Duc in Altum

According to the former Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, the ecclesiology of Vatican II includes the idea of the Church becoming "holiness":

To understand the ecclesiology of Vatican II one cannot ignore chapters 4 to 7 of the Constitution Lumen Gentium. These chapters discuss the laity, the universal call to holiness, the religious and the eschatological orientation of the Church. In these chapters the inner goal of the Church, the most essential part of its being, comes once again to the fore: holiness, conformity to God. There must exist in the world space for God, where he can dwell freely so that the world becomes His "Kingdom". Holiness is something greater than a moral quality. It is the presence of God with men, of men with God; it is God's "tent" pitched amongst men in our midst (cf. Jn 1,14). It is a new birth—not from flesh and blood but from God (Jn 1,13). Orientation towards holiness is one and the same as eschatological orientation. Beginning with Jesus' message it is fundamental for the Church. The Church exists to become God's dwelling place in the world, to become "holiness". This is the only reason there should be any struggle in the Church—and not for precedence or for the first place. All of this is repeated and synthesized in the last chapter of the Constitution on the Church that is dedicated to the Mother of the Lord.

As members of the Church we are to respond to the universal call to holiness. Those who respond and correspond to the grace given by our Lord are called saints. Some saints we know because they have been canonized by the Church. There are, of course, to be certain other saints who will only be known in heaven. One Web site is attempting to make such lesser known holy men and women of modern times more widely known. The Hagiographic Circle

is a body of young scholars bound by a common interest in "re-telling" the lives of contemporary models of holiness who, within the past seven years, have dedicated some of their time to reading, translating, and reflecting on biographies sent to us by promoters of beatification and canonization causes.

This website is the result of years of research and collaboration between the members of the Hagiography Circle with the Congregation of the Causes of Saints and the promoters of beatification and canonization processes. In establishing this website, we would like to share with our visitors the fruits of our labor and contemplation.

This is an interesting Web site. Although much of the site is under construction, it holds quite a bit of promise. The few lengthy biographies which are available are quite interesting One area that is complete and which might be interesting to many is the information on the process which must occur before a person is declared a saint.

Ever since I began to understand who the saints are, I have been fascinated by them. I am always amazed by the lives of the saints. Not because they were so good, but because God worked through them and all of their problems, defects, and sometimes very serious faults. It really does give me hope. I see that God was really tough with these men and women. He wanted them to be holy, and that means that they had to work really hard, pray really hard, and trust in God like you cannot believe. At first, that seems absolutely unattainable. And naturally speaking, it is out of reach. But then when I consider the number of saints and the variety of saints, I begin to realize, that yes, He really wants me to be one of them. He is extending that universal call of holiness to me, and I must seriously consider what I have been about and what I will be about if I am to respond to this call.

H/T: Moniales OP