Seeking holiness? Who’s got your back? Pope Francis means in this life:
141. Growth in holiness is a journey in community, side by side with others. We see this in some holy communities. From time to time, the Church has canonized entire communities that lived the Gospel heroically or offered to God the lives of all their members. We can think, for example, of the seven holy founders of the Order of the Servants of Mary, the seven blessed sisters of the first monastery of the Visitation in Madrid, the Japanese martyrs Saint Paul Miki and companions, the Korean martyrs Saint Andrew Taegon and companions, or the South American martyrs Saint Roque González, Saint Alonso Rodríguez and companions. We should also remember the more recent witness borne by the Trappists of Tibhirine, Algeria, who prepared as a community for martyrdom.
The church’s basic unit is the family. At the core of that we find wife and husband. Do we see married couples as passive recipients of ecclesiastical “service,” or are partners active agents in striving for sanctity?
In many holy marriages too, each spouse becomes a means used by Christ for the sanctification of the other. Living or working alongside others is surely a path of spiritual growth.
Did someone say bearing a cross?
Saint John of the Cross told one of his followers: “You are living with others in order to be fashioned and tried”. [Precautions, 15]
You can check the full document Gaudete et Exsultate on the Vatican website.
Catholic Sensibility 