When the Saints Go Marching In...

Sermon on the Mount - the Beatitudes...

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Happy, Happy All Saints Day!  

If you had to dress-up to be a saint for All Saints Day, who would you be?

At the 8:05 am mass at the Cathedral of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in Knoxville, all of the kindergartner's were dressed like saints.  Each one held a little sign letting everyone know what saint they represented.  I saw many favorites and some that were not as familiar as others...St. Padre Pio, St. Francis, several St. Patrick's,  St. Therese, and even a St. Lucy.  Each one was so precious and I wondered what it was about the saint that made that child decide that they wanted to dress up like them... 

 Father Andres opened his homily by saying that all of us are called to be Saints; all of us are called to be Holy.  It is not the big things that we do or are asked to do that make us saints - it is in all the little things that we do throughout the day. I remember Mother Teresa saying something like:  "We should do small things with great love and always with a smile even we don't feel like smiling...."  Easier said than done...until I started thinking about my friends and family and even those I do not know very well.  I love, respect and cherish each one of them and for all different reasons.  Each one, in who they are and what they do, can often times be observed to be quite saintly in their own way.  For example, my husband works with a nurse who has an amazing sense of humor.  She is just a funny person.  And she makes going to chemotherapy fun for the patients.  It takes a special person to do that and she is just that kind of special person!   A couple of years ago,  she herself was diagnosed with breast cancer.  She had to go through the cancer treatment just as many of the patients that she treats has to go through.  One day I went over to my husband's office to visit him and his co-workers, and I could see her working with the Chemo patients - very bald and very beautiful - smiling and laughing and working just as she always did - trying to make those patients lives a little easier and happier even while sitting in Chemo chairs!  I thought, just as I saw her, that she was a saint.  Or, very close to one.  I know that she is not perfect - none of us are - but she just was doing what I would think that a saint would do.  She put others before herself and did it with a smile on her face even though it was probably difficult on some if not most work days.  I know that she was an inspiration to those patients and she was and still is for me today.

And so, today, I celebrate all saints - here,  still living, and those that we attempt to know and emulate that went before us.  As it has been happening to me frequently since I have come home from our pilgrimage, I could not help but think of our time in Africa and those that I lived and worked with in the day-to-day while there.  

Father Richard holding an image of Our Blessed Mother drawn and donated by Jerry Smith

Pamela, Mary, Father Vincent, Lisa and part of Judi...

Father Kamanzi, Superior General of the Apostles of Jesus,  and Father Richard

Father Vincent, Lisa, and Father Oliver

The trip was one that I will always remember and keep close to my heart.  God knew what he was doing when He chose Lisa, Theresa, Judi and I as traveling companions. Each one of us were very different - different personalities, different likes and dislikes, different ways of doing things - but God knew what He was doing.  Each of us brought something different to the mission and even to the trip itself.  And each of those different gifts and talents helped to make the mission what it was.  It was what God wanted it to be.  And, I can not help but think of them and Father William when I think of All Saints Day.  Additionally, I can not help but think of many others that helped make our day-to-day there as wonderful as it was:  Pamela,  Father Richard, George, Father Peter, the Professor, Father Oliver, Father Vincent, Millie, Rose, Grace,Sister Arnoldo, the Missionary of Charity Sisters, and many others.  And I am so grateful for each  and every one of them.  And we are all so very grateful for those that were spiritually united to us in prayer, encouragement and support.

All Saints Day is a wonderful Feast Day!  We are all called to be saints.  We are all called to be holy. It is a day to think about how we can work harder at being the best we can be but it is also a day to appreciate and love those around us as well as those that went before us- those that are saints and those that are trying their very best to be saints.

Theresa and Judi

Millie (Thank Goodness for Mille) and her son, Christian...

Sister Innocence (holding the baby) at the Missionary of Charity Convent Nursery

Millie and Rose cooking for us!

Father Peter at Lake Victoria - the burro is carrying water in the jugs strapped across its' back

Judi and Father Peter

Lisa and Sister Celestine

Lisa and George

Pamela, Lisa, Father Peter, and Judi

Gloria, Father Petrie (of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary) who worked with Mother Teresa for a number of years, and Lisa

If not for Gloria Anson, who in our eyes is a living Saint, this blog and mission would not be.  Gloria is the President of the Sacred Heart Apostolate, and it was nine years ago that she and Father Gaffney came to Knoxville to bring the Enthronement Mission and changed lives and hearts forever in East Tennessee and beyond!

Thank you God for Gloria, Father Gaffney 
and the entire Apostolate-
From the words of the Father in Heaven you will hear...

"Well done my good and faithful servant"
(Matthew 25:21)