Ave Maria! It's Halloween today, and already I'm anticipating tomorrow's glorious solemnity of All Saints Day. In particular, I'm reflecting upon Baron von Hügel's observation that "All Saints' Day is the feast of every heroic soul, every heroic act inspired by God since God made man on earth... The day also of the saintly bit, the saintly moments, the beginnings of sanctity in souls otherwise not saints at all." I'm thinking about the heroism of everyday life, which is where most of us are given the opportunity to become saints rather than upon the major battlefields of life. Our liturgy of the hours is in the daily grind, where we offer our little sacrifices of love and praise bit-by-saintly-bit, thus making our mundane moments saintly ones by the power of God's amazing grace. The traditional Halloween jack-o'-lantern is an excellent sign of the saintly life: the willingness to surrender all we have and are in order to be emptied out and carved into a new creation -- God's creation! -- and to let Him fill us with His goodness and truth and light. Only then can we "let all God's glory through" (Gerard Manley Hopkins). Only then can we shine in the perverse and crooked world like bright stars, holding forth the Word of Life (Phil 2:15-16). Thanks be to God who calls us and enables us to become His holy and blessed saints!
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