Here is a call for the endurance of the saints, those who keep the commandments of God and their faith in Jesus. We start November, as each year, with the celebration of All Saints Day - more appropriately, the Solemnity of All Saints. This celebration is particularly important on two levels. Firstly, it reminds us of what is possible for us. Any study of the saints - and we should take time to read their stories - shows us a group of flawed, sometimes confused, often desperate, idealistic - but not knowing how to do it right - people. Boiling the saints down to their starting point would leave us to wonder how they ever got to sainthood. Yet they did! We know who we are and the challenges we face, but we too can do it, we can get there and be exactly those saints needed in our households, our workplaces, and in our immediate community. That sainthood process advances in tiny increments. It is rarely - one day we are this, the next we are that. Rather, it is a struggle - and one worth engaging in.
Here is a call for the endurance of the saints, those who keep the commandments of God and their faith in Jesus.
We start November, as each year, with the celebration of All Saints Day - more appropriately, the Solemnity of All Saints. This celebration is particularly important on two levels.
Firstly, it reminds us of what is possible for us. Any study of the saints - and we should take time to read their stories - shows us a group of flawed, sometimes confused, often desperate, idealistic - but not knowing how to do it right - people. Boiling the saints down to their starting point would leave us to wonder how they ever got to sainthood. Yet they did! We know who we are and the challenges we face, but we too can do it, we can get there and be exactly those saints needed in our households, our workplaces, and in our immediate community. That sainthood process advances in tiny increments. It is rarely - one day we are this, the next we are that. Rather, it is a struggle - and one worth engaging in.
The second level is a call to reliance of God’s grace and mercy. Those who have been recognized as saints, prior to modern times, must have lived a life of heroic virtue. That describes the practice of Christian virtues to an extraordinary degree well beyond what is normal for an average person. Heroic virtue does not mean someone was sinless or performed mystical, flashy feats. Instead, it means a person who performs virtuous actions with pleasure coming from supernatural motives rather than a need for human recognition. It is a call to denying oneself over time and/or under very difficult conditions. This takes God’s grace and mercy upon which the saints and all of us depend.
Revelation calls us to endurance, keeping especially to the commandments of love and with God’s help to do so as heroically as we can. We are all called to be saints and to work actively at improving our virtuous actions and to become better as we do so.
Welcome to our November 2026 Newsletter. We cover several awesome events - the consecration of Bishop Charles, projects around the parish, and amazing upcoming events you too can be a part of. We prepare for Thanksgiving and the start of Advent. All that and more in our November 2026 Newsletter. Read it right here.
