Remembering a Friend on His Birthday: Holiness in Ordinary

I didn't actually say I wouldn't post this weekend, did I? :)

What prompts me to do so today is that today's the birthday (in 1916) of a remarkable person who, along with his wife, had a great deal of influence on Steve's and my life over many years, and I feel prompted to share with you some memories of these friends. Two nights ago, I dreamt of them, and yesterday when I thought about the dream, I did a bit of googling and discovered that today is my friend's birthday. Abner died in 2003 and his wife in 2005, not long after she and the other elderly residents of the care home in which she was living were evacuated from New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina. 

A Vacation Report: We Go to the Courthouse to Research, We See Couples Entering Holy Institution of Marriage

Another morning when I have less time than I'd like to blog, since we'll pack and drive in a few minutes across the state from Crown Point to Fort Wayne, Indiana, where we'll be spending a number of days researching at the fabled (for genealogists) Allen County Public Library. Before we pack, though, a final report on events on this first leg of our journey:

Mary Doria Russell on Holiness: "Bombs Do Not Drop from God's Hand"

Another reflection from my reading over the years, on the theme of what constitutes holiness--this is Mary Doria Russell in her book A Thread of Grace (NY: Ballantine, 2005):

United Nations Declares July 12 "Malala Day": A Reflection on Saints for Our Times

A few days ago, a reader, bosicO, suggested here that reform-minded groups within the Catholic church should put forth their own candidates for sainthood--and that these need not be Catholic. Bosic's thinking about this matter dovetails with my own. I've long had my own eccentric, idiosyncratic canon of saints who have made a profound difference in my own life, but will never--barring miracles I don't see coming down the pike--be officially canonized.

Rumi on Holiness: "A Saint Is a Cloud That's Here, But with Its Cloud Nature Erased"

Another in the series of postings I've been making lately about the definition of the holy life or the making of a saintly life--this one from the Persian mystic poet widely seen as a saint in Sufi circles, in The Soul of Rumi: A New Collection of Ecstatic Poems, trans. Coleman Barks (NY Harper, 2002). This is from a poem of Rumi that Barks entitles "A Way of Leaving the World":

May Sarton on Holiness: Detachment as Inability to Love, Holiness as Loving Engagement with Others and the Created World

Another excerpt from things I've read over the years dealing with the question of how to define holiness--this from May Sarton, The House by the Sea (NY: W.W. Norton, 1977):

Alan Jones on Holiness in Our Time: "Finding a Story That Sees the Planet as a Holy Place and Includes Everybody"

As a complement to the (admittedly dreary) postings about the canonization of John Paul II with which I'm peppering you these days, I thought I'd reach into another of my grab bags and pull out some insightful statements that have caught my attention over the years, about the theme of holiness. What constitutes holiness? What do people look for when they look for role models in the life of holiness?