"The call to be a holy person is fundamental to what is implied in our baptism. It involves the premise that if we are grounded in the person of Christ, we will experience his holiness in the most ordinary events of our lives, and not only will our lives be deepened as a result, but we will be instruments of the holiness of God to others. The expe rience of holiness takes us beyond what we normally mean when we speak of a 'good Christian. For holiness is not limited to those whose lives are primarily church centered, but extends to those whose energies are expended dealing with the complexities of the world.

"Holiness is only tangentially related to how active we are in the institutional church-how many committees we serve on, how many

conferences we attend, how familiar we are with religious language. "Holiness is a description of what happens when the experience of God drives us into the events of day-to-day life with a new perspec-

tive and new energy for all that the Kingdom of God seeks to convey. "Holiness is not so much concerned about 'being religious' as it is with perspective and values and openness to the Spirit of God present in the world.

"Holiness is not a status we achieve, but the energy and vision we are given as a result of our encounter with the holiness of God in the midst of the complexities of human experience.

"The invitation to holiness in our time is serious business. It is an invitation presented to each of us in the many settings in which we find ourselves in the work place, in the political realm, in our communities and families and churches. It is an invitation to be used in a particular way for the opening stage of a new vision about what God intends for the world and to become in our own lives instruments of healing and grace." James C. Fenhagen, from Invitation to Holiness