We Can All Be Saints
I was asked the question: How can my book help Christian and Catholic audiences deepen their faith and relationship with God?
In the first Bible Study I attended, we learned ‘Yahweh’ means ‘God With Us’.
Think about that. Internalize it. God is here with us. How awesome!
But people forget.
To remind us of His presence, God sent Jesus as flesh and spirit to show us how to live the Word of God in peace, love, obedience, and mercy. He died for the forgiveness of our sins and left us with our daily nourishment -his body and blood- in the Holy Eucharist. He overcame death and ascended into Heaven.
And lest people forget, He sent us His Spirit to inspire truth and courage within us.
The Holy Spirit of God is with us, within us-like an invisible tattoo marking us as His own.
God is not remote. He is here with us in the spirits and actions of our neighbors and ourselves. He uses us, flawed as we are, to bring His message of mercy and salvation to the world. And He has patiently been doing this forever. It’s His M.O. He never changes. Since the beginning of time, God has used imperfect and unlikely characters, Abraham, Moses, Jonah, David, Peter, and Saul who became St Paul, to be his hands and feet in the world.
Even the Saints were not perfect. They were too rich or too poor, too busy, or uneducated. But they had one trait in common. They heard God speaking to them in their hearts, and they were obedient to the message.
In God Never Changes, all of the characters have this same trait. They are a ragtag collection of everyday people, like you and I, who ultimately respond to God’s call.
Celia is transformed from a life of thuggery and goth tattoos when she embraces her mother’s charism of wisdom and receives the gift of the Holy Spirit in “The Invisible Tattoo”. Sheila learns to listen with the eyes and ears of her heart to the plan of evangelization that God has for her in “Eye Has Not Seen”. Joseph sacrifices his life so that others may live in “Man of Living Waters”. And Evie realizes her true blessings amidst the struggle of living as an undocumented alien in “Our Lady of Sorrows”.
Like our flawed ancestors in the Old Testament, these characters heard God speaking in their hearts and answered the call. God created us uniquely, and he has a unique assignment that only we can do. Listen with your heart. Do you discern a recurring theme? Talk to God about it in prayer. Invite the Holy Spirit to transform your life and lead you to truth in action. Ask Jesus to provide sustenance to strengthen you on your journey. Pray to Our Heavenly Mother that she help us attain the grace of obedience. With it, we can all be saints.
