Last Summer, I was blessed with the opportunity to join a group of our sisters on a pilgrimage following the life of Blessed Julia Rodzinska, a sister of our congregation and martyr of World War II. While visiting the placed she lived, worked, and ultimately the concentration camp where she died, I couldn’t help but reflect on how ordinary the lives of the saints were. Blessed Julia walked ordinary streets, worked ordinary jobs, had chores to do, spent time with family and friends, etc. She also struggled with her own faults, battled temptations, and likely had to manage some difficult relationships as we all do. There were many times throughout her life when I’m sure she just wanted to give up. But she, and all the saints we admire, had extraordinary faith. She centered her entire life on prayer, on her relationship with God, and that is where her exceptional virtues were born.
When reading the lives of the saints, we can mistakenly get the impression that they were somehow “superhuman,” that holiness was easy for them. But that simply is not true. As Venerable Fulton Sheen once said, “no saint ever found it easy to be good!” But the saints are the ones that persevered despite the difficulties. Each day, they tried to be holier than they were the day before. When the saints fell, they allowed only God to raise them back up, the God who alone can raise the dead. It was in their ordinariness that the extraordinary was born. In our own ordinary lives, may we too find ways, like Blessed Julia and all the saints, to be extraordinary in faith, hope, and love. By centering our lives on God and loving others as God loves them, we too will become saints!
