Holiness seems to be the theme of the week.

I managed to get to noon Mass yesterday, and Fr. Kubat's brief message was all about holiness. He reminded us that holiness isn't simply the pursuit of saints and those in religious orders. We're all called to holiness. In fact, Fr. Kubat noted, "God wills that all of us be saints."

I've been thinking about that a lot. As I returned to the pew, feeling the Bread of Life melting into me, there was an almost tangible surge of...of...well, I don’t know exactly how to describe it. Hope, maybe, is the best word. Hope that the Lord is changing me through this Sacrament. Hope that I am on my way to becoming the person He intended me to be all along.

It can be discouraging to compare my life as it is today to what I imagine it ought to be -- as far as exhibiting the "fruits of the Spirit" (Galations 5:22) and being a good example of Christ to others. I always have to remind myself to take stock in how far I've come already. Knowing Christ these 14 years has worked a profound change in me already. So even though I'm a long way from holiness, I just have to accept the fact I just had a really, really, really long way to go when I got started.

Many times, it's hard to see how the life I am living is any sort of holy vocation. Vocation -- that's a word I've been mulling over, and I'm not entirely sure I understand it in a Catholic context. I know that there are religious vocations, like the priesthood. I know that marriage and parenthood are vocations, so both of those would apply to me. It's just kind of strange sometimes to think how the mundane minutes of my existence could be a vocation at all. To me, it's just wiping up droplets of juice from the floor, sweeping up Cheerios® from the four corners of the universe, reminding my son for the 4,362nd time not to push his Tonka® dump truck through the kitchen at breakneck speeds, and taking way too much time to write stuff that pretty much sounds like incoherent mumbling when it's all said and done.

In fact, sometimes the tasks that take up most of my time seem far too annoyingto be holy at all! I was pulling a load of bibs, placemats and napkins out of the dryer the other day. The Velcro® on the bibs had come undone in the wash -- like it always does -- causing everything to attach itself to everything else in a big haphazard mess, and my first thought was that Velcro must have been invented simply to tempt people to curse. But then this ridiculous image popped in my head of a little red creature with a pitchfork hopping around, sprinkling Velco over the earth and grunting, "Take that, you disgusting mortals!" I laughed and soothed my frustration with the memory that Velcro was actually invented by a regular guy, and it's not his fault that cheaper versions are stitched onto baby bibs.

See what I mean about the mundane stuff not looking very much like a vocation? Well, more to think about there. But to get back to the issue of holiness itself...

I have to say that pursuing holiness seems to be easier in the Catholic faith than it ever was when I was Protestant. The Eucharist is a big one -- you have this conscious sense that it's Jesus, really Jesus, the Risen Lord, our Savior, our Redeemer coming into your person. That is so much more powerful than helping yourself to a hunk of bread and a few sips of grape juice, as mere symbols of the Last Supper and Christ's Sacrifice for us.

Prayer is completely different for me, too. In the Protestant church I first attended, you were supposed to "wing it" with your prayers, being careful not to fall into "vain repetition" by repeating somebody else, or even yourself (at least, that's what I thought for a long time. I figured out later that everybody repeated themselves all the time).

I was often at a complete loss of words, knowing I should pray but not knowing quite how. I've found the Rosary to alleviate that anxiety entirely. Also various prayers that you use in the Catholic life, like the Act of Contrition. I may not know how to pray in every possible way, but at least I have these structured and comprehensive prayers to rely on. It's such a comfort to me.

Well, as always, I know there is much more to these issues. So much to learn! Thanks for reading.

--Sparki