task of the loving God and neighbour and acting upon it is hard.
 
Omaestre said:
The priest in my parish told me that the one and only way to sainthood is participation in the sacrifice of the cross through sacrifice of oneself. To offer ones ego to be killed and allow Gods grace to rebuild you into a living icon of Christ.
Click to expand...
“The road to this peace is through nothing else than a most ardent love of the Crucified, the love which so transformed Paul into Christ when he was rapt to the third heaven that he declared: With Christ I am nailed to the Cross. It is now no longer I that live, but Christ lives in me.” (St. Bonaventure, Itinerarium mentis in Deum, Prologue, 3)

It was said by a priest from the Orthodox tradition - The East expresses God’s regeneration primarily as Deification, while the West as Redemption.
 
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