Happy All Saints Day!

Oh what a day it has been! Christ has blessed me so much; I feel as though I could burst with Love.

I started the day by going to mass early, hoping to just dive right into the celebration of the saints. While the liturgical celebration was not what I had hoped for, I really saw how the power of Christ's glory is not inhibited by the failings of his Church. The sacraments and the Holy Mother Church are his and he is present through them wheter we respond or not. But, oh how our Lord needs willing souls in order to spread his grace fruitfully. All of these thoughts were flowing through my mind during mass. Then it hit me......that is why the saints lives are just so wonderful! They did respond. They were open. What great fruit they have bore for the sake of the kingdom.

It just amazes me how different each saint is. I sometimes have this dillusion that if I allow Christ's will to be done in my life I will somehow lose myself. I mean in a sense I am losing myself but I am losing myself in order to become more of myself. What a paradox! But, gosh the saints make this clear. They lost themselves in Christ and his holy will; and yet they were completley themselves so different and so unique. Each one showing us a new path to Christ.

Each of us are called to do the same. To have the same goal, but to embrace the different ways of getting there. I have had this image stuck in my head all day of me running this race. I can see a light at the end..it is the love that beckons me forward. On the sidelines are the saints..filled with this light and love. They are cheering me on while I run my own path showing me that if they made it, I can too. While passing me cups of water that are grace filled prayers. (I have this great image of my beloved John Paul the Great with a sweat band passing me his prayers for my sanctification!!). But, there are also people running with me..those I call my friends. They are the ones that pick me up when I trip and keep me focused on the goal when I lose sight. They show me each day how to strive for sanctification: to perservere, to embrace who God made me to be, to do his will in everything, and to love with all I have. But, there are also people I don't know. Some who I help but some who I just pass by. But we are all running together..in communion..waiting for the day when he will say "well done my good and faithful one".

"It is not merely by the title of example that we cherish the memory of those in heaven; we seek, rather, that by this devotion to the exercise of fraternal charity the union of the whole Church in the Spirit may be strengthened. Exactly as Christian communion among our fellow pilgrims brings us closer to Christ, so our communion with the saints joins us to Christ, from whom as from its fountain and head issues all grace, and the life of the People of God itself" - CCC 957

Pray that I make it to the end of this journey. I am praying for you my dear brothers and sisters for I want nothing more then to share the eternal communion of Christ with you.