The first problem is we don’t believe holiness is possible. The second problem is we don’t believe we can change the world.

Dedicate yourself above all else to becoming the-best-version-of-yourself. It is the best thing you can do for your spouse, your children, your friends, your colleagues, your employees, your employer, your church, your nation, the human family, and yourself.

Every time you become a-better-version-of-yourself, the con-sequences of your transformation echo throughout your family, friends, business, school, neighborhood, church, marriage, nation, and beyond to people and places in the future. It is God who does the transforming, but only to the extent that we cooperate. God’s grace is constant, never lacking. So our cooperation with God’s desire to transform us is essential; it is the variable. Are you willing to let God transform you?

Work is not everything, but when you are doing work that doesn’t engage you or, worse yet, work that you despise, it can massively affect every other aspect of your life. It is simply impossible to create enduring happiness without finding an approach to work that allows you to thrive. Ideally this means finding work that you are passionate about, but even if you are not in your dream job – or don’t know what your dream job would be – there are ways to thrive at work.

We can never get enough of what we don’t really need.

When our children know more about teen pop idols than they do about Jesus Christ, isn’t it time for us to reassess the place and priority our faith has in our lives?

Paul was abundantly clear in 1 Thessalonians 4:3 that the very will of God is our holiness. God wants us to live holy lives, grow in character and virtue, and become the-best-version-of-ourselves.

The reason most of us fail to achieve real and sustainable change in our lives is because we focus too much on the desired outcome and not enough on the progress we are making.

Too often in our modern culture, children are perceived as “nice to have” if you’ve got the time and the money and are prepared to suspend, or maybe even sacrifice, your career. Young couples today perceive the blessing of children not in relation to their true purpose, but rather in relation to their “quasi purpose” of financial independence.

You don’t have to go to Mass if you can tell me the one thing that you are going to do while I am at church with all your brothers that is more important than going to church and thanking God for another week of life.