Feast of All Saints

On November 1 we celebrate the Feast of All Saints, honoring all those who have died and whose souls are now in heaven. Many saints have been declared saints (have been canonized) by the Church. These people span all the centuries from the time of Christ up to the present. They were people, just like us, who faced challenges in their lives but overcame them by living lives of heroic virtue, exhibiting great charity, faith and hope. They were priests, bishops, religious brothers and sisters, husbands, wives, parents, young people, soldiers, servants of kings, navigators, craftsmen, teachers, writers, theologians, peasants, and people from all walks of life. Some suffered greatly for their faith, even being imprisoned, tortured, and martyred, dying for their Christian faith. Some devoted their lives to serving the poor, the sick, the dying, and those marginalized by society. Some wrote books, some wrote letters. None were perfect. They experienced sin in their lives as we do, but they strove to seek God’s mercy and forgiveness and not be ruled by it.

Many saints are depicted in the church, but some that we might not notice are in the Holy Spirit rose window. One pane depicts Doctors of the Church: St Jerome, St. Ambrose St. Augustine, and St. Gregory. One depicts the founder of the Passionists, Paul of the Cross, writing his rule for the order. The parents of Mary, St. Joachim and Anne are also in the Rose window.

St Joseph, the patron of our church, is in one of the high windows in the sanctuary. All of the Apostles and Evangelists are also pictured in the windows.

The lives of the saints can be a great inspiration to us as we strive and struggle to follow the will of God in our own lives. They don’t have power in and of themselves to help us, but they are powerful intercessors on our behalf before God. When we pray to the saints, they bring our prayers and petitions to God.

If we are not in the habit of praying to the saints maybe we can start on this Holy Day. Many of us have patron saints of our Baptism or Confirmation. These might be good saints to start with. We might ask ourselves what characteristics of our Confirmation saint inspired us to take his or her name. We might find a saint who is the patron of something that we do, or of an illness or condition that we have. We might find a saint whose life particularly inspires us. We can ask the saint to bring our needs to the Lord. May we experience the grace of God in our lives through the powerful intercession of the Saints.