Can I Become a Saint? Yes!

What’s cool about the world of Catholic publishing is that you can tell if something is in line with Church teaching by the nihil obstat and imprimatur, which can usually be found on the inside title page. There is also something called the imprimi potest. It’s a rank below the imprimatur because it means that a superior of a religious order deemed the book free of doctrinal error, whereas the imprimatur means that a bishop has seemed it so.

Latin lesson aside, I finished You Can Become a Saint! by Mary Ann Budnik. This book felt to me like a Catholic version of The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People and had an imprimi potest instead of an imprimatur. The author is not a religious sister, so I assume she was part of a lay order (probably Opus Dei), and her superior gave the approval. On the whole, I really liked the book because it gave practical, realistic tips about how to grow in the spiritual life and in the faith. Because it was published in 1990, it had somewhat of an old-fashioned tone. It referenced ancient pieces of technology such as landline phones and had zero mention of the internet or social media. In some ways, this was a relief. A few of the most interesting or thought-provoking takeaways from the book were these:

• The author mentioned Gabrielle Bossis (never heard of her before reading this), a Catholic laywoman, playwright, and mystic (although not a canonized saint). God told her to keep a diary, which I found interesting, because I get the sense that there are some saints or mystics who were specifically told not to write. Perhaps they had other talents, and God gave them those talents, so he knows best. At this point, I don’t really understand mysticism. It all seems very hoax-y to me, so I guess it’s something to look into further.
• Quote from the book: “Rest does not mean doing nothing. Rather, it means changing from one activity to another.” I had this same thought when my son was about a year old. People go to work to escape their families, and they come home to their families to escape work. Maybe not exactly what the author was getting at, but that was my interpretation. So… go vacuum the living room to get rest from cleaning the bathroom! Go to Etsy to get rest from Amazon!
• The author briefly touched on the life of St. Jerome, who promised he would never again read secular and profane writing. Me too, St. Jerome. Me too. See below.
• You are what you read; quote from the book: “Most of the best sellers today can do enormous damage to your spiritual growth.” I had been thinking along those same lines for a while before I read this book, and that was mostly what led me to stop reading popular fiction. It wasn’t really doing me any good except providing brief entertainment. Most of the books I read tend to be forgotten in a matter of weeks. And I get tired of the major publishers inserting “woke” things into books. Sometimes I prefer to remain “asleep.”
• Quote from the book: “Mary… has no moods.” Of course, the Mary in question is the Mother of Jesus. I wasn’t sure that it is accurate to say she has no moods. I thought it meant that maybe she isn’t moody or doesn’t give into extreme emotions. Sometimes the book made Mary seem like a kind of holy robot. Although she was sinless, I’m sure she had moods and emotions (and hormonal torments), just like any woman.
• Quote from the book: “It was either acquire virtues or lose my mind.” This was in the context of the author’s struggle to sell her house, but it’s applicable anywhere there is a conflict. All aboard the spiritual struggle bus!
• Quote from the book: “…instead of forever saving and investing, one generously employs wealth for the furtherance of great undertakings…” Dave Ramsey and his ilk are always harping on people to save, save, save. Ramsey does say to be generous with one’s money once one has unburied oneself from debt, but what frustrates me, because I tend to take things way too seriously, is when exactly one stops saving. If the goal is to remain debt free, I will be saving money for the rest of my life if I ever want to live in a McMansion or send the kids to college without student loans. (Not realistic, I know.) I suppose God needs to step in and tell people what to do with their money. And who’s to say that college isn’t a great undertaking?
• Close to the end of the book was a typo, “personal roll,” obviously supposed to be “personal role.” But when I read the book, we were in the midst of Lent, and that typo made me crave my own personal roll from Saltgrass Steak House or someplace similar.

tldr: This book is worth at least a skim. The author brings up some interesting points and includes quotes from time-honored spiritual reading material (that received the imprimatur instead of the imprimi potest). She does tend to get repetitive at times, but so much of what she says does bear repeating.