Everyday Holiness

When God created man, He gave him great dignity, creating him in His own image. He gave him unique abilities, to know, understand, feel and to choose - abilities that allow him to make a difference for himself and others. He invited him to assume great responsibilities as His children, caretakers of the world in which he was placed. He was called to great heights - to walk intimately in union with God and enjoy the gift of being the most exalted of earthly creatures. However, in all this, God did not ask man to make himself great, or seek to compete with Himself in doing great things. He asked of man to be a faithful child, true to his nature and destiny, walking in trust, love and service every day. This is the vocation of every

human being - a vocation of greatness, not in accomplishments, but in depths of union with God. This is all the more so, since God has made it clear, that the world in which we currently live and work and strive and grow, is a passing one. Its importance is in that it is the realm in which we become most fully the children of

God we are called to be. Despite its evident brokenness due to our sins, it is still the useful forum for growing in grace and love and goodness. All that happens here will shape our lives for eternity. However, it will also all pass away, hence again, it is not about creating lasting monuments here, but in becoming persons of lasting and eternal beauty.

St. Joseph Marello, profoundly immersed in love of God and no doubt with wisdom and understanding bestowed by the Holy Spirit, perceived this most clearly. He knew truly what the role of man, and his own role was to be: to be holy, to be the child of God, wholly united to him that God most desired. He also saw that the

person who most especially embraced and lived this was St. Joseph. Alongside Mary, St. Joseph walked a path of the utmost closeness to God, of genuine inner love and union, of ongoing contemplation, and consequently, of generous humble service to Jesus and Mary and to all those he encountered in life. All while doing

nothing outstanding, nothing enduring, nothing worthy of note or recognition. He simply live and worked in Nazareth, a village craftsman at the service of all, devoted husband to Mary and tender father to Jesus. Greatness on the inside, where it matters. Simplicity and ordinariness on the outside, in a life that would

pass away. This was to be Marello’s personal inspiration.

Marello adopted it in his ministry as a priest, in the often hidden and unnoticed work of the chancery, the cathedral confessional, the seminary. It was what he communicated to his Oblates, upon founding our community: a vision of St. Joseph, a life of hidden work but abundant grace. It was his style as Bishop of

Acqui, moving from parish to parish, the routine of life as a pastor of his flock and helpful to his fellow Bishops in their needs as well - how often he found himself filling in for one or another of them due their health and limitations, barely noticed in passing, right to the end in Savona. Marello’s was a life of everyday holiness. Everything that he did, he did with all his heart, for the Lord and in union with Him. He sought no recognitions, no acclamations - in fact often deliberately avoiding them and seeking to remain unseen and unnoticed. He grew in personal holiness by means of his personal prayer, not needing human rewards or attainments, but content in God’s contentment with Him. He knew that even the small deeds of daily life, the

elements of routine significance, of negligible status, are the material with which God could be served. Every ordinary moment, was an opportunity to grow with God, not to be overlooked but also not to be dramatized.

Marello believed, lived and taught, that great holiness consists in simply doing with extraordinary love, the things of our ordinary lives. If our hearts were with Christ, like St. Joseph’s was, then it did not matter what we did, for if we did it for Him, its value, its spiritual value, is immense. Earthly recognition only feeds our ego,

humble hidden service for Christ feeds our soul’s union with God and enables us in turn to be all the more effective servants of God’s Kingdom among us.

Fr. Gregory Finn, OSJ

General Councilor