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The first way to become a saint is to desire to be one. God does not force His Will upon us, but He has commanded "Be Holy as I am Holy". [Leviticus 11:44]
Psalm 103 And David says Bless the Lord my soul, and let all that is within me bless his holy name.
We can speak to our souls daily and say O my soul, bless the Lord, worship Him, glorify Him, exalt his Holy name, burn with adoration for my God. Just as people contemplate a desire to possess something here on earth, we must truly desire to possess God above everything.
The second way to become a saint is to pray without ceasing, as St. Paul recommends because this is to live in the Presence of God. [1 Thessalonians 5:17-18] We must do everything through Him, with Him, in Him and for Him. We must be aware every moment of our lives that we are before Him. God must become our breath, our food, our thoughts and our only joy.
No wonder we must overcome the world since it has so many attractions to our senses, if we desire the things of the world, then there is no room for God within us because God is so big... If we desire the things of the flesh, our souls will loose the desire for God and we will be lead astray by our passions. If we allow the devil to tempt us and we don't pray to overcome his suggestions, he will lead us into sin [1 John 2:15-17].
Prayer is our relationship with God, as we pray we enjoy his company and protection, we become holy by sharing his holiness. We must give up some of our free time to pray, it is recommended that we get up earlier than usual to spend some special time with God. [Psalm 88:13]
The third way to become a saint is to practice mortification because a worthy temple of the spirit must be more inclined to God than to itself. Mortification comes from the Latin meaning to die. St. Paul says I die daily [1 Corinthians 15:31], because He is dying to Himself in order to allow Christ to be born and to live through him, He dies to himself by doing violence to himself [1 Corinthians 9:27].
We must live in the world with the knowledge that we are heavenly citizens and that we are only passing through here. Heaven is our home and we must give up all the comforts, the luxuries, the fashions, the vanities and entertainment of this world if we are to possess God. God fills everything with His Presence but how can we expect to be filled with God unless we are totally empty of ourselves and of the world?
We offend God when we are slaves of our bodies, possessions, power, prestige, money; and then we presume to come to Him. Do we really want God when we want so much from the world?
We therefore have to begin giving more to God and less to ourselves [Mark 12:17], we must pray thereby denying ourselves time for entertainment, we must fast so that we overcome the demands of the body and senses, we must turn away from too much conversation, noise, television and other opportunities to waste our time. We must protect our eyes, the windows of the soul from obscene pictures and images.
Our time is very precious and it should be given to God.
We must count everything as rubbish in order to possess Christ [Philippians 3:8], We must realise how precious God is and go after Him like the merchant in search of precious pearls who discovered that pearl of great value, so that He sold everything in order to possess it.[Matthew 13:46]
When we deny ourselves we might be able to say with St. Paul, it is not longer I who lives, but Christ who lives in me[Galatians 2:20].
The fourth and most perfect way to become a saint is to have a faithful devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary. We must come to the fountain of Grace, to the one who has been lavished with all the riches of Heaven, the Mother of the Son of God, the Mistress of Heaven who was created Immaculate for the purpose of bringing salvation to the world through her Son. We must imitate Mary. We must come to this holy mountain [Isaiah 2:3].
God has exalted Mary above all human beings so that we can see in her what He wants to see in us. She is the perfect reflection of the Son. She is only a creature but she is the Master piece of creation. She has been entrusted with that part of the Love of God that is human terms belongs to a mother, so that her maternal universal love can bring the maternal love of God to everyone of His children.
God loves us with the love of a mother through Mary the second Eve, the true mother of the Living, because She is the mother of the second Adam our Lord Jesus Christ.
To have a perfect devotion to Our Lady, we should follow the steps of the saints and study with special care the books of St. Louis de Montfort because they are the gift of Our Lady to those who want to know her.
The most important part of our devotion to Mary is to live our Act of Consecration to her Immaculate Heart. It consists in giving our lives to her as slaves of Love and to depend totally on her, by this act we no longer expect any grace to be given to us but to her and She will treasure us in Her Immaculate Heart in this life and in the next. She will live in us and direct our lives, the Holy Spirit will fill us because God is always with her. She is the tree of life and Jesus is her fruit, by possessing this holy tree of life in our hearts we will also possess her fruit which is Jesus Christ the Word of God and our Salvation.
The most pleasing devotion to Our Lady is that we accept Jesus in the Holy Eucharist as her gift to us, and that we acknowledge how much He suffered to save us. She is very honoured when we feel thankful for her tears of sorrow and when we meditate on her dolours.
The Holy Rosary is the most comprehensive devotion that goes through the entire life of Our Lord, beginning with the Annunciation and finishing in the Glory of Heaven at the Coronation of Our Lady as the Queen of all creation. Our Lady desires that we pray the Holy Rosary daily because this is the celebration of Life. The Rosary is the weapon that She uses against her adversary the devil. [Gen 3:15] When we pray the Rosary we become her cohort of little spiritual soldiers in the battle for the Salvation of humanity.
We must meditate every decade of the Rosary and pray very slowly, our prayers must be lived and come from the heart. The Rosary is a chain that binds families to the heart of Our Lady, it binds the world through prayer as her beloved children and eventually it is the chain that will bind the enemy of Our Salvation in hell forever.
Proverbs 8:32
32 Now therefore, ye children, hear me: Blessed are they that keep my ways.
33 Hear instruction and be wise, and refuse it not.
34 Blessed is the man that heareth me, and that watcheth daily at my gates, and waiteth at
the posts of my doors.
35 He that shall find me, shall find life, and shall have salvation from the Lord:
36 But he that shall sin against me, shall hurt his own soul. All that hate me love death.
Ecclesiasticus 24
1 Wisdom shall praise her own self, and shall be honoured in God, and shall glory in the
midst of her people,
2 And shall open her mouth in the churches of the most High, and shall glorify herself in
the sight of his power,
3 And in the midst of her own people she shall be exalted, and shall be ad- mired in the
holy assembly.
4 And in the multitude of the elect she shall have praise, and among the blessed she shall
be blessed, saying:
5 I came out of the mouth of the most High, the firstborn before all creatures:
6 I made that in the heavens there should rise light that never faileth, and as a cloud I
covered all the earth:
7 I dwelt in the highest places, and my throne is in a pillar of a cloud.
8 I alone have compassed the circuit of heaven, and have penetrated into the bottom of the
deep, and have walked in the waves of the sea,
9 And have stood in all the earth: and in every people,
10 And in every nation I have had the chief rule:
11 And by my power I have trodden under my feet the hearts of all the high and low: and in
all these I sought rest, and I shall abide in the inheritance of the Lord.
12 Then the creator of all things commanded, and said to me: and he that made me, rested
in my tabernacle,
13 And he said to me: Let thy dwelling be in Jacob, and thy inheritance in Israel, and
take root in my elect.
14 From the beginning, and before the world, was I created, and unto the world to come I
shall not cease to be, and in the holy dwelling place I have ministered before him.
15 And so was I established in Sion, and in the holy city likewise I rested, and my power
was in Jerusalem.
16 And I took root in an honourable people, and in the portion of mg God his inheritance,
and my abode is in the full assembly of saints.
17 I was exalted like a cedar in Libanus, and as a cypress tree on mount Sion.
18 I was exalted like a palm tree in Cades, and as a rose plant in Jericho:
19 As a fair olive tree in the plains, and as a plane tree by the water in the streets,
was I exalted.
20 I gave a sweet smell like cinnamon. and aromatical balm: I yielded a sweet odour like
the best myrrh:
21 And I perfumed my dwelling as storax, and galbanum, and onyx, and aloes, and as the
frankincense not cut, and my odour is as the purest balm.
22 I have stretched out my branches as the turpentine tree, and my branches are of honour
and grace.
23 As the vine I have brought forth a pleasant odour: and my flowers are the fruit of
honour and riches.
24 I am the mother of fair love, and of fear, and of knowledge, and of holy hope.
25 In me is all grace of the way and of the truth, in me is all hope of life and of
virtue.
26 Come over to me, all ye that desire me, and be filled with my fruits.
27 For my spirit is sweet above honey, and my inheritance above honey and the honeycomb.
28 My memory is unto everlasting generations.
29 They that eat me, shall yet hunger: and they that drink me, shall yet thirst.
30 He that hearkeneth to me, shall not be confounded: and they that work by me, shall not
sin.
31 They that explain me shall have life everlasting.
32 All these things are the book of life, and the covenant of the most High, and the
knowledge of truth.
33 Moses commanded a law in the precepts of justices, and an inheritance to the house of
Jacob, and the promises to Israel.
34 He appointed to David his servant to raise up of him a most mighty king, and sitting on
the throne of glory for ever.
35 Who filleth up wisdom as the Phison, and as the Tigris in the days of the new fruits.
36 Who maketh understanding to abound as the Euphrates, who multiplieth it as the Jordan
in the time of harvest.
37 Who sendeth knowledge as the light, and riseth up as Gehon in the time of the vintage.
38 Who first hath perfect knowledge of her, and a weaker shall not search her out.
39 For her thoughts are more vast than the sea, and her counsels more deep than the great
ocean.
40 I, wisdom, have poured out rivers.
41 I, like a brook out of a river of a mighty water; I, like a channel of a river. and
like an aqueduct, came out of paradise.
42 I said: I will water my garden of plants, and I will water abundantly the fruits of my
meadow.
43 And behold my brook became a great river, and my river came near to a sea:
44 For I make doctrine to shine forth to all as the morning light, and I will declare it
afar off.
45 I will penetrate to all the lower parts of the earth, and will behold all that sleep,
and will enlighten all that hope in the Lord.
46 I will yet pour out doctrine as prophecy, and will leave it to them that seek wisdom,
and will not cease to instruct their offspring even to the holy age.
47 See ye that I have not laboured for myself only, but for all that seek out the truth.
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