St. Irenaeus, a bishop and early Church Father, wrote, “The glory of God is man fully alive.”  I love this quote.  In one sentence he describes what it means to be holy.  To be holy means being fully alive; to be holy means being fully the persons God created us to be.

To be fully alive is not equivalent to the modern notion of “living life to its fullest.”  When many people talk about living life to its fullest, what they really mean is that we should indulge in as many pleasures as possible, pamper ourselves, and just be comfortable.  Not that there’s anything wrong with pampering ourselves once in a while, but that’s not exactly what St. Irenaues meant.

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