Thought for the Day – 18 January – The Veneration and Imitation of the Saints

Thought for the Day – 18 January – Meditations with Antonio Cardinal Bacci (1881-1971) – Saturday of the First week in Ordinary Time, Year A

The Veneration and Imitation of the Saints

“If anyone has the good fortune during his lifetime to meet a Saint, he should be very grateful to God.
What a wonder a Saint is!
He is a man, in whom God lives in the fullness of His grace, in such a way, that St Paul could say:  “It is now no longer I that live but Christ, lives in me.” (Gal 2:20).

He is a man of great spiritual tranquillity, who, by being master of things outside himself, as well as of the inner powers of his own being, can pay the full homage of love and obedience to God.
He is a man from whose glance, there flashes, the living image of God.
He can be found on a bed of pain, in the rags of a beggar, beneath the purple of a Cardinal, in the solitude of a hermitage, or in the hurly-burly of modern life.
It is all the same, because he is no longer involved with himself, nor with the world.
He seeks God alone, Who is his love and his glory.
Such is a Saint.
If we are not lucky enough to meet him in reality, we can and should, read and meditate about his life.
The literature of the Saints, is a practical complement to the Gospel, because, it shows us, how the Gospel should be lived.”

Antonio Cardinal Bacci