If asked: What are you dressing up as for Halloween? The answers would be varied.
Yesterday, on the Facebook page of my niece in Virginia she posted pictures of her children who were part of the School Halloween Party. They went dressed as: Pope Francis and the Blessed Mother. (Full disclosure, it is a Catholic School and their parents are very much practicing Catholics)
Another question, we’ve all been asked, more than once in our lives, what do you want to be when you grow up? And the answers are numerous, but I would guess we have never heard someone say: “I want to be a Saint, when I grow up.”
Well on this Feast of All Saints; today is your day and my day. Truth is we often see ourselves as far too ordinary and flawed to consider ourselves – “Saint material.” We are all meant by God to be Saints. Many of the Saints we know have brought some baggage with them. They were not perfect, they like us, all had flaws and blind spots.
Yet, the one thing that all the Saints share is living a life that cooperated with the grace of God to advance the Kingdom of God here on Earth as it is in Heaven. They may have struggled, but they never gave up, they relied on God’s grace to move forward, growing as a person and person of God.
The door is open to everyone to be a Saint. One does not even have to be Catholic or a Christian to be a Saint. The important thing is that we live our lives in accord with the graces God has given each of us.
What are some of the graces or gifts that God has given us? Positivity — Enthusiasm — Friendliness — Confidence — Humility — Honesty — Kindness — Compassion — Approachability — Generosity — Encouragement.
Today’s Gospel, The Beatitudes, offers a few more qualities for people on the road to Holiness and Saintliness. Becoming poor in spirit, meek, merciful and peacemakers.
Each of us can list a few names from the official list of Saints whose lives have inspired us. Yet, I would suggest there is another list to consider.
Sometime today, go through you address nook or your Christmas card list. Better yet if it is not updated; even includes people who have died. As you go through the names of the people, pray, “I thank God for all my remembrances of you.”
Each of these names is a person who has inspired you, taught you, supported you, loved you. This is, if you will your own – Litany of Saints.
Let this list of family members, friends and acquaintances be a reminder to you to continue to persevere in becoming the holy person that we are all called to be, flawed though we be, we can, with the grace of God, become Saints.
Finally, one person has written, “one of the greatest gifts we can give ourselves and our children is the gift of learning about and from the lives of our Saints.”
I would add the greatest gift we can give our children and one another is allowing God to continue to transform us from ordinary people into holy people, into saints.
Everyday is an opportunity to progress in becoming Saints.