All Saints Day, Nov 1st

 

“The glorious saints surround the Throne of the Lamb in Heaven!” Today is the Solemnity of All Saints. The Church celebrates all the known and unknown saints in heaven. There is a “great multitude, which no one can count, from every nation, race, people and tongue.” This multitude consists of the noble fellowship of prophets, ancient patriarchs, the glorious company of apostles, the white robed army of martyrs, the noble company of confessors, the choir of virgins, and the many saints, who lived ordinary yet, supernatural lives of holiness and virtue. Besides canonized saints, there are countless hidden saints, who are carpenters, housewives, plumbers, bankers, airplane workers, bricklayers, intellectuals, secretaries, computer workers, manual workers, priests, and religious.

The saints, struggled with temptations, sufferings of every kind, misunderstandings, trials of all sorts, yet by the grace of God, they persevered in their struggle by following the Lamb, who sits on the throne. All the saints in heaven acknowledge their Salvation came from God, who is seated on the throne and the Lamb of God, who was sacrificed on the altar of the Cross.

All of us are called to be saints. We are all called to holiness and to follow the beatitudes. We should strive to follow the multitude of saints, who have gone before us. By way of their powerful intercession, they will help us imitate their virtues. The saints were just like us. They struggled with the same kinds of sins we do.

Most of you have probably heard of Carlo Acutis, a fifteen year old boy from Italy who died from leukemia, which cancer that affects bone marrow and blood.

He is known for his International Miracles of the Eucharist display, that he created using his ingenuity on the computer. He was a computer expert at very young age.

When I had surgery last year at the Tulsa hospital, the computer in my patient room wouldn’t start-up. The nurse kept trying to turn it on, but to no avail.

After she left, I prayed to Carlo Acutis and asked him to start the computer. About 10 minutes later the nurse came back in my room and the computer started up on its own. She asked me if I did anything to start it, and I said, “Well, yes, I asked Carlo Acutis, a 15 year old boy, who died and is now in heaven, to start up the computer and he did.” The nurse wasn’t Catholic, but God used that event to show a non-Catholic, the power of praying to a future saint.

Carlo Acutis is expected to be canonized next year. Today, let us ask all canonized and unknown saints to pray for us, and help us to be virtuous and holy like them, so that we too will become saints, but we need to turn away from sin, stay close to Jesus in prayer. Attend Mass and receive Jesus in Communion as often as we can and to confess our sins regularly, so that at the end of our life we can join all the saints in heaven.