All Saints Day

The celebration of All Saints Day is one of my favorite days of the year. It’s a time to reflect on those who have come before us in the faith – both ancient and recent. It’s a time to reflect on the lives of people like Polycarp, Mary of Egypt, Brother Juniper, and Mother Teresa. It also calls us to reflect on the lives of those saints who are closer to home, Martin Luther King Jr., Dorothy Day, Fr. Mychal Judge. Yet even still, and maybe slightly easier for those in the evangelical tradition, it calls us to celebrate those who brought us to faith and are no longer with us. I think of people like my Great-Gram Davis, a woman who most of the Church on earth doesn’t know, but who is counted among the saints in the great cloud of witnesses due to her love of Christ and his Church!

This holy day reminds us that the Church is made up of many saints who have come before us and who we are called to remember. They have set examples for us. They have shown us that it is indeed possible to live a virtuous and godly life in each and every generation of the Church! Remembering the saints and praying that we be like, reminds us that we too can be saints and that that is exactly our calling. As holiness people, we should rejoice and go all out for this holy day. It is the holy day for holiness people as it actively calls us to think of all those who have been holy. Another reason we should celebrate it, being a saint brings joy: to ourselves, to the world, and better yet, to Christ. It’s also just who we are meant to be. We are meant to be holy saints; this prayer reminds of us that. As Thomas Merton, a great modern day saint once said, “For me to be a saint is to be myself.”