A Life Apart

I love the ancient Church. I love reading about the great saints of old, though I am often frustrated at the level of my own spirituality and piety. The lives of the Desert Fathers (and Mothers) are powerful examples of faithfulness and self-sacrifice. As Sister Benedicta Ward says, “It is a picture familiar enough in the Middle Ages; the three parts of society, those who fight, those who labour and those who pray, all working in their different ways for the life of the kingdom. Prayer was a great action to be fulfilled in the body politic; the monks were like trees, purifying the atmosphere by their presence” (The Lives of the Desert Fathers, 12.).
I think so much of what is missing in our world and in the Church are those who are ‘like trees, purifying the atmosphere by their presence.’ To be sure, there are monastics in America, some of which I have been blessed to know. But would that every parish have those who (monastic or not) are so permeated by God that they purify the atmosphere by their presence. Would that every church have saints in the making who exude the passion, fire and love of God.