That Great Multitude

After this I had a vision of a great multitude, which no one could count, from every nation, race, people, and tongue.  They stood before the throne and before the Lamb, wearing white robes and holding palm branches in their hands.  They cried out in a loud voice:  “Salvation comes from our God, who is seated on the throne, and from the Lamb.”  ~Revelation 7:9-10

"Who are these glorious saints? Men who have lived upon earth as we have, who have known our miseries, our difficulties, our struggles. Some of them we recognize easily, for the Church has raised them to the honours of the Altar, but the great majority are entirely unknown to us. They are humble people who lived obscurely in the accomplishment of duty, without display, without renown, whom no one here below remembers, but whom the heavenly Father looked upon, knew in secret, and, having proved their fidelity, called to His glory. The honourable positions occupied by some in this vast gathering, or the mighty deeds accomplished by others, no longer possess any value of themselves: eternal beatitude is not determined by the great things achieved here below. One thing only endures, for the humble and the great, the poor and the wealthy: the degree of love they had attained, to which corresponds the degree of glory which now renders them eternally happy."  Fr. Gabriel of St. Mary Magdalen, O.C.D., in Divine Intimacy

"O holy One, Lord of all holiness!" (2 Mac 14:36)  How ardently I desire to join that great multitude in praising you forever by the holiness of my life!  How greatly I want to be a saint -- not for my sake, but for Your glory.  "Non nobis, Domine, non nobis; sed nomini tuo da gloriam!  Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to your  name give the glory!"  (Ps 115:1)