Everyday Sanctity
A Christian vocation is a call to holiness.
In Schoenstatt, this call is understood as everyday (or workday) sanctity, meaning the integration of one’s faith with every aspect of ordinary life. Father Kentenich contrasted it with the Sunday sanctity of Christians who go to church on Sunday but don’t manifest their faith in everyday life.
Everyday sanctity can be described as doing one’s ordinary duties in an extraordinary way (ordinaria extraordinarie) or as fulfilling the duties of one’s state in life as perfectly as possible out of a total love for God. Father Kentenich developed its most comprehensive definition in 1932:
“Everyday sanctity is the God-pleasing harmony between wholehearted attachment to God, work, and fellow human beings in every circumstance of life.”
Everyday sanctity is therefore attentive about not neglecting God because of the world, nor one’s family because of apostolate, nor one’s neighbor because of work, nor one’s duties in life because of God. The ideal of the everyday saint is to strike the proper balance between the natural, spiritual, and supernatural sides of the individual and community, so that’s one’s spiritual life is strengthened by good health, one’s physical faculties augmented by clear thinking, and one’s resolution of mind and will tempered by respect for one’s emotions.
Everyday sanctity also seeks to integrate work, prayer, and suffering. In this context, Schoenstatt understands work as a person’s share in the creative activity of God, prayer as a dialog of love with God, and suffering as a crucial part of the Christian vocation.