All Saints Day
Matthew 5:1-12 Today is All Saints Day. A wonderful festival and one of my favorite holidays in the church year. It is a day of great Hope. Hope for the future, hope for the past, hope for those we love in all times and places. It is a day that connects us deeply to our baptismal promises and to the hope we have as children of God and to the whole communion of saints, all baptized Christians of every time and place. We have spent some time this fall remembering a number of big Saints specifically St Francis and St Luke as we looked to their lives as examples of faithful living. Today, we continue in that theme but today we get to commemorate all of the Saints and so especially we get to remember what I like to call the small saints. Non-canonized saints, the saints of our lives, the blessed and holy ordinary people who have shaped our lives and taught us the ways of faith. Parents and Grandparents, Aunts and Uncles, spouses, children,...