Memorial of the Holy Guardian Angels

The innocence of children is something we all recognize, at least to some extent. Yet it’s hard to pin down exactly what it means. If you’ve been around children, there are times when they are truly wonderful, when there’s something inspiring about their innocence. There are also times when they are less inspiring to us, right? But there is something there, even if it’s hard to grasp.

I think part of it is that their lives are not complicated in their own minds. They see things simply. Something is what it is, and they act on it. They trust in a way that we struggle to trust. Our experiences in life, even with people we think are trustworthy, can make us wonder, “Well, maybe not.” That’s part of life. And so we have to intentionally cultivate that childlike mind in ourselves and in our approach to life.

This week, I heard an example on a podcast that captured that childlike humility and innocence. It was about Blessed Fulton Sheen. You may know that he was devoted to making a daily holy hour. He even had that famous line: “If you say you don’t have enough time for a holy hour, then do two hours.” Because you’ve got to get that in.

People had asked him throughout his life, “Why are you so focused on the holy hour above everything else?” His answer was illuminating. He said, “Well, I tried fasting, but I was really bad at that. I tried other practices, and I was really bad at all of them. But I could make a holy hour. I could do that. And so I dedicated my life to that.”

There is a kind of childlike innocence in that answer. He recognized the things he wasn’t good at. Rather than get caught up in the complexities of the spiritual life, trying to ram in practices that didn’t fit, he did the thing he was good at, and he did it well. And he encouraged everyone else to embrace it too.

He found a way to live the spiritual life and draw closer to the Lord as the Lord had made him, in a way that truly fit his own life. And that is how we should practice the spiritual life.

Too often, we try to imitate things that just aren’t going to fit us. They aren’t how we were made. They don’t fit our personalities. And yes, we can use our intellect and our very adult, mature approach to the world to force them to fit. We can achieve it. But it won’t take us nearly as far as being who God created us to be and finding the practice that really works for us and develops our spiritual life.

By practicing that one thing he was good at, Fulton Sheen inspired many others and brought them closer to the Lord. There is no telling how much his example has increased the hours of adoration in the Church. And each of us could do the same.

If we would find that thing we’re good at, if we had the humility of a child to recognize, “I’m good at this. I’m going to do it,” and tell others about it, we could help them find what works for them as well. We could help draw them closer to the Lord.

And that is our goal. It’s not to imitate some particular saint. It’s not to be someone else. It is to find the Lord. That is our goal in this life.

So rather than struggle through those things we can’t do, let’s focus our time and energy on the ones we can. Let’s have the humility to recognize what is for us and do it as well as we can. To truly find holiness there. To find the Lord.