For those of us who feel the life of parenting young children isn’t suitable for attaining to any holiness, the witness of married saints is very welcome! 

Their lives offer a jolt of encouragement just when we need it the most. After all, these couples did it! They faced similar challenges and fears: they changed diapers, tended kids in the middle of the night, worried about finances and their kids’ futures, and still exemplified the faith so beautifully. They did all of this—and their holiness was recognized by the Church.
 
In this season of Easter joy, let’s highlight two saintly couples and see what they can teach us about building a strong Trinity House. After all, we are called to holiness together as a couple, not in some abstract “lone ranger” kind of way. For those who are married, we are one another’s ladder (hopefully not obstacle!) to heaven.
 
Saints Louis and Zelie Martin

The parents of St. Thérèse of Lisieux spoke of their individual children as “a trust received from the Creator’s hands.” As Leonard DeLorenzo explains in “Saints for Married Couples“, Louis was a clockmaker who, prior to marriage, had thought he was destined to be a monk. Zelie, a lacemaker, had once thought that she was called to be a nun. Instead, united in marriage, the Martins set out to create a home in which, to recall a phrase of Dorothy Day, “it would be easier to be good.” As point of fact, St. Thérèse would one day recall, “God gave me a father and a mother who were more worthy of heaven than of earth.” 
 
Takeaway: Inspired by the Martins, let’s call upon the Lord to help us create homes in which our children will find it “easier to be good.” What does that mean in real life? We think it means removing temptations and creating a family lifestyle that fills up their time with good pursuits, making them into well-rounded people—like family prayer times, quality one-on-one time like daily walks, shared work and a focus on solid education and chores done well, family meals, limited sports, and hosting friends. When kids spend their time in these types of pursuits, it’s easier to be good.
 
Pietro and Saint Gianna Molla 

Pregnant with her fourth child and facing the possibility of death due to a fibroma on her uterus, St. Gianna refused to have an abortion or hysterectomy, and died at the age of 39 in 1962. We’ve often heard of this act of loving courage, but her family life with Pietro is also inspiring. “Three months after their wedding,” DeLorenzo writes, “Pietro wrote to Gianna of his prayer that God ‘may make of our new family a little cenacle [a place of retreat; also, the Upper Room] where Jesus will always reign over all our affections, desires, and actions.’” If only every family could launch with such a clear and inspiring vision for the years ahead!

Takeaway: Inspired by the Mollas, let’s invite the Lord into our Trinity House—or “little cenacle”—and ask Jesus to “reign over all our affections, desires, and actions.” What does this mean in the daily life of a Trinity House? It means that though there are so many aspects to Christian family life, if we can only focus on one, it should be retreating to a quiet place to spend time with the Lord together. It should be family prayer time.
 
“Lives of married saints” shouldn’t be an archaic literary genre. The lives of these and many other married saints are pulsing with lessons and inspiration for us and every couple today—who are likewise called to be saints no matter the obstacles before us.

None of us runs the race of faith in an empty stadium. In fact, we run the race in a stadium packed with the communion of saints—many of whom were married—who have gone before us and who now intercede for us this very moment. Renewed by the reality of this communion, may we take heart!