Saints Are Made

Peter Kreeft wrote, “Saints are never made except by prayer.” This is such an important lesson for each of us.

Nowadays, we probably know more about the saints than at any point in history.

We so often look at and focus on the big actions the saints take—the moments of heroic virtue, performing miracles, standing up for the faith in a courageous way, acting out of justice for the poor. These things are amazing, and we should strive to emulate them.

But they’re impossible if they don’t first come from a place of prayer. The prayer came first. Everything else followed.

We tend to reverse this in our own lives. We think, “I’ll do these good things, and that will make me holy.” We focus on the actions—volunteering, giving to the poor, standing up for what’s right. All good things. But if they’re not rooted in prayer, we’re building on sand.

Prayer is what transforms good actions into holy ones. Prayer is what sustains us when the heroic moment requires more than we have to give. Prayer is what keeps our motivations pure and our hearts oriented toward God rather than our own righteousness.

The saints weren’t great because they did great things. They did great things because they prayed.