What price holiness?

Yesterday I went to the launch of a book entitled, 'Authentic holiness'. The subject of the book may not appeal to some who have got wrong ideas of holiness and think it means being humourless or imprcticable or both. But hang on, some of the most holy people I have known have had a twinkle in the eye, been very down to earth - and not a bit dotty! Essentially to be holy means to be set apart for God - a bit like great athletes are set apart for their sport - and that doesn't mean being 'elbowy' or offputting. On the contrary, saints alive don't have haloes but they do have hearts and warm smiles and there are plenty of them about.