When top football players make headlines, it\u2019s usually for all the wrong reasons. However, most recently we\u2019ve heard quite a lot about a certain Marcus Rashford of Manchester United and England fame. He\u2019s made headlines by appealing to the British government for free meals for the poorest children in England. I\u2019m not going to delve into an ongoing discussion whether it\u2019s a good or bad idea in the proposed form. But the fact we\u2019ve heard about it comes from his high public profile. When I make an appeal for anything, I consider myself extremely fortunate when a couple of people respond to it – my profile is high only in feet and inches. We tend to think about top football players as spoilt brats, earning insane money and known off the pitch for a wide range of extravagance – again, I\u2019m not about to delve into that. But as someone who played football and loves the game, I know how much hard work and effort lies behind his success. Nobody\u2019s born a fully formed top player. Only a limited number of kids kicking the ball about make it to the very top. But they do because of the countless boys and girls playing football, volunteer or scantily-paid coaches, local clubs run on a shoe-string, all of which create an environment where their talent can develop through hard work and sacrifice.<\/p>\n
Today, when we celebrate the feast of All Saints, we turn our attention to those people who have been officially recognized and pronounced by the Church as saints; extraordinary men and women, known and admired for their outstanding spiritual and moral achievements. On the other hand, they have set the bar so high that it seems unachievable to us, mere mortals. Consequently, there\u2019s no point in trying to become a saint\u2026 Here comes the football analogy.<\/p>\n
Think about the canonised saints as top achievers, sorts of \u2018holy celebrities\u2019. But they reached such heights of sanctity because of the countless number of ordinary faithful men and women in their local communities, starting with their close families, through their local parish and so on. Those ordinary Christians created a spiritual environment where their specific call could develop and reach the highest standards. Moreover, those \u2018holy celebrities\u2019 never planned to be canonised saints – they simply tried hard to accomplish their vocation. I don\u2019t think that Mother Teresa of Calcutta secretly drew a plan on how to get the \u2018saint\u2019 in front of her name.<\/p>\n
Sainthood isn\u2019t reserved for a chosen few; sainthood is your goal; sainthood is your ultimate vocation. That sounds scary, doesn\u2019t it? A common misconception can be blamed for such a feeling. The traditional way of telling saints\u2019 lives tends to paint a picture of an unbroken string of successes, achievements and spiritual exploits. Their failings, mistakes and shortcomings rarely make it into the narrative. The saints are shown as spiritual giants, but somehow distant and sterile. Well, if truth be told, they achieved what they did because they had made a lot of mistakes and they learnt from them. That\u2019s exactly what you and I must do – learn from our own mistakes and failures. Sainthood means fulfilling your vocation in your own way by doing your best. Who knows, you might even be officially pronounced a saint! But even if you aren’t, please do not worry. There will be an upside to being an anonymous saint; you will not be pestered by others, saying: \u2018Pray for us\u2019<\/p>\n
Image by Pexels<\/a> from Pixabay<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When top football players make headlines, it\u2019s usually for all the wrong reasons. However, most recently we\u2019ve heard quite a lot about a certain Marcus Rashford of Manchester United and England fame. He\u2019s made headlines by appealing to the British government for free meals for the poorest children in England. I\u2019m not going to delve into an ongoing discussion whether it\u2019s a good or bad idea in the proposed form. But the fact we\u2019ve heard about it comes from his high public profile. When I make an appeal for anything, I consider myself extremely fortunate when a couple of people respond to it – my profile is high only in feet and inches. We tend to think about top football players as spoilt brats, earning insane money and known off the pitch for a wide range of extravagance – again, I\u2019m not about to delve into that. But as someone who played football and loves the game, I know how much hard work and effort lies behind his success. Nobody\u2019s born a fully formed top player. Only a limited number of kids kicking the ball about make it to the very top. But they do because of the countless boys and girls playing football, volunteer or scantily-paid coaches, local clubs run on a shoe-string, all of which create an environment where their talent can develop through hard work and sacrifice. Today, when we celebrate the feast of All Saints, we turn our attention to those people who have been officially recognized and pronounced by the Church as saints; extraordinary men and women, known and admired for their outstanding spiritual and moral achievements. On the other hand, they have set the bar so high that it seems unachievable to us, mere mortals. Consequently, there\u2019s no point in trying to become a saint\u2026 Here comes the football analogy. Think about the canonised saints as top achievers, sorts of \u2018holy celebrities\u2019. But they reached such heights of sanctity because of the countless number of ordinary faithful men and women in their local communities, starting with their close families, through their local parish and so on. Those ordinary Christians created a spiritual environment where their specific call could develop and reach the highest standards. Moreover, those \u2018holy celebrities\u2019 never planned to be canonised saints – they simply tried hard to accomplish their vocation. I don\u2019t think that Mother Teresa of Calcutta secretly drew a plan on how to get the \u2018saint\u2019 in front of her name. Sainthood isn\u2019t reserved for a chosen few; sainthood is your goal; sainthood is your ultimate vocation. That sounds scary, doesn\u2019t it? A common misconception can be blamed for such a feeling. The traditional way of telling saints\u2019 lives tends to paint a picture of an unbroken string of successes, achievements and spiritual exploits. Their failings, mistakes and shortcomings rarely make it into the narrative. The saints are shown as spiritual giants, but somehow distant and sterile. Well, if truth be told, they achieved what they did because they had made a lot of mistakes and they learnt from them. That\u2019s exactly what you and I must do – learn from our own mistakes and failures. Sainthood means fulfilling your vocation in your own way by doing your best. Who knows, you might even be officially pronounced a saint! But even if you aren’t, please do not worry. There will be an upside to being an anonymous saint; you will not be pestered by others, saying: \u2018Pray for us\u2019 Image by Pexels from Pixabay<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13287","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermon"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13287","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13287"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13287\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}