After death we live on (Fr. Ron Rolheiser)

    As Christians, we believe that the dead are still alive, still themselves, and, very importantly, still in a living, conscious, and loving relationship with us and with each other. After death we live on, in communication with others who have died before us, in communion with those we left behind on earth, and in communion with the divine itself. That is the Christian doctrine of the Communion of Saints. 

--Fr. Ron Rolheiser OMI

Today is the Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed!

In November, we remember All Souls...

Image source: https://gscmontessori.org/the-communion-of-saints/
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Holiness, sanctity, sainthood (St. Carlo Acutis / Dr. Wendy Wright)

Our goal must be infinite, not the finite.
 The infinite is our homeland.
 Heaven has been waiting for us forever.

--St. Carlo Acutis

    Human hearts are created to love deeply and fully, to experience the depth of divine desire, and to love as they have first been loved. Holiness, sanctity, sainthood: … these words do not refer to an élite cadre of super-human heroes or to a chilly, inhuman piety; they are not reserved for religious professionals or for individuals who are ‘not of this world’. Holiness is the destiny of all human beings. Sanctity is simply the deep realization of the life given over to Love. The saints are all those who give their hearts to Love’s promptings. And all are created for and invited into the mystery of the divine and human world where heart speaks gently to heart.

--Dr. Wendy Wright,
Heart Speaks to Heart

Today is the Solemnity of All Saints!

Image source: John August Swanson, Ascent (2014), https://johnaugustswanson.com/catalog/ascent/?srsltid=AfmBOopHF3VTXxF2b0d05eib7NXWI7EnIt1ZrxjvA0zvp2JWszLKUA16
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The saints feared nothing (Caroline Carré)

      The saints feared nothing; if they fell, they picked themselves up again. The saint is not he who does not fall, but he who always picks himself up after every fall, without getting discouraged. And so if you find some obstacle which slows your step, seek it out bravely, and when you have found it, whether by the aid of God or that of your spiritual guide, courageously apply the remedy. 

--Venerable Caroline Carré de Malberg,
qtd. in La Première Mère,
by Fr. Henri Chaumont 

Image source: Georges de La Tour, St. Peter, Repentant, also known as The Tears of St. Peter (1645). The artist depicts St. Peter as a man stricken with remorse, meditating in the darkness, the space lit only by the tentative light of a lantern near his bare feet. The rooster recalls Jesus’ prophecy: Before the cock crows, you will deny me three times. Yet, in spite of his actions, Peter became the founder of the Church. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Georges_de_La_Tour_-_Saint_Peter_Repentant_-_1951.454_-_Cleveland_Museum_of_Art.jpg

The mirror of eternity (St. Jerome Emiliani / St. Clare of Assisi)

Our goal is God,
the source of all good.

--St. Jerome Emiliani

     Place your mind before the mirror of eternity! Place your soul in the brilliance of glory! Place your heart in the figure of the divine substance, and through contemplation, allow your entire being to be transformed into the image of the Godhead itself, so that you may feel what friends feel, and taste the hidden sweetness that God has reserved for His lovers. 

--St. Clare of Assisi

Image source: Scipione Pulzone, S. Chiara d’Assisi (ca.1597), https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Clara_%28Scipione_Pulzone%29#/media/Archivo:Santa-clara-santa-clara-da-scipione-pulzone-1544-1598.jpg
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Sunday Gospel Reflection, November 1, 2026: Everyone who has this hope...

Everyone who has this hope…
What is our hope? 

 

    In the time of King David, anyone who approached the temple had to respond to a series of questions before they would be allowed in. Psalm 24 speaks of the people that longs to see the Lord’s face. Are we ready to stand before the Lord, ready to see God face to face? Do we clearly desire to be in his presence, and if so, are we dedicated to doing his will? Who can ascend the mountain of the Lord? the psalmist asks. One whose hands are sinless, whose heart is clean, who desires not what is vain. 

    The saints are those who we believe have been brought into the blessing of God’s presence. In Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount offers a series of blessings, or beatitudes, designed to help us to know that blessing one day as well. We are to be poor in spirit, surrendering ourselves in spirit to our dependence upon God, renouncing all desire for power and thus remaining meek in the eyes of God, opening our hearts – our clean hearts – in mercy and making peace for all by revealing the love of God as something we all hold in common. Like the saints, we hope that our reward will be great in heaven, that we might see the face of God. 

    As the author of the First Letter of St. John writes, what we shall be has not yet been revealed. But right now, we know the love the Father has bestowed on us, that we might be called the children of God, and that is a tremendous blessing indeed. And so we hope for salvation, making ourselves pure, as he is pure, striving to become the very image of God. 

    Many have entered the Kingdom of God before us – a great multitude, the Book of Revelation tells us – and are standing before the throne and before the Lamb, worshipping God. We too hope to be marked with the seal of the living God, marked as belonging to God, and thus ready for perfect union in heaven. May this Solemnity of All Saints offer us encouragement, that we might stay true to our hope, remaining faithful to our God forever, that our blessings may be eternal! 

This post is based on Fr. Pat’s Scripture Class. 

Image source: www.wordclouds.com

Somewhere a child goes to bed hungry (Alessandra Olanow)

I am in the store touching things.
Linen napkins, a blue bowl.
The world is on fire and I am choosing
between two kinds of soap. 

Everyone here is doing this, filling carts
with small comforts while somewhere a child
goes to bed hungry, while the earth heats,
while men make decisions about who gets to live. 

I know what this is, this careful arranging
while everything collapses.
This is how we survive.
And also how we disappear. 

--Alessandra Olanow 

Image source: https://www.latimes.com/style/la-hm-1213-thriftyke-pg-photogallery.html
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It's finally about love (David French / Bishop Robert Barron)

Were you raised in a fear-the-world church
or in a love-your-neighbor church?

--David French

   [Matthew’s] Gospel puts us on very holy ground, since it features the Word of God himself telling us what stands at the heart of the law. The Pharisees pose, as a kind of game, the following question: “Which commandment in the law is the greatest?” It was a favorite exercise of the rabbis to seek out the “canon within the canon,” the law that somehow clarified the whole of the law. 

    Jesus gives his famous answer: “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and first commandment. The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 

    It’s finally about love, and the love of God and neighbor are inextricably bound to one another. If we follow the law, but don’t love, we’re wasting our time. If we love God, but hate our neighbors, we’re wasting our time. 

    Why are the two loves so tightly connected? Because Jesus is not just God. He is the God-man, the one in whom divinity and humanity come together. Therefore, it’s impossible to love him as God without loving the humanity that he’s created and embraced. 

--Bishop Robert Barron 

Image source: Maurycy Gottlieb, Christ Teaching in Capernaum (1878-1879), https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Maurycy_Gottlieb_-_Christ_preaching_at_Capernaum_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg
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