My family strives for holiness quite comfortably.

We have jobs. Healthcare. A house. 2 cars. Money in the bank. Family readily available to help with childcare.

Holiness obviously can be found & sought in any circumstance, but I can’t deny my privilege as we strive for it.

I don’t have a fully thought out point just yet, but I’m deconstructing a ton of what I’ve been told/taught holiness is in regards to a family, and I’m coming to realize that our comfort - our privilege - may sometimes actually be hindering our growth in it.

This recently came to my mind after a conversation with a friend. She asked me how we make time for family prayer. So I talked about Mass on Sunday, dinner with grace before meals, incorporating liturgical living items/traditions.

What I thought was just simple & easy stuff.

She then reminded me that she works nearly always double shifts at a grocery store, her husband is deployed, & her kids spend half the week with friends babysitting them because she closes the store 3-4 nights a week.

Family dinner rarely happens. Sunday Mass, even less often.

They’re making it. But barely. And she would love for nothing more than to “do the things” that we often share with a filter & cute caption on Insta.

But that reality doesn’t exist for them. Her extra $20 a month doesn’t go to special baking supplies to make fun liturgical food.

So as I reflect on holiness, & how I’m trying to grow in it with my husband & kids, I can’t help but think about how that’s often made “easy” by the circumstances we find ourselves in, and it demands that I also try to help those who do not have it as easy as we do.