All Saints Day

"Since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses,
let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings
so closely, and let us run with perseverance
the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus,
the pioneer and perfecter of our faith."

Hebrews 12:1-2

There are saints among us. But we often fail to recognize them... We invoke them as though they were all in heaven and able to bestow on us only invisible and supernatural favors. It would seem to be a presumption on our part to imitate them… It seems ridiculous that someone whom we have seen and touched, whose weaknesses, foibles and faults we have observed, whose life has been involved in our life and whose brow was adorned by no halo, should have trod the path of holiness before our eyes without our having any inkling of it…We must learn to recognize the saints who live beside us and even the saint who is within us. The least movement of love is enough to reveal the saint in us and in others… It is courage that makes the saint; and courage is no more than confidence in grace that comes from on high and is always available.

 

-- Louis Lavelle, The Meaning of Holiness