All Souls Day, Advent approacheth

It is November 1, which means it is the solemnity of All Saints. I’ll let Bishop Barron explain at least one take on this day:

Sometimes we look at sainthood—friendship with God—as the special preserve of a handful of spiritual heroes and not the ordinary goal of Christian life. But this feast reminds us that sainthood should be the desire of every believer. What matters most in life is being holy—being the person God wants you to be. Everything else is trivial. 

What does it mean to be a saint? It means to follow God’s will, which is to follow the way of love. And love is willing the good of the other as other. Our whole life is to be attuned to this path, which is also the path of authentic happiness. In the Beatitudes of the Sermon on the Mount, the root Greek term for “blessed” is makarios, which can also be rendered as “happy.” How happy you are if you follow the law of the new Moses—if you risk the path of love! 

On this All Saints Day, resolve not to settle for spiritual mediocrity but to imitate the friends of God.

One of my favorite things to reflect on, and I have done so in the past (sorry, can’t find the link) is that All Saints is for all saints “known and unknown.” The “unknown” part is kind of interesting, right? Aren’t we supposed to know who the saints are? Aren’t they all written about in the books and honored throughout the year? Well - not all. Think of the many unknown martyrs, who were killed in groups, or in secret, and the world has no way of knowing them or their fate. Think of holy people who have died but have never officially been canonized - they are in heaven, too, as saints. So we do look to our tried-and-true friends in Heaven, but we can know that there are others, too, and they pray and intercede for us.

And, since it is November, I am of course thinking of Advent. It truly is a beautiful time of year: the waiting, the lights, the joy, the meaning. The first day of Advent this year is Sunday, November 30, and it lasts until Christmas Eve. Time to get out the Advent wreath! And make your Advent prayer plan - buy a prayer book, prepare your prayer corner, make a plan to give to charity - however it looks for you. Here’s five ideas.

My next radio appearance is Thursday, November 20 at 8:20 am eastern and I will be taking on a timely topic: how to spend the holidays alone. It can be done! And in a healthy way. Tune in to find out how.

A few ways to honor the month of the Rosary

This past Thursday I joined the Morning Air team to give one last push for the month of the rosary. You can listen to the audio here. I’ve also summarized below what we covered, as well as a few other ideas we didn’t get to:

• Give a rosary away! You’d be surprised by how people are impacted by receiving a rosary if they need it. Think of someone suffering, for example, and you share your own experience of praying the rosary with them. It can be very powerful.

• Visit a Marian shrine - or just the Mary statue at your own church! Give her a flower crown, place a rosary on her hands, bring her some flowers. It’s like a mini pilgrimage.

• Help a new mother - or a mother at any stage. Mary was Jesus’s mother, and she is our mother, and we all know moms need help sometimes (often). Bring a meal to a new mom, take her other kids to the park, run an errand for her, pay for a housecleaning service.

• That last point is similar to another point: give alms. Jesus and Mary are close to the poor, and you can give alms - aka donate money - as a form of tribute. Particularly appropriate would be a pregnancy resource center.

• Learn about a saint who had a devotion to Mary or even wrote a book about her. We talked about St. Louise Marie de Montfort and “True Devotion to Mary,” and St. Maximilien Kolbe as examples.

• Last but not least: find out if your parish has a Legion of Mary - and attend a meeting!

Just a few more days of this month of the rosary - and it’s just about All Saints and All Souls Days! May your Halloween be spooky and holy.

It's still October, did you know?

In first news: Blessed Bartolo Longo is now St. Bartolo Longo. How cool!

Secondly: I will be on Morning Air this Thursday at my usual 8:20 am eastern time, to talk about how it’s still October. And what does that mean? It means it’s still the month of the rosary. That also means we should still be praying the rosary, but also thinking of other ways to honor this powerful prayer and our Blessed Mother for the remaining weeks of October. However, October is not the only time to be rosary-minded; what we’ll be talking about applies any time of year.

Find how you can listen here.