The Saints Teach Us to Evangelize

In an address earlier this week, Cardinal Angelo Amato, head of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, called the Saints “indispensable protagonists” of the New Evangelization.

“The saints evangelize by their virtuous lives,” he said. “They incarnate the evangelical beatitudes. They are the mirror to fidelity to Christ.”

The Saints teach us to evangelize through their commitments to live holiness, to accept the grace given through the Son’s sacrifice on the Cross. And each lived a saintly life in his or her own way. Just look at the seven martyrs and confessors of the faith who will be canonized today:

Jacques Berthieu (1838-1896) A Jesuit priest and missionary martyred in Madagascar

Peter Calungsod (1654-1672) A lay catechist martyred in the Philippines

Giovanni Battista Piamarta (1841-1913) A priest who gave witness to the faith in the education of the youth and founded the Congregation of the Holy Family of Nazareth and the Congregation of the Humble Sister Servants of the Lord

Mother Marianne (Barbara) Cope (1838-1918) A professed religious of the Sisters of the Third Order of St. Francis in Syracuse who gave witness to the faith in caring for those with leprosy in Molokai

Maria (Maria Carmen Sallés y Barangueras) del Monte Carmelo (1848-1911) The foundress of the Conceptionist Missionary Sisters of Teaching in Spain

Kateri Tekakwitha (1656-1680) A Native American laywoman who converted to the Catholic faith

Anna Schäffer (1882-1925) A Bavarian laywoman who gave witness to the love of Christ from the bed of suffering

These seven Saints, half of whom were beatified by Blessed John Paul II, came from all over the world. They differed in age, in wealth, in ethnicity, and in talent. Yet they all lived for one thing: the greater glory of God.

 We may not think we have what it takes to sacrifice like Blessed Peter Calungsod or live purely like Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha. But we must reject the lies which fill our hearts! God has given us everything we need to live out the universal call to holiness, the call to sanctity and truth—we just have to pray for the grace to unite our wills with His. We were born to live the New Evangelization! To be lights for the world! This is our mission, a duty that we must accept.

We find a related message in Pope Benedict XVI’s letter for World Mission Sunday, which the Church also celebrates today. He said:

Faith in God in this project of love fulfilled in Christ is a gift and mystery which must be welcomed in the heart and life and for this we must thank the Lord. If it is a gift from God to be shared; it is a talent which must bear fruit; it is a light that should not be hidden, but must alighten the whole house. It is the most important gift we have and we cannot keep for ourselves.

For more inspiration, watch the celebration of the canonizations, which can be viewed live on the Year of Faith website today!