This personal reflection is an excerpt of a June 19, 2008 posting at http://dad2eight.blogspot.com/2008/06/saints.html, and we have provided the title for this excerpt.
We do not necessarily agree with the contents of the entire original posting.
We do not necessarily agree with the contents of the entire original posting.
"I subscribe to a daily email blast from www.americancatholic.org called 'Saint of the Day.' Go to their site and sign up. It's free and each day, you will receive a short biographical selection of a holy man or woman of God. As you read these sketches, one thing becomes abundantly clear: Suffering and Sanctity go hand in hand.
I am not talking physical suffering necessarily, but all kinds: depression, addictions, battles with carnality, temptations to despair and loss of faith, etc. You suddenly realize that the Saints are just like us. The big difference is that, unlike us, they didn't waste all of the graces that God gives us each nanosecond.
I was really impressed with Matt Talbot. His life gives me great hope, for he is the saint for those addicted to all the evils that our modern culture offers: alcohol, drugs, porn, sex...etc. His life shows that prayer and cooperation with God's inestimable and inexhaustible grace, changes things."