“Faith together with works, chastity together with humility, fasting together with moderation, poverty together with generosity, patience without resentment, work without grumbling, religion without hypocrisy — all these things are contained in holiness.” St. Colman of Elo (555-611)

The life of the ordinary follower of God is a life of both/ands, rather than either/or, even though some may have greater value than others. Holiness is not a matter of doing something good to the extreme, but doing the good well. A holy life is a balanced life, unless God calls and gifts a person to do something different. Just because a particular saint lived a life of intense suffering or another intense poverty, that is not the call that God gives the ordinary person. We have to be the saint God wants us to be, not the saint someone was. Following the Gospel rule of holiness is to follow the will of God for each person, given their circumstances and state of life. We are not called to be a Mother Teresa of Calcutta in serving the poor. We are called to serve the poor, as God leads.