Spirituality: "To Be a Saint" by Author Unknown

To be a saint is …

To smile when you’d rather ignore.

To welcome others when you’re comfortable being alone.

To extend a hand when you’re already tired.

To open your mind to another way when you think your way is better.

To be patient when that does not fit your agenda.

To be tolerant when you do not understand.

To let go when you’d rather be in control.

To serve when you’d rather be served.

To have compassion that goes beyond your own wants and needs.

To persevere when you’d rather quit.

To be silent about others when you’re tempted to gossip.

To forgive when you feel righteous.

To be humble when you want to be proud.

To encourage when you’d rather criticize.

And to love at all times.

Prayer: Pope Francis

Lord of the Harvest, bless young people with the gift of courage to respond to your call. Inspire all of your disciples to mutual love and giving – for vocations blossom in the good soil of faithful people. Instill those in religious life, parish ministries, and families with the confidence and grace to invite others to embrace the bold and noble path of a life consecrated to you.

Prayer: Claude de la Columbiere, S.J.

My God, you watch over all who hope in you, and we can want for nothing when we rely upon you in all things. People may deprive me of worldly goods and status. Sickness may take from me my strength and the means of serving you. I may even jeopardize our relationship by sin, but my trust shall never leave me. My confidence in you fills me with hope. For you, my divine protector, alone have settled me in hope.

Prayer: Elizabeth Ann Seton

Loving God, you say all things work together for our good if we are faithful to you. Therefore, if you ordain it: through disappointment and poverty, sickness, and pain, even shame and contempt and calumny, you will support us with the consolation of your grace and compensate us for any temporal suffering by the possession of that peace which the world can neither give nor take away.