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If we don’t know who we are as Catholics, and if we don’t keep firmly in mind our common Christian vocation to holiness, we will not be able to fulfill our particular vocations and we will not be able, as a Church, to fulfill Christ’s command to bring Him and His Good News to every corner of the world.
We have to know who we are and live who we say we are in order to have any influence in the public square, especially in this time when so many are trying to marginalize Christ and His disciples.
The recovery of our Catholic identity is the point of the New Evangelization and the upcoming Year of Faith, which Pope Benedict has called us to observe.
Old prayer books, as yet untainted by the fuzzy thinking and confused dreaming that oozed out of the “spirit of Vatican II”, have useful, clear, concise prayers which we should – for the sake of our Catholic identity – recover and use and teach to our children.
Here is a fine set of five intentions. They are distillations, as it were, of the intentions found in various longer prayers and acts of contrition.
Live by these, friends, and you will become saintly, which is the common vocation to which every disciple of Christ is called.
| Quinque puncta ante, vel post Missam, aut Communionem, utiliter valde recitanda. | Five Points To Be Recited Usefully Either Before Mass or Communion. |
| I. Detestor et abominor omnia et singula peccata mea, et omnium aliorum commissa ab initio mundi usque in hanc horam, et deinceps usque ad finem mundi committenda: et, si possem, impedirem per gratiam Dei, quam supplex invoco. | I. I detest and abhor my each and every sin, and those of all others committed from the beginning of the world until this hour and that will be committed from now unto the end of the world: and, if I could, I would impede them by the grace of God, which on my knees I call upon. |
| II. Laudo et approbo omnia bona opera, facta a principio mundi usque in hanc horam, et deinceps usque in finem mundi facienda: et, si possem, ea multiplicarem per gratiam Dei, quam supplex invoco. | II. I praise and approve of every good work done from the beginning of the world until this hour and that will be done from now unto end of the world; and if I could, I would multiply them by the grace of God, which on my knees I call upon. |
| III. Intendo omnia facere, dicere et cogitare ad maiorem Dei gloriam, cum omnibus illis bonis intentionibus, quas Sancti unquam habuerunt, vel habebunt, vel habere possunt. | III. I intend to act, to speak, and to think all things for the greater glory of God, with all those good intentions which the Saints ever had, or will have, or can have. |
| IV. Ignosco et dimitto ex toto corde meo omnibus inimicis meis, omnibus me calumniantibus, omnis mihi detrahentibus, omnibus quocumque modo mihi nocentibus, vel volentibus mala. | IV. With all my heart I pardon and forgive all my enemies, all those who attack me falsely, all my detractors, and all who have injured me in any way, or have wished evil things upon me. |
| V. Utinam omnes homines salvare possem moriendo pro singulis! Libenter id facerem per gratiam Dei, quam propterea suppliciter imploro, et sine qua nihil possum. | V. Would that I could save all men by dying on behalf of each! I would do this freely by the grace of God, which I humbly implore on my knees, and without which I can do nothing. |
Do not be discouraged if you don’t at this time live up to these aspirations. These five points should be repeated, often. Developing virtues, which are habits, takes a long time, sometimes even the length of a lifetime.
Strive and do not be discouraged.
On the site of the 
So, Sister Joan, women religious cannot be religious except within canonical structures. Period.
Each day I like to read the entry in the Martyrologium Romanum. Today there are several entries which could be the staring points for discussions of holiness and salvation.
