This is life's greatest truth and its hardest lesson. It is a great truth because it reminds us of our power. Not power over others, but the often untapped power to be ourselves and to live the life we have imagined.

It is a hard lesson, because it causes us to realize that we have chosen the life we are living right now. It is perhaps frightening because we may not like what we find when we look at our lives today. But it is also liberating, because we can now begin to choose what we will find when we look at our life in the tomorrows that lie unlived before us.

Saint Otto knew this truth intimately, and chose to live a life uncommon. 

Born into nobility, Otto could have chosen a life of comfort and ease. Yet, he opted for a path that was far from the princely corridors of secular power. His choice to enter the Church and set out on a missionary journey to Poland was driven by a desire to serve, to lead by example, and to spread the Christian faith.

Otto’s choices led him to face the immense challenge of communicating the faith to a proud, pagan people. So, he had more choices to make. He chose hope over despair, action over inaction, and faith over doubt. 

Saint Otto’s choices created a ripple effect of goodness that echoes down the centuries. Poland has long been one of the most staunchly Catholic countries in the world.

Life is choices.

You have chosen to live this day. You have chosen to read Today’s Saint. You have chosen to live in a certain city. You have chosen to believe certain ideas. You have chosen the people you call friends. 

You choose to be calm or restless, you choose to feel appreciative or ungrateful. Love is a choice. Anger is a choice. Fear is a choice. Courage is a choice. You choose.

Sometimes we choose the-best-version-of-ourselves, and sometimes we choose a-second-rate-version-of-ourselves.

Everything is a choice, and our choices echo throughout our lives... and into history... and on and on into eternity.

Most people never fully accept this truth. I hope that you realize it today. Because the day we accept that we choose our choices is the day we cast off the shackles of victimhood and are set free to pursue the lives we were born to live.

I hope that day is today. Learn to master the moment of decision and you will live a life uncommon.



Feast Day: July 2

Feast Day Shared By: Saints Processus and Martynians

Also Known As: Otto of Bamberg

Patron Saint: Against Fevers and Rabies

Canonized: 1189

Canonized By: Pope Clement III