Sainthood Is Our Goal

Here we are at the end of October and on the threshold of November. Children are excited about wearing their Halloween costumes while trick-or-treating, adults welcome the extra hour's sleep as daylight saving time ends, and All Saints Day falls on Sunday, as a great way to begin the month. The short, usually dreaded gray days of November, and the Advent waiting period of December call us to reflect on our mortality. Indeed, November is the month of the Holy Souls. We, like the trees, will one day go to rest, our eternal rest. The extra hours of daily darkness are useful in helping us look within at our attitudes toward life, our work, our relationships with others and with God. It is a necessary annual period of purgation and cleansing, akin to what we will be doing in Lent. Always, however, there is the HOPE that is born of Christmas, the triumph of light over darkness, "the light shone in the darkness and the darkness could not overcome it" (John 1:5). and the coming of renewed life in the spring. All Saints is an opportunity to look to the saints, especially our own patron saint, as models who have gone through this cycle successfully many times. It is a reminder that we are ALL CALLED TO BE SAINTS. Google provides easy access to a short biography, if needed. I recommend taking a look, and encouraging the family to do so as well.
May this weekend help us grow in grace and closeness to God,
Bro. Rene