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Book: The Saints in Daily Christian Life Author: Romano Guardini Chilton Books, Philadelphia and New York, pp 111. Excerpt from Foreward: A saint is not simply the point of confluence, the meeting of all the Christian virtues in one and the same soul. This is but ordinary sanctity, that which is necessary to the salvation of every Christian. There is no Christian in the state of union with God in whom humility, chastity, and charity do not meet together in a degree more or less perfect. We call such people pious men; we might even, to speak widely, call them saints; but his is not what we understand by the great expression — the saints! What then are the saints? What then is sanctity thus understood? Sanctity is love of God and of men carried to a sublime extravagance. If communion between the Infinite and finite really exists; if the heart of God creates a dwelling and lives in the heart of man, it is impossible, at least n certain souls more ardent than the rest, that the presence of an element so prodigious should not become visible, should not produce extraordinary effects which the weakness of our nature and of our language would constrain us to call extravagant. For what is the meaning of this word? It means that which goes beyond. Excerpt from Book: What then is love? Precisely this: "to do what is to be done in the present moment, because it is exactly that which fulfills the will of God. And to do it as charity should be performed, in a spirit of purity and good will." This is the love of which our Lord spoke, and which He said must be with all our heart and all our soul and all our strength — but who can ever say that he acts thus? That all his heart, all his soul, all his strength have really been put into any action? If we were only to act in this way but once, we would immediately sense the almost unlimited possibilities for progress that are latent in the world and in ourselves. There are possibilities in us which could lead us ever farther, out beyond the horizons, to a place where we would have to start over and over again the process of clarifying our intentions, removing after-thoughts and shedding light on interior dodges and dishonesties, conquering the rebellion and meannesses in our hearts. These are the possibilites of which Christ has spoken in His "All": all the heart, all the soul, all the strength. Table of Contents: What is a Saint A First Answer The Saints in the New Testament Saints of the Exceptional Way A New Kind of Saint The Saints in our World Sanctity and the Laity Saints of the Exceptional Way The Witness of the Saints |