Today we celebrate the Solemnity of All Saints.\u00a0 It is a holy day of obligation, meaning that we should all gather at Church for Mass today.\u00a0 It is a solemnity and a holy day of obligation because of the important role that saints have in our Catholic theology.<\/p>\n
We probably all know the names of at least a few saints.\u00a0 Some of the most common include St. Joseph, St. Peter, St. John, St. Mary, and St. Francis.\u00a0 Today at our school Mass I asked the children the names of the some of the saints.\u00a0 One, much to my surprise, answered St. Louis.\u00a0 Now there is a St. Louis but he isn’t one that I would expect children to know.\u00a0 After Mass, his teacher said he knew the name “St. Louis” because the St. Louis’ Cardinals won the world series last week.\u00a0 I guess we can hear the name of a saint almost anyplace.<\/p>\n
Each saint that we know by name has their own feast or memorial.\u00a0 To be a saint is to live in the fullness of God’s presence in the Kingdom of Heaven.\u00a0 So, for every saint we might know by name, there can be countless others who have left this life to be with God in the heavenly kingdom that we don’t know the names of.\u00a0 Today’s Solemnity of All Saints honors all the saints<\/em> whether we know their names or not.<\/p>\n Our Catholic theology of saints is misunderstood by many people (both Catholics and non-Catholics).\u00a0 We do not worship<\/em> the saints.\u00a0 That would be idolatry and break the First Commandment to worship only one God.\u00a0 So, we venerate<\/em> the saints.\u00a0 Now, I have to admit the first time I heard the term “venerate” I had to go look it up in\u00a0a dictionary.\u00a0 For those who don’t know what it means, it is to have a great respect for the saints.<\/p>\n Another misunderstanding of saints is some people think we pray to the saints<\/em>, asking the saints to do the miracles.\u00a0 God, not the saints, is the one who performs miracles.\u00a0 So we do not pray to the saints.\u00a0 Instead, we, recognizing their divine place in Heaven, ask them to intercede for us to the Father.<\/p>\n How does one get to be a saint?\u00a0 By following the model that Jesus gives in today’s gospel (The Beatitudes<\/a>).\u00a0 We must be poor in spirit, humble, and meek.\u00a0 To put it as it appears in the Children’s Lectionary, “Blessed are they who know they need God.”<\/p>\n We need God.\u00a0 There should be no doubt about that.\u00a0 We are capable of doing great things but only because God gives us the gifts we need to do them.\u00a0 We accept these gifts when we realize that we can’t do it all by ourselves.\u00a0 The saints know that and that is why they followed Jesus.\u00a0 So, the saints are a role model of good Christian living to us.<\/p>\n Lastly, we should not forget what we Catholics call the Communion of Saints.\u00a0 In baptism, we all become one family, sharing in the faith Jesus has given us.\u00a0 There are three groups of people in the Communion of Saints.\u00a0 First are those who we call saints and live in the heavenly kingdom now.\u00a0 The second group of people are those in Purgatory (Yes, purgatory still exists).\u00a0 Lastly, the third category are those of us who are baptized children of God but still living here on other.\u00a0 We are linked together through baptism.\u00a0 So, we pray for the souls in Purgatory who are being cleansed of their sins while those in Heaven pray for us.<\/p>\n It is holding all of this in our hearts and souls that we seek the intercession of all the saints.<\/p>\n Peace,<\/p>\n Fr. Jeff<\/p>\n P.S. For more on purgatory read my previous blog, “Is Purgatory Gone?”.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Today we celebrate the Solemnity of All Saints.\u00a0 It is a holy day of obligation, meaning that we should all gather at Church for Mass today.\u00a0 It is a solemnity and a holy day of obligation because of the important role that saints have in our Catholic theology. We probably all know the names of …<\/p>\n