Holiness of life is not the privilege of a chosen few - it is the obligation, the call, and the will of God for every Christian.
Interpretation
Holiness is a universal calling for all Christians, not just a select few.
In this quote, Mother Angelica emphasizes that holiness is not an exclusive gift reserved for a small group but is instead a fundamental duty and aspiration for every Christian. It reflects the idea that all believers are called to live a life of holiness, which is a responsibility entrusted to them by God.
In practice
This quote can be shared during a church sermon to inspire the congregation.
I am not like a pebble on the beach - a grain of sand on the seashore or just one of millions of human beings past, present and future. No, I am a unique human being loved by God as if I were an only child - the only fruit of his creative powers.
I must not permit the evil capabilities of human nature to sour my faith in the tremendous good that is possible despite the frailty of that nature.
The sinner who suddenly realizes God's love for him and then looks at his rejection of that love feels a loss similar to the death of a loved one. A deep void is created in the soul and a loneliness akin to the agony of death.
Our memories are our own, and we cannot blame anything or anyone in the past for any pain dwelling there. If we open the door to them or keep hashing over past incidents in our minds, we have only ourselves to blame.
Man can and does rationalize his sins. He finds reasons for all his weakness, invents excuses that first calm and then deaden his conscience. He blames God, society, education, and environment for his wrong doing.
Love has been defined, analyzed, explained and excused. It has been the cause of wars, feuds, heroism, martyrdom, inordinate passion, and beautiful friendships. It pulls two people of opposite temperaments together into a married state and permits them to live happily. It makes friends understand each other without the necessity of words.
Work, apart from devotion or love of God, is helpless and cannot stand alone.
Man is a creative animal, doomed to strive toward a goal, engaged in full-time engineering.
There is no polite way to say that business is destroying the world.
Not to discontinue our allegiance, in this case, would be to join with the sovereign in promoting the slavery and misery of that society, the welfare of which, we ourselves, as well as our sovereign, are indispensably obliged to secure and promote, as far as in us lies.
One is a member of a country, a profession, a civilization, a religion. One is not just a man.
It’s ridiculous to talk about freedom in a society dominated by huge corporations. What kind of freedom is there inside a corporation? They’re totalitarian institutions - you take orders from above and maybe give them to people below you. There’s about as much freedom as under Stalinism.
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