Solemnity of All Saints (2026)

By Fr. Conor Donnelly

(Proofread)

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. My Lord and my God, I firmly believe that you are here, that you see me, that you hear me. I adore you with profound reverence. I ask your pardon for my sins, and grace to make this time of prayer fruitful. My Immaculate Mother, St. Joseph, my father and Lord, my guardian angel, intercede for me.

We can remember today in a special way that sanctity is accessible to everyone in their various jobs and situations, and that to help us reach this goal, we ought to put into practice the dogma of the communion of saints. The Church invites us to raise our hearts and minds to the immense multitude of men and women from all walks of life who followed Christ here on earth and are already enjoying his presence in heaven. This feast has been celebrated since the 8th century.

We’re told in the entrance antiphon, “Let us rejoice in the Lord and keep festival in honor of all the saints. Let us join with angels in joyful praise of the Son of God.” As we recall today with particular attention, then Pope John Paul II pointed out that a wealth of Christian truth is at the core of the liturgy, and in a special way on the feast of all the saints.

Here lies the fount of all holiness, God himself. Herein we practice the communion of saints. Through Christ in a particular way, the supernatural last end of universal redemption is signified in the Mass. It is the source of sanctity for all those who strive to practice the beatitudes as described by Our Lord.

From the Mass comes an indestructible hope in future glory. Here we find the key to the relationship between suffering and salvation.

As we pray in the entrance antiphon, the fundamental dimension of the feast that we celebrate today is joy. “Let us rejoice in the Lord and keep festival in honor of all the saints.” The experience, said Pope John Paul, is similar to what we savor in a large family, where we are very much at home. Included in this large family are the saints in heaven and those striving for sanctity on earth as well.

Our Mother the Church invites us today to bring to mind in a special way those who have experienced difficulties and temptations similar to our own during life, yet in the end triumphed over them.

“There is a great multitude which no man could number out of all nations and tribes and tongues” (Rev. 7:9), as the first reading of the Mass relates from the book of Revelation. They’re sealed on the forehead as the servants of God. The Church recognizes many saints of every age and condition today. We remember them each year and also have recourse to them as intercessors for our various needs.

The seal they receive and their white robes washed in the blood of the Lamb are symbols of baptism. This sacrament of initiation involves incorporation into Christ. This life of grace is later renewed and increased through the other sacraments, especially penance and the Eucharist. Our good works also contribute to heightening this participation in the divine nature during our present life.

Today we rejoice and ask the help of the countless multitude who have reached heaven after cheerfully passing through life sowing affection and joy, almost without realizing it. Perhaps while living among us, they worked at a job similar to our own. Since their working backgrounds vary so greatly, there may be office workers, manual workers, university professors, businessmen, secretaries among them.

Without doubt, they must have had to confront difficulties similar to our own and had to begin again and again many times as we make an effort to do each day. The Church does not mention the entire multitude of saints by name in the canon of the Mass. Through the light of faith, though, we understand that they form a magnificent panorama of lay men and women who through the activity of each day’s task were tireless workers in the Lord’s vineyard.

In Christifideles Laici, we’re told, “After passing unnoticed and perhaps being misunderstood by the high and mighty, they were lovingly greeted by God our Father. They were humble yet great laborers for the growth of the kingdom of God in history.”

In Psalms, says the Second Vatican Council, they are the ones who knew how with the help of God to conserve and perfect during their life the sanctification they received in baptism. Throughout our life, we are all called to the fullness of love. A struggle against our passions and inordinate tendencies is necessary. We have to make a constant effort to improve since sanctity does not depend on one’s state of life — single, married, widower or priest — but on our personal correspondence with the grace God grants to each one of us, says St. Josemaria.

In that same document, Christifideles Laici, John Paul says the Church reminds everyone that both the worker who takes up his trade or profession each morning, and the mother of a family committed to the daily running of the home, should sanctify themselves by faithfully fulfilling their daily duties.

It’s consoling to realize that people with whom we had dealings a short time ago are now contemplating the face of God. We continue to be united to them by profound friendship and affection through the communion of saints. They lend us assistance from heaven and we remember them with joy and seek their intercession as well.

Today we could make St. Teresa of Avila’s prayer to the blessed in heaven our own. She too will be among those who hear our prayer. She said, “O holy ones who knew how to prepare so delightful an inheritance, help us now that you are so near the fount of all holiness. Draw water for those of us who are perishing from thirst.”

On this solemnity, we pray in the preface of the Mass, “Father, today we keep festival of your holy city, the heavenly Jerusalem. Our brothers and sisters, the saints, now sing your praises forever around your throne, and their glory fills us with joy. Our communion with them through your Church gives us inspiration and strength as we hasten on our pilgrimage of faith eager to meet them.”

We, the faithful, are the pilgrim Church on our way to heaven. While we make progress towards heaven, we need to gather up the treasure of good works that we will one day present before God. We hear the Lord’s invitation clearly: “If anyone will come after me…” (Matt. 16:24). Each one of us is called to the fullness of Christian life, to our professional occupation. God wants us all to encounter him in our work by carrying it out with human perfection and supernatural outlook. We long for the presence of the Lord, whom we will one day see face to face. Therefore, we offer up all our activities to God, practice charity in our dealings with others, and are generous in bringing the work entrusted to us to completion. By dealing with our Father God as a friend, we can continually refine our contemplative spirit in the midst of the ordinary everyday actions of our life.

We can repeat certain duties many times a day in union with Our Lord. To love God and serve him, it’s not necessary to do extraordinary things. “Of every man without exception, Christ asks that he be perfect as his Father in heaven is perfect” (cf. Matt. 5:48).

St. Josemaria says, “For the great majority of men, to be a saint means sanctifying our work, sanctifying ourselves in our work, and sanctifying others through all the circumstances of that work. In this way, we find God on all the pathways of our life.”

What else did the vast host of glorified souls do — mothers, intellectuals, and manual workers — to win heaven? This question is of absolute importance since we too desire to abide with God forever in heaven. The question is always there. Those who persevere in union with Christ make an effort to sanctify the small realities of every day, that Our Lord looks upon with affection. If at a given moment, our fidelity is lacking, we rectify accordingly, and once again set out on the right path. This is our way on earth.

Winning heaven is the challenge we face with the grace of God each day. Happily, it always involves the task in hand, and is effected precisely among the persons God has wanted to place at our side. We need to realize fully that our generous and holy resolve to improve constantly has an important impact on others. If through God’s grace and the help of others, we do reach heaven, we will not enter into eternal glory alone, but will draw many others there with us.

Many of those who now contemplate the face of Christ in heaven, perhaps did not have the opportunity during their time on earth to carry out great deeds. However, they did fulfill their modest daily duties as best they could. On occasion, they made mistakes, giving in to impatience, laziness, or pride, and perhaps even sinned grievously. Nevertheless, they repented right away and took advantage of the sacrament of confession to begin anew.

The blessed in heaven had big hearts and led fruitful lives, since they knew how to sacrifice themselves for Christ. We too are very much in need of Our Lord’s great mercy during our journey to heaven. Jesus, we need to constantly recall, keeps us going day by day. It’s a tremendous good for us to pause frequently to consider him and also the graces we have received, especially during moments of temptation or discouragement.

The blessed in their lives never considered themselves saints. On the contrary, they’re convinced of their great need for divine mercy. To a greater or lesser degree, everyone experiences sickness, tribulation, or low energy periods, amid everything that entails a particular effort. Failure may come our way, but we have our successes as well.

Perhaps at times the saints were moved to tears, but they knew and put into practice those words of Our Lord which the Mass brings to our attention today: “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy burdened, and I will give you rest” (Matt. 11:28). The blessed always lean on Christ for support. They often visit him in the tabernacle to draw renewed energy from his presence there. The personalities of the blessed vary enormously, but in this life they had in common one distinguishing feature: they lived charitably with those around them.

Our Lord said, “In this will everyone know you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:35). This is the common denominator of the saints who presently enjoy the vision of God. A countless multitude of friends awaits us in heaven. The light of their example shines down on us and makes it easier sometimes to see what we ought to do. They can help us with their prayers — strong prayers, wise prayers — when ours may be so feeble and so blind. Monsignor Knox says, “When you look out on a November evening and see the sky all studded with stars, think of those innumerable saints in heaven all ready to help you.” They will fill us with joy in the midst of any trials that we need to undergo.

We’re told in scripture, “This is the will of God, your sanctification” (1 Thess. 4:3). We have a vocation to holiness. Our Lord wants us to have initiative and responsibility for our own sanctification. It’s a specification of our Christian vocation, of calling as children of God. It’s an initiative of God. He is the one that has chosen us. We’re told, “You have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, that you might be holy” (cf. John 15:16). Let us try to foster that desire to be great in our holiness, because ultimately we’re going to be judged on that.

St. Paul VI in one of his documents says, “Indeed, the cultivation of Christian perfection must still be regarded as the richest source of the Church’s spiritual strength. It is the means so peculiar to its own whereby the Church basks in the sunlight of Christ’s spirit. It is the Church’s natural and necessary way of expressing its religious and social activity. It is the Church’s surest defense and the cause of its constant renewal of strength amid the difficulties of the secular world.”

We can ask Our Lord for the grace to have a great love for our Christian vocation, to desire that goal, to have great faith in our vocation. “Faith is the victory that overcomes the world,” we’re told (1 John 5:4). Sometimes the devil can try to present sanctity to us as an unattainable goal. We have to try and react in those moments.

Many spiritual writers including popes have said that what the Church needs today is saints. Cardinal Ratzinger, later Pope Benedict, said this is the only thing that can lift us up. Sanctity is continuously doing what God wants, not what we want. Just as we polish our shoes every day or two, we need to do the same with our Christian vocation to keep it in very good shape. Our Lord wants us to feel a certain personal responsibility for this.

We can be very aware that we have been chosen not because of what we are, but because of what we have to become. Peter was chosen with all his humanity. At times we can say to Our Lord, “Well, Lord, that I may see. Help me to take stock. How is the quality of the treasure that you’ve given to me? Am I corresponding fully to the calling that you’ve given to me?”

In The Forge, St. Josemaria says, “I don’t know how it strikes you, but I feel, I must tell you, how moved I am whenever I read the words of the prophet Isaiah: ‘I have called you, I have brought you into my Church, you are mine.’ God himself telling me I am his. It’s enough to make one go mad with love.” Our vocation is never an obstacle to our professional success, quite the opposite.

In The Forge, we’re told: “I see myself like a poor little bird, accustomed only to making short flights from tree to tree, or at most up to a third floor balcony. One day in its life, it succeeded in reaching the roof of a modest building that you could hardly call a skyscraper. And lo and behold, our little bird is snatched up by an eagle who mistakes the bird for one of its own brood. In its powerful talons, the bird is borne higher and higher above the mountains of the earth and the snow-capped peaks, above the white, blue, and rose pink clouds, and higher and higher until it can look right into the sun. And then the eagle lets go of the little bird and says, ‘Off you go, fly.’”

Lord, may I never flutter again close to the ground. May I always be enlightened by the rays of the divine sun, Christ in the Eucharist. May my flight never be interrupted until I find repose in your heart. The holier we become, the more transparent the face of Christ becomes in us.

We have to try to engrave in our hearts that each one of us is called to holiness. God wants me in particular to be a saint. He has created me and elevated me to the order of grace. He has redeemed me. He has given me many graces. Also, he gives me this piece of formation because he loves me a lot. Whether our life grows with depth in this way, to a large extent depends on us. Our Lord does not go against our freedom. He has created us out of love and wants that we correspond with love.

It’s interesting to notice how everyone in the world wants to change the world. But very few want to do so by changing themselves. The message of personal sanctification is not so much that we convert China, but that we convert ourselves. We can’t change China if we don’t change ourselves. Sometimes we can want big things, but we can forget about ourselves. That’s why we need our formation, a continual input to remind us of these truths.

We could say to Our Lord in our prayer today, “Well, Lord, give me a passion for sanctity. Help me to renew my eagerness for sanctity with a human and supernatural enthusiasm. May I never lose my eagerness. May my whole life, like the whole of creation, give you glory.”

A number of years ago, a man, after attending many courses of formation over many years, told me that, “Well, one thing I learned this time was that I’m not just here to sanctify my work. I’m here to be holy.” Of course, a necessary part of that personal holiness is apostolate. It’s part and parcel of our Christian vocation. That personal apostolate of friendship and confidence that I personally do is a very important part of my quest for holiness.

We have to realize what’s necessary for my vocation to holiness to grow. There are certain places we don’t go to, certain things we don’t get involved in. It’s as though Our Lord has given us a pathway to reach the top of the mountain. There are many different pathways. The only important thing is that you stay on the pathway. Sometimes the path is difficult, but we know that pathway is going to lead us to the top of the mountain. The saints that have gone before us have made the map. They’ve been pioneers. All we have to do is follow in their footsteps, and that way we get to the top of the mountain. We have to try and get this new map, this new pathway of ordinary holiness in the middle of the world into general circulation, so that more people can know about it. We have a good shepherd to ensure that the flock is where it should be.

We can see that this vocation God has given to us is a great supernatural gift, a special love that God has for each one of us. It’s a gift. It can’t be earned. You have to be chosen. It’s a divine calling. That vocation to holiness is a constant in our life. It doesn’t depend on our state of mind. It’s not a feeling. It doesn’t change whether we’re up or down, or high or low. It has to do with our being. It doesn’t depend on how we feel, on our interior life, on our progress, on our health, or on our finances.

In The Forge, St. Josemaria says, “You saw it quite clearly. While so many people do not know God, he has looked to you. He wants you to form a part of the foundations, a firm stone upon which the life of the Church can rest. Meditate upon this reality, and you will draw many practical consequences for your ordinary behavior. The foundations, made of blocks of stone, hidden and possibly rather dull, have to be solid, not fragile. They have to serve as a support for the building. If not, they are useless.”

We could think how different the world would have been if certain people had not corresponded to their vocation — Columbus, Francis Xavier, John Paul II, any of the saints with which we are familiar. We can ask Our Lord that we might have a true sense of treasure in relation to this calling to holiness, a sense of calling, a sense of a great bargain. It’s an extraordinary thing, a definite purpose. We have a star to guide us.

Every day in our life after receiving holy communion, a very good thing is to thank God for our Christian vocation and to enjoy our vocation, draw love from the source of love. Ask Our Lord for that committed love to our apostolate, to the things he places in front of us.

The privilege of being numbered among the children of God, we’re told in The Forge, is the greatest happiness there can be, and it’s always undeserved. We’re not called in spite of our weaknesses, but because of our weaknesses. If we see those weaknesses with greater clarity all the time, it doesn’t mean we’re getting worse. Those things have always been there, but we’ve been given a light and a grace to see them more clearly and to begin again with a great spirit of childlike abandonment. God is the one who makes us holy. We don’t make ourselves holy.

Of course, the vocation to holiness can be dangerous. You could find yourself on the other side of the world doing something you never dreamt of doing. Our Lord wants from us a complete availability. Some spiritual writer says this is a sign of souls who talk a lot to the Holy Spirit. They’re available. It means we take what comes. That’s the meaning of our vocation.

We can turn to Our Lady, Queen of all the saints, and ask her on this special day that we might increase our personal desires for holiness, and that she might help us to correspond to that vocation on a daily basis all through our life.

I thank you, my God, for the good resolutions, affections, and inspirations that you have communicated to me during this meditation. I ask your help to put them into practice. My Immaculate Mother, St. Joseph, my father and Lord, my guardian angel, intercede for me. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

EW