Light from the Altar - All Saints' Day, 1 November

A child was once heard to say: "I love the Litany of the Saints; but I wish it was longer. There are such a lot missed out, and they might feel it." Now, as the child was not at all noted for her piety, and as the Litany of the Saints may be fairly considered long, this sentiment excited a considerable amount of suriJiise. But she was in earnest. She felt gratified in invoking one saint after another and giving him particular honor. And she felt grieved at the number left out in the cold. To obviate as much as possible this "missing out," the Church has instituted the Feast of All Saints and made it a day of honor and all-embracing praise.

So let us turn to the duty of the day - honoring the Saints. They possess the very qualities we admire in our heroes - courage, endurance, generosity! There are no saints in Heaven, except the babies, who have not won their crown by one or all of these virtues. Moral courage is grander than i^hysical, and who can withstand the powers of darkness without magnificent strength of mind? The Saints spent their lives, or a part of them, in the narrow path where we know the thorns grow. They trod it day by day with the set face and determined will of a soldier, a soldier of Christ. Theirs was an endurance, not of a forced march, but of a lifetime. And their generosity! We can spend money; some of us can spend time, too. But none of us come near the saints in the renunciation of all into the hands of God. They were lavish, prodigal, wasteful, some would say, of their goods, their health, their good name. They did not reckon - how could they, when God was their banker? They left the balance to Him, and He has not failed them. Does not the sight of such Virtue rouse our hearts to enthusiasm, and bring a song of praise to our lips for those brave, strong, generous souls who have won laurels and heavenly distinction! Of course it does. We are not so dull as not to know sterling greatness when we see it; nor so poor-spirited as to withhold praise when it is due. We will honor the Saints today with our admiration, and flatter them with the sincerity of our imitation.

Imitation! That word brings us to the second object of the Feast. We are invited to raise our eyes from earth and to look through the heavenly gates and see our brethren in the eternal Home. This is a sight to do us good, to rest us and encourage us. It is well to count our flock and bewail the loss of souls; such a retrospect is necessary and useful. But we must not forget the bright side of the picture, the myriads of white, glistening, blessed souls upon the shores of eternity, the magnificent array of God's redeemed - the patriarchs of old, hoary pilgrims of hundreds of years, the prophets, men with inspired sight, who looked into the unborn future, the Apostles, who with their golden tongues spread salvation over the face of the earth; the serried ranks of the red-robed martyrs, the brave confessors, the lily-white virgins, the penitents, doubly blessed because once they mourned. We see them all with their waving palms and their shining crowns. But is it with you as it is with me? I cannot see their faces, the light in their eyes, the expression of their lips. And this I put down to our being on a different level. They are our kinsfolk, flesh of our flesh, blood of our race, but they have tasted joys we know nothing about. They have tasted infinite love and it has passed into their eyes, and their faces are transfigured and are so upturned we cannot see or imagine their beauty. Love is the secret of Heaven. Oh! when there comes upon you the dull, aching fear of eternity, even blissful eternity, remember this - we do not know what infinite love is. Human love we have felt; we have seen its power, its strength, its endurance - a living, lasting, time-sufficing element. But Divine love, infinite by nature, infinite in its depth and height and breadth - this is the bliss-making element of eternity. And only eternity will suffice to fathom it. Let us trust to our Blessed Lord, to our Creator and Lord. By making known to us the secret of Divine love He will satisfy that craving of our heart which we ourselves cannot understand, much less satisfy. But He Who made it will be able to fill it, and fill it with love, full measure, overflowing.

- taken from Light from the Altar, edited by Father James J McGovern, 1906