The Saints Were Men Like You.

Brother,

Today the Church keeps All Saints. Not one saint. All of them.

St John was shown the crowd in today's first reading: "After this I saw a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and tribes, and peoples, and tongues" (Apocalypse 7:9, Douay-Rheims; Revelation in modern Bibles).

No man could number them. Most of their names are on no calendar. Fathers. Farmers. Soldiers. Men who worked, prayed, failed, went to Confession and got back up.

The crowd is not a club

We tend to think of saints as a few rare men in stained glass, far from ordinary life.

That is not what the Church teaches. The Second Vatican Council says plainly that every Christian, whatever his state in life, is called to holiness and to the full love of God (Lumen Gentium 40; CCC 2013, 2028). Not just priests. Not just monks. The man with a mortgage and three kids in the back seat.

Today's Gospel gives the shape of it. "Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." (Matthew 5:3, Douay-Rheims) And: "Blessed are the clean of heart: for they shall see God." (Matthew 5:8, Douay-Rheims)

Poor in spirit. A man who knows he needs God. Clean of heart. A man who keeps his eyes and his heart for what is good. That is not a job for someone else. It is the job.

Read the rest of the list this week, Matthew 5:3-12. The meek. The merciful. The peacemakers. The ones who mourn. Not one of them asks for fame. Every one of them can be lived at a kitchen table, on a job site, in a hospital room.

Sons now

St John says it in today's second reading: "Dearly beloved, we are now the sons of God; and it hath not yet appeared what we shall be." (1 John 3:2, Douay-Rheims)

Now. Not after you clean up your act. By baptism you are already his son. The rest is growing into the name.

And you do not do it alone. The Letter to the Hebrews says we have "so great a cloud of witnesses over our head" (Hebrews 12:1, Douay-Rheims). The Church teaches that the saints in heaven keep praying for us, and that their care helps us in our weakness (CCC 956). They are not gone. United to Christ, they are on our side.

The names at your table

Most of us were given a saint's name at baptism. Many of us took another at Confirmation. Our children carry names too.

Those names are not decoration. Each one is a man or woman who finished the race and now prays for the one who bears it.

A father can teach his house to know them. Not as trivia. As family. Tell your children who their saint was and what that saint did. Kids remember stories long after they forget rules.

And tomorrow, 2 November, the Church prays for all the faithful departed. We pray that our own dead will be found in that crowd. Say their names too.

This week

One act. Tonight at supper, before you eat, go around the table. For each person, say the name of one saint: his patron, his baptismal saint, or one he picks. After each name, everyone answers: "Pray for us."

End with your own saint. Then name the people in your family who have died, and say together: "Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them."

If you live alone, do it with the names of the people you love.

Then do it every night this week. Same table. Same names.

The Sanctum is built on reps.

Altar. Arms. Allegiance.

— The Sanctum Dispatch

On the channel

The short films are on YouTube — subscribe at youtube.com/@1765Sanctum so they find you.

P.S. — Who is your saint? The one whose name you carry, or the one you would pick if you could. Hit reply with his name — I read every reply.

One last thing this week. If you want a month of small acts like tonight's names at the table, the free 30-day program The Priest of Your Home sends one a day, for leading prayer in your house — the priesthood of the baptized, lived at home (CCC 1657), not Holy Orders: 1765sanctumco.com/priest-of-your-home

For God.  For country.  For the fight.

In Christ and Our Lady,
Will
1765 Sanctum Co.