Infinity in an everyday gesture. The revolution of the saints next door!

On November 9, a new light shines in the spiritual calendar of our communities. Beginning in 2025, particular Churches and dioceses will be invited, indeed “urged,” to celebrate and honor the saints, blesseds, venerables, and servants of God connected to their respective territories. This is not about adding another feast, but about an extraordinary opportunity, requested directly by Pope Francis, to “rediscover or perpetuate the memory of extraordinary disciples of Christ” who are still today “sure guides on our shared journey toward God, protecting and supporting us.” But who are these figures who radiate the presence of the risen Lord? They are the “saints next door”!

Holiness: a goal possible for everyone

This call to rediscover holiness is rooted in the apostolic exhortation Gaudete et Exsultate and reminds us that holiness is not confined to sensational acts or a spiritual elite, but is a goal possible for everyone. Holiness is the testimony of the Gospel lived day after day, often “without fanfare or memorable deeds.” It is the holiness of men and women who have lived their faith with the most disarming simplicity: spouses who have lived their love faithfully; men and women who have supported their families through their work; religious, pastors, enthusiastic young people, the poor, the sick, and those who suffer.

Holiness is here and now

It is in response to this urgent appeal from Pope Francis, taken up and perpetuated by Pope Leo XIV, that Be holy, be happy was created, a new, powerful collection, a true vademecum edited by Father Andrea Vena, which invites us not to fear this journey: holiness “does not take away strength, life, joy, or freedom”; on the contrary, it makes you “more human, helps you become more and more who you are, makes you more beautiful, more authentic, happier!”. The stories contained in this book prove that holiness is highly relevant today and manifests itself at the heart of our everyday lives. Here we will meet figures who knew how to find the Infinite within the finite, demonstrating that the saints are the “sign of God” in everyday history and the true “revolution.”

For example, consider Saint Carlo Acutis, a boy like all the others, who went to pizzerias with his friends and played soccer, but found his “highway to heaven” in daily Eucharist. He was not possessive about his “kit for becoming saints”: Mass, Communion, daily Rosary, and a willingness to give something up for others. His strength lay in the certainty of being loved by God, a love that moved him to give his savings to a beggar for a sleeping bag and to smile in the face of leukemia. Or the luminous story of Blessed Chiara Luce Badano, who, struck by sarcoma at just 17, knew how to transform her ordeal into a “wonderful ‘love story’”, learning to “play along with God.” Her legs could no longer run, but the Lord gave her “wings,” as she wished to pass the torch of life on to young people. And figures such as the servant of God Chiara Corbella Petrillo, who endured the pain of losing two children with unshakable faith, discovering that “we are born and will never die again.” Her life was a hymn to the Love that consumes you and teaches us to trust fully in God’s plan. Holiness is also civic commitment taken to the extreme, as in the case of Blessed Rosario Livatino, the young judge who worked on anti-Mafia investigations and wrote “Sub Tutela Dei” in his diary, joining the uncompromising demands of justice with the law of charity. Or the lay courage of Blessed Giuseppe Toniolo, a husband and father of seven, an economist who placed the primacy of ethics in economics and the elevation of the humble at the center of his teaching.

Live, don’t merely get by

These heroes of faith are not distant figures, but intercessors whom we can turn to. They urge us to abandon the idea of merely “getting by” and embrace the adventure of life lived to the full. As Saint Pier Giorgio Frassati said: “To live without faith... is not living but merely getting by. We must never merely get by, but live.” Let us not be fascinated by the controversial and insubstantial models of success that the world offers us. Looking to the saints, to their weaknesses and the way they transformed them into springboards for an encounter with God, will help us answer the question that the Lord whispers to everyone, including you who are reading: “Be holy, because I am holy.”

Do you want to understand how to make your life a masterpiece? Respond to the Lord’s invitation and discover the key to complete happiness. Your journey toward holiness begins today!