Everyone is called to holiness but those whose holiness can be certified are very few. Special processes – of beatification and canonization - are concerned to identify and evaluate sanctity. They do this either by specific methods, which rely on human mediation, necessarily limited, and the will to define the conditions of life blessed (that is, happy) and identify those who have experienced it.
The Causes of Saints, then, of which this book reconstructs the practice (explaining how they work, who is dealing with it ...), attest to a first dimension which is mainly anthropological. They tell who these "happy" men and women are, who experience the fullness of human and live it, as Edith Stein said, "for all."
St Rita is called "the saint of the impossible", but she was never able to help herself, suffering the loss of children and widowhood and finding her religious vocation blocked. Padre Pio had "Hands That Heal": but they were wounded hands that attracted suspicion and forced him to the humiliation of endless investigations. Karol Wojtyla made his pontificate a great catechesis on holiness, but still had to show his fidelity to Christ with his own illness made "public" by the media.
The Saints are regarded as absolute by many but they saw themselves in relative terms. They accept the grace of God and the help of others, they experience their trials and denounce their mistakes.
The Causes of Saints are certified in a specific legal and moral practice of the Church. This book also helps to dispel some myths. Yet these Causes speak mostly to people about people. In a world desperately seeking excellence and perfection, the saints are trying to tell us that to be "good people" they do not need to be the "best people": only be themselves and do good.
Dehoniane edition, 240 pages.
