According to their dispositions, some of the saints have been quiet and studious, others irrepressibly outgoing; some cautious, others impulsive; some able administrators, others retiring and unsuited for public service.

What then, is the special quality which makes people saints in spite of their very varied talents and personalities and place in life?

First, they believe in God with an absolute conviction which shapes the way they think and the way they live.  They rely on him as we rely on the invisible air around us, without which we know we cannot stay alive.  To be without God – to be deprived of the consciousness of his Presence and love – would be for them a horror of great darkness of the kind that engulfed Our Lord’s soul on the Cross on Good Friday.