Pope Benedict - Holiness is Always in Season

HOLINESS IS ALWAYS IN SEASON

BENEDICT XVI

Edited by Leonardo Sapienza

IGNATIUS PRESS SAN FRANCISCO

Original Italian edition: La Santita non passa mai di moda
2009 by Libreria Editrice Vaticana, Vatican City
All rights reserved
Reprinted by permission of Libreria Editrice Vaticana

Cover art:
The Forerunners of Christ with Saints and Martyrs (detail)
Fra Angelico National Gallery, London, Great Britain
National Gallery, London / Art Resource, New York

Cover design by Roxanne Mei Lum

Published in 2010 by Ignatius Press, San Francisco
ISBN 978-1-58617-444-6
Library of Congress Control Number 201093141
Printed in the United States of America

2 Saint Basil

2 Saint Gregory Nazianzen

5 Charles of Saint Andrew Houben

10 Saint Gregory of Nyssa

13 Saint Hilary of Poitiers

17 Saint Anthony, Abbot

26 Saints Timothy and Titus, Bishops

28 Saint Thomas Aquinas

29 Saint Aphraates

2 The Presentation of the Lord

14 Saints Cyril and Methodius

22 Saint Peter Damian

22 The Chair of Saint Peter

10 Saint Marie Eugenie Milleret

18 Saint Cyril of Jerusalem

19 Saint Joseph

23 Saint Turibius of Mongrovejo

25 The Annunciation of the Lord

2 Saint Francis of Paola

4 Saint Isidore

1 Saint Joseph the Worker

2 Saint Athanasius

3 Saint Philip, Apostle

3 Saint James, Apostle

14 Saint Matthias, Apostle

19 Saint Maria Bernarda Butler

25 Saint Mary Magdalene de Pazzi

31 The Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary

1 Saint Justin Martyr

9 Saint Ephrem

11 Saint Barnabas, Apostle

22 Saint Paulinus of Nola

24 The Birth of Saint John the Baptist

25 Saint Maximus of Turin

27 Saint Cyril of Alexandria

28 Saint Irenaeus

29 Saints Peter and Paul, Apostles

* The Friday of the Third Week after Pentecost: The Most Sacred Heart of Jesus

* The Saturday after the Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus: The Immaculate Heart of Mary

3 Saint Thomas, Apostle

8 Saints Aquila and Priscilla

11 Saint Benedict, Abbot, Patron of Europe

16 Our Lady of Mount Carmel

18 Saint Simon of Lipnica

22 Saint Mary Magdalene

23 Saint Bridget, Patroness of Europe

25 Saint James, Apostle

26 Saint George Preca

28 Saint Alphonsa of the Immaculate Conception
(Anna Muttathupadathu)

31 Saint Ignatius of Loyola

2 Saint Eusebius of Vercelli

4 Saint John Mary Vianney

6 The Transfiguration of the Lord

10 Saint Lawrence, Martyr

13 Saint Maximus the Confessor

15 The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary

20 Saint Bernard, Abbot

24 Saint Bartholomew, Apostle

27 Saint Monica

28 Saint Augustine

3 Saint Gregory the Great

13 Saint John Chrysostom

14 The Exaltation of the Holy Cross

15 Our Lady of Sorrows

16 Saint Cyprian

21 Saint Matthew, Apostle and Evangelist

23 Saint Pio of Pietrelcina

30 Saint Gregory the Illuminator

30 Saint Jerome

17 Saint Ignatius of Antioch

23 Saint Severinus Boethius

28 Saints Simon and Jude, Apostles

29 Saint Gaetano Errico

1 All Saints Day

2 All Souls Day

4 Saint Charles Borromeo

7 Saint Willibrord

10 Saint Leo the Great

17 Saint Elizabeth of Hungary

21 The Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary

23 Saint Columban

23 Pope Saint Clement I

30 Saint Andrew, Apostle

* Thanksgiving Day

2 Saint Chromatius of Aquileia

3 Saint Francis Xavier

7 Saint Ambrose of Milan

8 The Immaculate Conception

8 Narcisa de Jesus Martillo Moran

23 Saint Antonio de Santana Galvo

26 Saint Stephen

27 Saint John, Apostle and Evangelist

31 Praise and Thanksgiving

If you ask a child what he would like to be or do in life, the child will answer naively but candidly, proposing what he considers a model of human excellence. He will say he wants to be a hero, an astronaut, a sports star, a rich man, a scientist, somebody great, a superman. The ideal of a superman is deeply rooted in the imagination of a child.

For a Christian, what is true perfection?

Christs words are clear, sublime, and disconcerting: Be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect (Mt 5:48).

To have God as your model of perfection! Now there is a dizzying thought! Yet the Second Vatican Council has already reminded us: All the faithful, whatever their condition or state, are called by the Lord, each in his own way, to that perfect holiness whereby the Father himself is perfect ( Lumen Gentium , 11).

The Church reminds us that holiness is not the concern of a privileged few, nor does it pertain only to Christians of the past. Holiness is always in season; it is and always will be a call to every Christian of every age, a challenge that remains current for anyone who desires to follow in the footsteps of Christ.

Pope Benedict XVI says: Holiness... never goes out of fashion; on the contrary, with the passage of time it shines out ever more brightly, expressing mans perennial effort to reach God.

And Mother Teresa of Calcutta wrote: Holiness is not something extraordinary; it is not the luxury of the few. Holiness is the simple duty for each one of us.

It is not true that holiness is impossible. Just read the lives of the saints and see how they, above all, experienced the very same difficulties and weaknesses that we do. Nevertheless, they succeeded in meriting the name of saints.

The world of the saints is a world of wonders, and Pope Benedict XVI helps us to enter into this world.

It seemed valuable, therefore, to gather together into a single volume the numerous reflections on the saints that the Holy Father has offered in his Wednesday catechetical addresses, homilies, messages, and other occasional discourses.

Arranged according to the calendar year, these reflections are a resource that can complement the readings of the Liturgy of the Hours, enrich personal and communal meditation, and aid in preparation for catechesis or homilies.

They are starting points for getting to know the saints better. If we were more familiar with the saints, we too might become more faithful, more loving, more Christian.

The saints, the heroes, the perfectlike mirrors they are held up before us today so that we may come to know ourselves. The saints also are able to obtain for us those gifts that we admire in them: their faith, their courage, their love of Christ.

The world waits for saints to step forward, for as Pope John Paul II said, where the saints walk, God walks together with them.

And all of us need to be saints, because the world is in need of saints.

The world needs the testimony of saints. Only new saints are capable of renewing the world.

After the Great Jubilee of 2000, the high standard of ordinary Christian living was proposed with vigor once again (cf. Novo Millenio Ineunte 31). This reminds us that if mediocrity is inexcusable in anyone, it is least of all in a Christian. No Christian can prefer the easy path of mediocrity over the difficult road of perfection (Pope Paul VI).

It is easier to be a saint than to be mediocre, says Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini. A comfortable and easy Christianity does not exist. What does exist is a strong and joyful Christianity: one that is uncomfortable with mediocrity, that is not content to be lived in whatever way one pleases. Either you live Christianity to the full, or you betray it!

The exhortation to holiness that shines through in these pages is both the simplest and highest synthesis of Pope Benedict XVIs teaching.