A Sunday Thought to Start the Week Off Right
This past week we celebrated the great All Saints-All Souls commemorations. The Communion of Saints came together on these two days in a special way. Remember the Communion of Saints consists of:
...given the crisis going on in the Church these days, this holy alliance between the faithful in Heaven, Earth, and Purgatory could and should serve to bolster those who've become discouraged. The few evil ones perpetrating heinous acts would be seen for the minority they are when held up to the greater scheme of things - i.e., the Communion of Saints.
While I can't make up for what's missing in our Catholic lives in this little blog post, I can offer something I recently "discovered" that helped to vividly regenerate the reality of the Communion of Saints in my own heart and mind. It's the fact that saints are our friends. We can relate to them not only as "intercessors" in some formal sense, but also as good friends wanting and willing to hear and understand our concerns, our troubles, our petitions.
And so we begin this week after All Saints and All Souls surrounded by our friends. To use a current expression, they're "there for us." But so often we forget. We become entangled in our daily affairs and our awareness becomes "earthbound." We go to work, attend to personal and family matters. When we're not working, there are the normal chores that everyday life brings. At the end of the day, we're lucky if we recollect ourselves for an examination of conscience and some brief night prayers. Where did the day go? Well, it just went - just like that: Poof!
So we're "only human" and can't feel bad about this, right? True. But maybe with the graces we've received from All Saints and All Souls we might consider trying a bit harder to keep our friends in the loop more often. We can share our thoughts and feelings with them from time to time. After all, we all need friends, right? And if those friends happen to be Saints and Holy Souls, all the better, right?
Now that we've got a a whole Sunday, which, one hopes, gives us at least a few extra moments for God, maybe we pray for the grace to keep these friends of ours in the Communion of Saints front and center in our minds during the coming week. A good day might bring me a few thoughts and words for St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, Mother Cabrini, the North American Martyrs, St. Patrick, and St. Peter. (These are the subjects of the stained glass windows on the side of the church where I attend daily Mass when possible.) Then a quick prayer to the patron saints of my work, St. Ignatius Loyola and St. Joan of Arc. Oh, and let's not forget those special prayers to St. Joseph and St. Therese of Lisieux that are part of my everyday morning prayers. Just sayin' - and I'm far from a "holy" person. I just picked up the habit with persistent prayerful study of my Catholic faith.
But with all that, I know there's more to friendship. True friendship only begins with these formal sorts of words and actions. You meet someone, you exchange the usual pleasantries. It's kind of stiff at first. But if the two of you click, over time you're more relaxed and your conversation takes a more informal, more natural tone as you learn of each others good and bad qualities, likes and dislikes. And then, if the two of you are really sympatico, maybe you've got a true friend with whom you share thoughts and feelings, joys and sorrows. When times get tough, you give or get a helping hand.
At this point, it's more wishful thinking, but that's how I'm hoping to get a little closer to all my friends in the Communion of Saints, not just with those who walk and talk with me in the Church Militant. Maybe you'll want to get closer to your friends too.
- Those in heaven - The Church Triumphant
- Those still living on earth - The Church Militant
- The Holy Souls in Purgatory - The Church Suffering
...given the crisis going on in the Church these days, this holy alliance between the faithful in Heaven, Earth, and Purgatory could and should serve to bolster those who've become discouraged. The few evil ones perpetrating heinous acts would be seen for the minority they are when held up to the greater scheme of things - i.e., the Communion of Saints.
While I can't make up for what's missing in our Catholic lives in this little blog post, I can offer something I recently "discovered" that helped to vividly regenerate the reality of the Communion of Saints in my own heart and mind. It's the fact that saints are our friends. We can relate to them not only as "intercessors" in some formal sense, but also as good friends wanting and willing to hear and understand our concerns, our troubles, our petitions.
And so we begin this week after All Saints and All Souls surrounded by our friends. To use a current expression, they're "there for us." But so often we forget. We become entangled in our daily affairs and our awareness becomes "earthbound." We go to work, attend to personal and family matters. When we're not working, there are the normal chores that everyday life brings. At the end of the day, we're lucky if we recollect ourselves for an examination of conscience and some brief night prayers. Where did the day go? Well, it just went - just like that: Poof!
So we're "only human" and can't feel bad about this, right? True. But maybe with the graces we've received from All Saints and All Souls we might consider trying a bit harder to keep our friends in the loop more often. We can share our thoughts and feelings with them from time to time. After all, we all need friends, right? And if those friends happen to be Saints and Holy Souls, all the better, right?
Now that we've got a a whole Sunday, which, one hopes, gives us at least a few extra moments for God, maybe we pray for the grace to keep these friends of ours in the Communion of Saints front and center in our minds during the coming week. A good day might bring me a few thoughts and words for St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, Mother Cabrini, the North American Martyrs, St. Patrick, and St. Peter. (These are the subjects of the stained glass windows on the side of the church where I attend daily Mass when possible.) Then a quick prayer to the patron saints of my work, St. Ignatius Loyola and St. Joan of Arc. Oh, and let's not forget those special prayers to St. Joseph and St. Therese of Lisieux that are part of my everyday morning prayers. Just sayin' - and I'm far from a "holy" person. I just picked up the habit with persistent prayerful study of my Catholic faith.
But with all that, I know there's more to friendship. True friendship only begins with these formal sorts of words and actions. You meet someone, you exchange the usual pleasantries. It's kind of stiff at first. But if the two of you click, over time you're more relaxed and your conversation takes a more informal, more natural tone as you learn of each others good and bad qualities, likes and dislikes. And then, if the two of you are really sympatico, maybe you've got a true friend with whom you share thoughts and feelings, joys and sorrows. When times get tough, you give or get a helping hand.
At this point, it's more wishful thinking, but that's how I'm hoping to get a little closer to all my friends in the Communion of Saints, not just with those who walk and talk with me in the Church Militant. Maybe you'll want to get closer to your friends too.
Happy Sunday!
Comments