God wants all – not some – of us to be saints: BXVI

CASTEL GANDOLFO, Italy (CNS) – All people are called to holiness, and having extraordinary gifts does not make someone a greater saint than someone else, Pope Benedict XVI said.

“Precisely the ‘normal’ saints are the kind of saints God wants,” the Pope said on August 20, briefly setting aside the prepared text at his weekly general audience.
“Holiness is not a luxury. It is not the privilege of a few, something impossible for a normal person,” the Pope told an estimated 4,000 people gathered in the courtyard of the papal villa in Castel Gandolfo, south of Rome, and in the square outside. Holiness, he said, “is the common destiny of all people called to be children of God; it is the universal vocation of all the baptised.”
Pope Benedict told the crowd that the summer holidays are a perfect time to pick up a biography or the writings of a saint, but the Church’s calendar also gives Catholics a daily opportunity to contemplate a saint.
“Naturally, not all saints are equal,” he said. They are different from one another like rays of “divine light” that have passed through a prism, he said.
“And a great saint is not necessarily one who possesses extraordinary charisms. In fact, there are many whose names are known to God alone because on earth they led an apparently normal life,” he said.
The example of the so-called normal saints proves that when one has a close relationship with God he or she is filled with joy and peace and becomes a source of serenity and optimism for others, the Pope said.
By canonising some of the holy men and women who have lived throughout the centuries and by remembering them at feast-day Masses, the Church proposes them as examples for all Catholics, the Pope said.
“Cultivating a knowledge of and devotion to the saints, alongside daily meditation on the word of God and a filial love toward the Blessed Mother” is “important and profitable,” he said. The Pope focused specifically on St Pius, “who, in a difficult period, led the church and renewed the liturgy, in that way renewing the church from the inside.”
In addition to encouraging the frequent reception of the sacraments of penance and the Eucharist, St Pius was particularly strong in insisting on proper decorum during the celebration of the Mass.
During his 1903-1914 pontificate, he highlighted the beauty of Gregorian chant, cautioned against using popular music styles and encouraged the faithful to participate actively in the Mass by singing.