Today, November 1st, the feast of All Saints is a distinctive day in our Catholic list of feast days. The Church has a very precise process, called canonisation through which it feels confident to say that somebody has lived a life in tune with the will of God and has now reached the kingdom of heaven. However the Church knows too that we can’t limit the number of people who have reached eternal happiness in continuation of their holy Christian lives. They are people known to us – family, friends, colleagues and people like ourselves who have helped the thirsty, the hungry, those without clothes and shelter. The love of neighbour that, after our death leads to God’s right hand. These were the gestures that carried weight for Jesus.
So on this feast we remember the many good people gone before us whom we’ve met in life and without embarrassment pray to them to help us on our journey. May we join them one day in the communion of saints.
Image: Saints and Elders around the Lamb in the rose window in the north transept of Downside Abbey church in Somerset, England. Image: Fr L. Lew OP
