On Holiness

When God speaks to me, He speaks about the person I am and the person I can be. He draws on images of the ideal and encourages me to allow those images to emerge from within me. He does not want me to be someone else. He does not want me to be something that I am not. God wants me to be the person I am truly. He calls this holiness, or sanctity. Being a saint is about allowing the real you to emerge from within. This can only be achieved if we are prepared to remove the junk that fills our hearts and buries our true self.
The compelling fact that shines through all God has told me is that truth is attractive. When you are true to youreslf, you grow in holiness. When the truth shines in a person, no darkness can put that light out. This is the holiness to which God is calling me--and not only me but you and indeed every man and every woman. God calls us all to holiness, and holiness is synonymous with happiness.
Yet in this world of ours, holiness is commonly misunderstood. In fact, a series of unattractive images often comes to mind when the word holiness is mentioned.
Some of us associate the word holiness with the old lady who spends twelve hours a day in a dark church praying on her knees. Others believe that in order to be holy you must walk around with a halo on, and you must never smile or have any fun. These ideas and illusions make holiness out to be unnatural and unattractive.
There is nothing more attractive than holiness; this is the reality.
Some people do not want to let God into their lives because they think He will spoil the party. God is the life of the party.
--Matthew Kelly, A Call to Joy