 and I would have brought some Tim Horton donuts because in Canada Tim Horton donuts are the source of holiness because they got a hole in the middle and that makes you holy and eventually if you eat enough of them you begin to get a donut around here. It's a certain incarnational thing there. So it's a great pleasure to to be here at Franciscan University to take part in this this conference and particularly to to look at the the way in which we can grow in discipleship as servants of our Lord Jesus. It is a question of catechesis but I think it is really a matter profoundly of the way we are formed in discipleship and in my own diocese we we call in sensely catechetical office the office for formation in discipleship. So what I'd like to do this evening is to look at three different dimensions of that. I always look at three different points. I once my best teacher I had in the seminary was so organized everything was three points. He was a very wonderful priest. We thought if he ever got made a bishop his mitre would have three points like that. So the three points that I I want to to make this evening as talking about this are first of all what is discipleship. How do we live as disciples of the Lord Jesus deeply changed and transformed by our encounter with him and through that making present as instruments of God's grace the life of the blessed Trinity here on earth that's our mission to in our own communities and around their own heart as we're temples of the Holy Spirit and the blessed Trinity dwells within us and as everything we do in our parishes our families in the community in which we live to have a world in which the relationships of love within the blessed Trinity are made present here on earth as our Lord Jesus made that present through his incarnation. So the first is to reflect a little bit upon that vision of discipleship but the second point is sort of the downer we kind of go down and look at the present world in which we live and it's different for each one of us in different places but I think in a very real way we are living in a kind of a secularized world which goes totally contrary to that vision of interdependent love which we find in the blessed Trinity. That is the sea in which we swim that is the air through which we fly it is the environment in which we find ourselves and which comes into us constantly by a kind of toxic osmosis wherever we are and so we're going against the grain but that's what we're called to do as Christians we're called to proclaim a vision of discipleship which is rooted in the love of the blessed Trinity and made present here on earth in a world in which that interdependent love is countered by a vision of independence autonomy ego looking out for number one what ultimately leads to hell where the only song is I did it my way and so that that vision is countered by the world we live but I then that's the second point to look at some of the challenges we face they may be different in the United States and Canada I think I sad to say that I think we're farther along the path of autonomism may well be in Canada we have a very of this sort of secular autonomy our government is really quite something else in terms of restricting the communities of faith and imposing this kind of secular cold vision but I like to end off then with some reflections on how we as disciples of the Lord may more fully make present in this world in this world which is so rooted in individualism how we may make present in this world in our communities and our parishes our diocese our families the vision of Christian discipleship which is rooted in a vision of the father the son of the Holy Spirit and that is what we're called to do and that's what our Lord Jesus showed us how do we do it he came and showed us what does it look like to have a Trinitarian love made present here on this earth we look to the imitation of Christ he showed us that's how it's done I remember a couple of years ago when I was about seven I won a bicycle and I got on the bicycle and my sister showed me how to ride the bicycle so I was riding quite happily along and she was running behind me and then I realized she wasn't there anymore and she forgot to tell me how to stop the bicycle so I think that kind of demonstration is something that is very important that if we want to know how do we do this living the blessed trinity in this ordinary world of ours we look to the invitation of Christ and that's where we find the way to do that and that's how we find the meaning of Christian discipleship and so let's begin in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit that is our most common prayer and we usually think it is a signal that we're going to start praying it's also sometimes using classes as a signal for the students to keep quiet but it is actually in itself a profound prayer and it reminds us of the meaning of discipleship we pray in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit but we're called to live in the name of the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit we can't get our little heads around the meaning of the blessed trinity we only understand the gods we make success power we understand those things the God who made us we we don't get our little hands and our minds can't get a grip on that but what we do know because the Lord Jesus came amongst us to show us he gave us hints of what it is like we know that God is all powerful we know that God is personal we found that out in the Old Testament but we could never know about the blessed trinity if Jesus had not pulled back the veil and let us see the glory that is there in the very inner life of God and so he spoke of his heavenly Father he spoke of sending the Holy Spirit he spoke of himself I'm reading I'm going to be doing some talks later on in for a dear friend of mine Archbishop Miller in Vancouver for his priest about the Gospel of John so I've been reading the Gospel of John again and again and how often our Lord speaks of the one who sent me the sending Father I am the one who's sent by the Father and he sent to us and he sends the Holy Spirit to us and it's in that kind of interlocking mutual interdependent love that we find the meaning of Christian discipleship and everything we do our communities our parishes our families need to make that kind of non-ego centric love present and what does it look like physically it's washing dirty feet that's what Almighty God looks like the love of the blessed trinity is shown through washing dirty feet that's what Jesus did at the last supper he not only gave us a sublime holy Eucharist but he washed the feet the service of other people in that we find a radiant vision of the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit and so the first point I'd like to make is that as we look to what we're called to be to help form others through catechesis through our own experience of teaching in different ways to help form others in discipleship we need to help others and help ourselves to grow in a sense of the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit that our life is not based upon the egocentric autonomy that is so common in our society not on independence but on the interdependent generous love which we find made present in the Lord Jesus Christ and in the saints that's our call to do that and then if we do that we will be able to be effective instruments of God's grace in leading others to Christ and to be true disciples in doing that it all comes down to an encounter with the Lord personal because God is not the force like the force be with you or something like that God's a who not a knit this is one of the most basic grammatical points in life we've got to know that everything who and it a person and a thing a who and a what God's not a what God's a who but if I don't that'd be interesting a nice book maybe the next encyclical from a holy father should be God's a who I don't think that's I don't think that's gonna probably go very far but we gotta you know we gotta love people the way the Blessed Trinity is loved and shown in Jesus we gotta love people and use things not love things and use people that's basic we need to know the one we love and so I just like to read as a sense of of how we get a sense of that encounter with the Lord and the experience of freshness of seeing who Jesus is you can't beat the opening lines of the first letter of Saint John now I have a a red Bible here because I believe that the Bible should be read and so on that point I can't help it this is I think what your constitution calls cruel and unusual punishment but I'm a Canadian I eat Tim Horton Donas I don't know about that constitution so you're gonna get pund to death here I hate to say I only studied the scripture but a lot of English literature so oh dear it's bad but anyway here is this this beautiful like and in the Greek it's like breathless it's gonna bounce us all over the place but I'll try to kind of communicate that a bit I I'll ham it up my mother said I can never be or you know I ham things up so much that I oh anyway I won't see what my mother said there's some things your mother says that you should never repeat but she said if I was ever a spy and well I'll say it anyway I can't resist she said if I was ever a spy captured by the enemy if they tied me up I'd never give away the secrets because I can't talk without waving my hands around so I'll ham it up a bit but here's the first part of the first letter of John that which was from the beginning which we have heard which we have seen with our eyes which we have looked upon and touched with our hands concerning the word of life the life was made manifest and we saw it and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life which was with the Father and was made manifest to us that's which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you so that you may have fellowship with us and our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ and we are writing this that our joy may be complete it's interesting in Greek our and your it sounds the same hemon hemon it's kind of hard so when people were producing this by reading right now sometimes that we're not sure what this should be we're writing this that our joy may be complete or writing this that your joy may be complete and which of them is correct yes you know they both are it's that that kind of excitement which which is to be ours and it is in that that we find the heart of our discipleship in that living with Christ and being with Him not from the head up but through experiencing His presence and being people through whom others experience the presence of Christ and thus are led as we are led by the holy people around us to live in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit by experiencing profoundly the one who shows us how to do that and if we do that then we will be forming people for discipleship no matter what our programs are and all that you know nobody remembers what's taught they remember who teaches you know whoever remembers the details you remember the impact of the teacher that's what they call Jesus the teacher and that's why they you know they respond that way the one we have seen we have taught we have touched and so that is I think the the way in which we need to look at discipleship and help through our catechesis and everything else to to let it be known I recently uh well this was this year yeah earlier I think I went over to Rome we had these unlimited visits and um looking at the different departments over in the Vatican you eventually you make meet the Pope as well and for the first time I've been on three of them one with Pope John Paul and one with Pope Benedict and one with Pope Francis and I went to meet I went the first time I'd ever been to the department for the causes of saints where they do the canonizations now it's interesting where they put it there's a big building in Rome where they held these headquarters you know I think the bottom floor is liturgy uh and then you get bishops so they're higher they're kind of going up and then you get the causes of saints apparently bishops are not as high as saints but that's okay and at the very top of the building you have the department for interpreting canon law which I've always thought was somehow not right but when when I went to the department for saints they were saying I don't know this what are they doing this canonization they said why we do this is that the proclamation of the gospel and formation of people for discipleship is most powerfully shown by looking at the stories of the people who have lived it that's why we canonize saints I mean God makes saints the pope doesn't make saints God makes saints the pope just reveals it makes sort of certifies it but that's how we are formed with discipleship is by being saints and I'll end off the presentation with that point that that is the key method if you want to say that program it's not a program according to the way we do what we're called to do is by living lives of practical holiness there is no substitute and it can be done day by day and so what I'll do now is just look at some of the terrain in which we we operate some of the world and you're familiar with this each one of us in different ways I just like to highlight a few of the challenges the kind of the static the friction we face as we're trying to help people to grow in a life of discipleship well I think one of the key things that we find in our society and I think it's probably similar in Canada and the United States is that we are in a secular environment in which the individual is exalted and the goal in life is autonomy independence the most dreaded fear is to lose that to be interdependent to be dependent on another person and we find that and I'm thinking of the experience we can all have at different times you know people and I'm hearing the the just I don't know Dr Willie I've never met him but hearing of a person who is struck down with a sickness and then becomes totally dependent that is a time when a person as I said is called to go deep in trust in the Lord but I think we all like to be under the illusion that we're independent now we can't keep up that illusion when we're children because children aren't allowed the luxury of being independent and as you get older you also are not that independent you it's amazing you know what happens you get older people don't speak as loudly as they used to you need these things to see what's going on I don't know what it is the eyes or something wrong with the paper like the print is much smaller than I'm sure it used to be you know that's what happens and the fabrics of clothing they keep shrinking it's it's there's something wrong with the clothing that's being made these days and something must be done about it but anyway we as we get older we discover all kinds of muscles that we didn't know we had boy I tell you being 71 is a lot different from being 17 however the fact is that this desire for autonomy this exaltation of autonomy it causes great evil it causes great loneliness and it's something that is radically opposed to a life of discipleship lived in the name of the father the son and the holy spirit in the invitation of christ whom we have seen with our eyes we have touched with our hands the one the experience that have encountered that we all experience in different ways we are called to live in a life of relationship and yet we live in a world of autonomy we are called to be analog christians in a digital world the digital world for example just so that they don't have to get a hook I've left my crozier at home but it would work to pull me off at 8 30 there's a nice digital thing here that says it's 802 and when it's 8 30 there's going to be this will drop and I will disappear I think so this is digital now it's got a lot of credit to it you know you see 802 that 803 804 805 806 dot dot bang bang each one disconnected from the other that's the world in which we live in a digital world and yet if you see like at the back of this place and on my little I got turned my little watch not to a digital thing but the screen you know where mickey mouse's small hand is here and his big hand is there and in that thing looking at that it's a little past 8 o'clock but it's not quite 805 we're kind of in relation where we are is in relationship to where we were and where we're going that is send that's sensible that's sane that's humane we are analog by analogy we operate with networks of meaning and structure and of love relationship the web of love the web of order in the universe is analogy it is relationship we are called to be analog Christians in a world that is each one each little individual atom and that's there's no future in that there's no president that either you know somebody once said to me if you're all wrapped up in yourself you make a very small package and it's true we implode into ourselves and that just is there's no future there but that is a very strong part of the world in which we live and so we must seek to celebrate relationships more and more of honorable love with one another and see to the relationships within the universe and not be caught up in this individualistic reality which is a kind of an exaltation of the will my will my I the smallest and most deadly letter the alphabet egocentric I think of a very egocentric king and this is the one I've never seen the movie the king's speech it's a great movie and I don't know how accurate it is historically to the two princes who were one became king and then the other in the 1930s the one was Edward the Edward the eighth and then George the sixth but it speaks very boldly to a real profound idea the glorious prince who was a star um who became Edward the eighth from birth he had been a star and he could see his will as being central not order and pattern in the universe the world around him but he became his will was central this is sort of like the medieval philosophy called nominalism which denied that there is order in the universe that the things like truth justice or essence or existence all these things that there is a real order out there instead it is just what the individual wants so for example we do not steal and God says do not thou shalt not steal the reason we don't steal is because God says don't do it but if he said do it we could steal it's just the will triumphant that's very dangerous there is with the reason we don't steal is because stealing is by the nature of things wrong that's why God says it's wrong it's not wrong because God says it he says it's wrong because it is there's something out there that is hard and real you can't see it or photograph it so the Edward the eighth what he was real to him was his his own will and even on that amazing farewell speech when he abdicated the throne to Mary Wallace Simpson we often say he said I cannot fulfill my duty as king as I would wish to without the help and support of the woman I love which is so romantic and so egocentric too because what he actually said if you listen to the recording he said I cannot fulfill my function as king as I would want to do so without the help and support of the woman I love and I think I want to know how much help and support anyway we won't go into that you're married I mean it's very appropriate his not his kingdom he was king Edward the V II II but his brother his brother however was very shy and stumbled around and stuttered and it was not a star but to him kingship honor fidelity these were real they weren't like names nomina they're named they were real there was order and relationship in the universe and so he became a very great man and his brother I fear I think did not why use that example it's because that kind of exaltation of the ego is deadly and it is not just found in british princes and kings these days it is found all around us I know in my own country and I don't know where you're at with euthanasia we just had the supreme court or a short time ago in Canada oh the supreme court there's all kinds of strange things and I won't get into that but oh my gosh they're suppressing Christian colleges and things like that you can't have a little community college a little Protestant one in British Columbia that among other things asked the students and teachers to promise that in that Christian community you're going to no lying no stealing and all that and that marriage has been a man and a woman you're gonna be faithful husband and wife you know that's considered to be oppressive and so it was argued up in the supreme court which decided the law society of cat of Ontario in Quebec and British Columbia you can get a degree from that university a very good degree but you can't get a job because the law society says you go to that university it's oppressive by excluding people who don't believe that marriage between a man and a woman so anyway it's argued up in the supreme court said yeah law society's right so anyway but we also have that was seven to two but we had a nine to zero judgment in favor of euthanasia basically a while ago all based upon highly emotional arguments and when people ask why do they want this sometimes it's a fear of pain and that's very understandable it is very understandable although palliative care can take care of that I think when my my sister was dying a few years ago from pancreatic cancer it's a great pain in that but I was very blessed she was very greatly helped by the doctors who would give her help in dying we we call euthanasia in Canada medical assistance in dying otherwise known as killing or lethal injection but you can give medical assistance to people who are dying or who are who are not dying it helps and so we should do that pain can we should deal with it you kill the pain not kill the patient and so that's one fear fear of pain and that's an understandable one a fear of being a burden you know fear of being a burden a burden to the children I'm just too much of a burden to others but we have to recognize that we are disciples of the Lord we we all depend on one another we are depending on our other people and having them take care of us is not a bad thing it's a noble and it's a beautiful reality which we all come to in different ways we may just not realize it think of that picture you know of the poster I think it was your boy son you see this sort of teenager with a someone on a young man on his back he says he's not heavy he's my brother it all depends so we need to help people to recognize and you don't need fancy hospitals and expensive drugs and things for that to recognize that we live in a relationship of love like the Blessed Trinity as disciples of Jesus and so no one is a burden to somebody else if we think they are we've got a problem and we need to be such people who don't think that way because that's bad it's it's no there's no future in that and also sometimes and this is especially true in Europe I think from what I've heard that people say well look I've I've shot my wad I've lived autonomously I've flown all over the place I've done this and that the other thing I've had a good life but I can't do those things anymore and so what's the point I am now dependent I'm not independent so give me the lethal injection and that is also goes against who we are and when people even in our Catholic communities even faithful Catholics they begin to think that way that we need to reach out and help form people in discipleship so they realize that our life is full and it does not depend upon my ability to do when I'm older what I used to do when I was a teenager we all break down and there's a Shakespeare has a wonderful statement about that you know how the seven ages of man we end up with sans teeth sans hair sans everything you know but there we are so this kind of we are in a world as we're trying to live a life of Trinitarian discipleship seen visibly through Jesus our lord whom we encounter constantly in word and sacrament as we're trying to proclaim and form in that discipleship we're doing so in a world which celebrates the untrammeled eagle and considers a lack of independence to be unlivable and so we're going against the grain of society and so no wonder we have a song all the lonely people where do they come or do they all come from and we're doing this all in a world which celebrates interconnectivity you know we're all friends on facebook or something you know they're all relating to one another like that somehow it doesn't seem to be enough this kind of digital well the digital again the digital relationships and we could help you can email back and forth you can have some connections but it's just not the real thing it's just not enough all the lonely people staring into their little computer screens which suck time away like that where did time go to time that could be used in living in the name of the father son of the Holy Spirit by loving and yet we're all abstract I remember I was at a meeting in Catholic education which we have a different system in in Ontario anyway but there's a whole bunch of us Catholic educators at a break we all put out our little our little strawberries or blackberries or whatever they were and and we were all either in the apple orchard or the berry patch we were we were all present to the people who are absent and absent to the people who are present now that's insane it just doesn't make sense you know that's the opposite but that's that's our world and it's kind of nominalism gone mad the same thing of course with conscience that conscience means what I think is right if you sort of think it over study it a bit whatever you want to do that's your conscience that is such a false view of conscience it's not the right way and sometimes you know Thomas Moore is shown as a model of conscience indeed is but his conscience do not that I want to do it this way it was because he studied and reflected upon the teaching of the church he saw what was right and he did it because it was right so this is the world of autonomy so here's some suggestions some kind of your friendly neighborhood cardinal fuel ideas here okay point number one take this down no point number one a little hopeful sign and that is in all of this world that I'm painting is a kind of a desert of autonomy there are the one thing that everybody has bought into including the most secular people in the world is the parable of the good Samaritan everyone accepts that they don't maybe know it's Christian they do so if you see someone who's a victim you reach out to them at the side of the road now that's a good thing we can build on that you know give me a little thread then a rope then we can build you know when you start across you want to build a bridge so this enormous bridge over here I don't know whether he shot a thread across the river and then brought a rope and then a beam and then a bridge but so you kind of have to do that so we got a little bit here to work with the fact that everybody believes in helping victims now it can be misused manipulated if you declare I am a victim the door is open gold sourced down you know so it can be false victim hood can be used to manipulate and I won't get into examples of that but it can happen but it is true it's a noble thought a noble thought and so I think we should remember that and that's why as we think about how we can help people to to grow in discipleship uh what I think we should do is think about faith hope and love faith is the beginning we see the hand of God this leads us to hope and it bears fruit in love but if we're to form people in discipleship what we need to do is begin with love helping the victim at the side of the road which we do all the time and help bring people into that that they may be filled with hope and then ask why are we doing this why are we doing this remember the story of someone in a jungle this sister was helping the most difficult people in a terrible situation of sickness and some millionaire went by and said I wouldn't do that for a million dollars and the sister said I wouldn't either it's love that makes that and why does a person love because of faith so that's we should do take the thread we have that even the most secular people see that this is what we see in Frederick Ozanam he was a young university student and he was uh with a group of his students studying fellow students studying the faith conferences in honor of Saint Vincent de Paul and one of the sisters who was working with the poor in Paris said get out there and start helping the people that's why the Saint Vincent de Paul Society does it that way and they're still called conferences but it's helping people in practice the faith and the hope but you you in practice you start with the love in theologically you start with the faith and next I think another principle might be good to think of as what do we do how we approach this it is care for the gathered reach out to the scattered this is kind of the pastoral plan of my diocese care for the gathered those who are here you know put on the I just came it flew in this morning when uh when the the awful moment when the little oxygen drops down put around your first first before you help the other so that you don't die of oxygen deprivation that before you can help the other so let's care for the gathered the people are already coming to church so that we may reach out to the scattered to the people who are caught up in the lonely desert of secularism and of autonomy triumphant destructive autonomy I think that's a good principle to use what we do in my diocese we break it down into vibrant parishes vocations carefully thought out of all vocations practically caring for the needy and evangelizing the culture by doing all of that it's very very important to reach out to the scattered and care for the gathered our communities that do that need to be communities of real Trinitarian love where people are attractive to come to people who are really showing see how these Christians love one another draws people in draws the scattered in if they see the gatherer living that way I think Mark Twain said I don't think I want to go to heaven because none of my friends will be there I see his point we don't want people living the Christian faith with grim determination I remember the priest at the seminary I taught at once he said the faith that is sad or mad and not glad is bad and there's a lot of truth to that so we got to have this welcoming communities where you see a joy that's not happiness or optimism which rich we often have no emotionally we don't often have happiness something was up and down optimism have you seen the papers have you looked optimism oh good grief but hope we have and hope brings us joy because we see all the grim things around but in the hand of the provident god Jesus Christ is Lord and therefore whatever the things one of my favorite hymns is oh god beyond all praising and whatever things happen you know I'll try well try them through our sorrows and rise to bless you still but there are going to be plenty of sorrows to triumph for so that's an I think an important thing I once asked a priest actually from around here Father Ronald Knot who came up to speak to my priest and he had some good advice this is practical advice so I never never forgot it well I don't I'm telling you about it he said what do you want to do if you want to perish to be vibrant and people disciples join together what you do is put your money in the music good point harmony trinitarian harmony put your money in the music your time in the homily and stand at the door of the church encounter people don't write them letters meet them nothing you know push the send button no go and see people face to face you know why we when we're typing things on the internet we say horrible things we would never say to someone we saw face to face no we've got to see people face to face our communities have to be like that that's like when I I've been I've been Bishop 21 years now oh good grief 21 years and I've had different vocation directors I always say look don't pump out brochures people not paper you know this is the way so stand at the door of the church and meet the people that's kind of kind of crucial and that's what we see in and you know we want preaching to be not sort of theoretical but deep down from the heart and the mind head heart and hands I always think this is um this is my old bishopy uh I guess I can 21 years I can have some old tricks of the trade head heart and hands whatever someone comes to my office as they do every half hour I sometimes dive under the desk in a fetal position oh no no just kidding just kidding but when people come with all kinds of good things and bad things and persistively they come with a good thing I say is it head is a thought out is it heart does it have a little love in it is it hands is it something practical so if we're going to be forming people in the discipleship always think of that is this theologically is intellectually God put our heads in so prominent a place in our bodies he must want us to use them we've got to think it through and then it's a God warmth and love you know we keep on pumping out documents all the bishops are former professors we can't help it we just documents come flooding out and nobody reads them you know why would they whereas the I know the children of darkness are telling stories which are convincing canadian supreme court justices to allow lethal injection I mean jesus told stories we should do that remember the greek thing ethos pathos logos from Aristotle build a bridge of trust touch the heart with a story and then tell them the truth communicate the truth through a story when you build a bridge of trust I think that's the way to do it and if we're going to communicate our faith we should do no less than that I mean let's imitate our lord jesus in that he talked about mustard seeds you know he didn't talk about the eschatology because the significance of the christ event good lord oh oh that would be horrible that would be oh no anyway so these are some kind of you know a little nitty gritty things I just suggest that we might want to to do but the most important thing and I think those saint makers in the saint department of the Vatican were right the most important thing is sanctity it's nothing is more important than the witness communicating our faith the witness of saints not just a few to get canonized but the witness of saints who have encountered our lord jesus and who are trying to live it with all their sinfulness day by day and if you ever hear that christianity or anything to do with christianity is an ideal up there somewhere floating kind of over there maybe made of crystal with balloons keeping it up nobody can read you know you can't actually live christianity oh what happens we gotta dumb it down no saints live christian faith every day it's very common the great challenges of our christian faith are the pathway to sanctity and it happens all the time so the idea that there's a certain model of christianity somewhere out there we all bow to it but no one actually can be expected to live it that is simply wrong we're called every day to live our father who art in heaven hallowed be thy name thy kingdom come thy will be done in my life day by day day by day to see thee more clearly to love thee more dearly to follow thee more nearly day by day i mean it's done all the time it's not just the saints we get out of the canonizations so there is nothing more important in our life of catechesis and of christian discipleship then day by day in a repentant spirit recognizing that the gospel is not beyond our reach why would the lord god toy with us toy with us here's the gospel i remember i i do this sometimes with the little kitty patrick and mickey two little kittens my sister has but i've been known in my weaker moments to dangle a little straight thread in front of them and they're jumping up you know but i don't think god treats us that way with the gospel of our lord jesus christ so we need to live it but you know live it daily practically um i have five minutes and 26 seconds left so before this drops i'm gone down below i don't know what's below here so i don't think i'll read you the whole of this thing but i i recommend it to you it's the thing by um don henry newman and i'll read a bit of it i might talk about sanctity i'm not talking about kind of you're leaping through fire or you know doing all that some people do that you know martyrs and so on some people are called to die for christ but we're all called to live for christ in washing dirty feet things like that that's holiness that's what it looks like and we're all called to it we're not told it's something that a few people of somewhere else do every single christian is called to be a saint and every single christian can become a saint by god's grace the grace of god and i should put on a tweed jacket you know i have my uh you know my watered wool here but um here's john henry newman it is the saying of holy men that if we wish to be perfect we have nothing more to do than to perform the ordinary duties of the day well a short road to perfection short not because easy but because pertinent and intelligible i think this is a very sensible way in which we should proceed what is meant by perfection it means doing things faithfully the way they should be done he then is perfect who does the work of the day perfectly this is john henry newman it's also the little flower you know and dina don't have to go beyond that to seek for holiness you don't have to go out of the round of the day i insist on this because it will simplify our views and fix our exertions on a definite aim if you ask me what you are to do in order to be holy i say first do not lie in bed beyond the due time of rising give your first thoughts to god make a good visit the blessed sacrament say the angelus develop the eat and drink to god's glory say the rosary well be recollected keep out bad thoughts make your evening meditation examine yourself daily go to bed in good time and you are already perfect that's what we're called to do it's sort of the ordinary way in which we're supposed to live our lives and so this is the way we are to live it always has been it always will be this is living in the name of the father son and holy spirit in the imitation of our lord jesus christ in the little things of life and that touches the heart and then when we speak the words of the gospel there will be willing years to hear them and when we recognize each one of us that we are so very frail we nonetheless say lord jesus son of the living god have mercy on me as sinner and help me grow day by day to sanctity and that i think is what it's all about so i'll end off with these wonderful familiar words of of st paul which sort of tells us what we're supposed to do in our life have this mind among yourselves which was in christ jesus who though he was in the form of god did not count equality with god a thing to be grasped but emptied himself taking the form of a servant being born in the likeness of men and having been found in human form he humbled himself and became obedient unto death even death on a cross therefore god has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name which is above every name so that at the name of jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth and every tongue confess that jesus christ is lord to glory the glory of god the father amen