Our Lord Jesus Christ with the the children.

St Paul says that God chose us before the foundation of the world to be holy in his presence. In this meditation we consider how:

• Our Lord’s calling us his friends demands that we should love him and strive to be more like him.
• The effort to be more Christlike is the struggle for holiness
• We were made in the image and likeness of God but our sins tarnish that image
• The work of forming ourselves is like that of the artist – it is the art of holiness
• St John Paul II and St Gregory of Nyssa speak of the struggle for holiness as similar to the work of the artist
• St John Chrysostom, like the Second Vatican Council centuries later, says that all are called holiness