Every year at the beginning of November, we celebrate the solemnity of All Saints, followed closely by the feast of All Souls. As we approach the end of one liturgical year and the beginning of another, it seems appropriate that we take a moment to celebrate and to remember our brothers and sisters in the communion of saints.
The saints are not just static models of what we ought to be. Though they certainly provide powerful examples of holiness across a delightful range of personalities, vocations, and circumstances, they also offer us their friendship – each of us personally – in the concrete realities of our lives. In fact, following the example of our beloved monk, Br. Edward Mancuso, and his love for Blessed Solanus Casey, I’d invite you to listen for ways that a particular saint might be offering you their special friendship today. For the saints remain active in assisting us, praying both for and with us and petitioning God for what we don’t always know how to request. We celebrate the joy of this on the Solemnity of All Saints, November 1.
Speaking for myself, since I’m definitely still learning how to pray, I like to ask the Blessed Mother and St. Joseph to pray with me and make up what I lack in my own words and intentions. I know their wisdom and tenderness fill in the many gaps in what I remember, request, and understand, so that even my weakness can become a kind of strength, fortified by their help.
Ultimately, because the saints are active in our lives, they also show us how to remain active in the lives of our brothers and sisters. In the company of the Communion of Saints, we seek the good of all our loved ones and fellow members of the Body of Christ, recommending them at all times to God’s merciful care and loving will. On All Souls’ day in particular, we extend this to those who went before us and who now await divine beatitude. Purgatory is not a punishment but a mercy: a place that takes the refusal inherent in our sins and selfishness – all the ways we deferred our full commitment to God and our loving participation in the lives of our brothers and sisters – and responds with an invitation to suffering patience, a promise that inflames our desire for God until it burns away those things that hold us back from Him and from others.
As St. Catherine of Genoa writes, “I don’t believe it would be possible to find any joy comparable to that of a soul in purgatory, except the joy of the blessed in paradise. For it is a joy that goes on increasing… as God more and more flows in upon the soul, which He does abundantly in proportion as every hindrance to His entrance is consumed away.” It isn’t that Purgatory is a concrete place or length of time, from which our prayers release souls, but that God allows us to unite our prayers and sacrifices for our departed brothers and sisters with His purifying love as it prepares them to embrace a full and unobstructed life with Him in heaven. What a joy to remember that our participation in the lives of those we love continues even after their death – that our life in Christ remains what it always was: a shared community of love!
This weekend as we embrace our participation in this community, let’s remember all those who have gone before us. And if you have a favorite saint or a story about how they impacted your life, I hope you’ll share it!
