“We are always ready to make a saint or prophet of the educated man who goes into cottages to give a little kindly advice to the uneducated. The mediaeval saint or prophet was an uneducated man who walked into grand houses to give a little kindly advice to the educated.”
G. K. Chesterton
“We are always ready to make a saint or prophet of the educated man who goes into cottages to give a little kindly advice to the uneducated. The mediaeval saint or prophet was an uneducated man who walked into grand houses to give a little kindly advice to the educated.”
G. K. Chesterton
All Saints Day reminds us of all those holy men and women whom God, in His infinite mercy, sends us as torches to light our path in a dark world. Filled with God’s love and grace, they make golden the pages of our histories with their lives and witness. Feeling the lure of sin just as much as any of us, they turned to God and reflected His love to us. They come in all sorts of humanity: men and women, all nationalities, wise, simple, warriors, pacifists, miracle workers, saints whose only miracle was their life, humorous, humorless, clergy, laity, old, young, united only in their Faith and their love for the Highest Love.
It is too easy as we go about our prosaic lives to forget the Ultimate Reality that the saints clearly see. May we, with them, one day behold that Ultimate Reality in the face, in the Beatific Vision.
“The gates of heaven are lightly locked,
We do not guard our gain,
The
heaviest hind may easily
Come silently and suddenly
Upon me in a
lane.
“And any little maid that walks
In good thoughts apart,
May
break the guard of the Three Kings
And see the dear and dreadful things
I
hid within my heart.
“The meanest man in grey fields gone
Behind the
set of sun,
Heareth between star and other star,
Through the door of the
darkness fallen ajar,
The council, eldest of things that are,
The talk of
the Three in One.
“The gates of heaven are lightly locked,
We do not
guard our gold,
Men may uproot where worlds begin,
Or read the name of the
nameless sin;
But if he fail or if he win
To no good man is
told.
“The men of the East may spell the stars,
And times and triumphs
mark,
But the men signed of the cross of Christ
Go gaily in the
dark.
“The men of the East may search the scrolls
For sure fates and
fame,
But the men that drink the blood of God
Go singing to their
shame.
“The wise men know what wicked things
Are written on the
sky,
They trim sad lamps, they touch sad strings,
Hearing the heavy purple
wings,
Where the forgotten seraph kings
Still plot how God shall
die.
“The wise men know all evil things
Under the twisted
trees,
Where the perverse in pleasure pine
And men are weary of green
wine
And sick of crimson seas.
“But you and all the kind of
Christ
Are ignorant and brave,
And you have wars you hardly win
And
souls you hardly save.
G. K. Chesterton
Educated or undereducated, qualified or call-ified, the owner of the vineyard picks his laborers as he wishes, and when he chooses.
I pray he finds them attending to his affairs when he returns to his vineyard. Sober and clean of heart may we/they be.
The Legion of Mary.
A great group of laborers.
Great post.
Happy and blessed all Saints day everyone.
Revelation 6:9-11
9 When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the witness they had borne; 10 they cried out with a loud voice, “O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before thou wilt judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell upon the earth?” 11 Then they were each given a white robe and told to rest a little longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brethren should be complete, who were to be killed as they themselves had been.
Hebrews 12:1-2
Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, 2 looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
I love the saints. I’ve lately been choosing a saint every month for special intercessions. It has to be someone I don’t normally think about or know much about. I don’t have a good enough memory to meet a new saint every day; I might switch to one per week, but for now one a month is working out well.
This month: Pope Leo the Great. He defended papal authority, defined the hypostatic union, and stared down Attila the Hun. His feast day is November 10th (although that can trigger an argument depending on who you’re talking to).
[…] SAINTS DAY REMINDS US OF ALL THOSE HOLY MEN AND WOMEN WHOM GOD, IN HIS INFINITE MERCY, SENDS US AS TORCHES TO LIGHT OUR PATH IN A DARK […]
Pinky, great idea! Thanks.