We Are All Called to be Secret Saints

From Dan Conway’s The Good Steward, November 2012

On November 1st we celebrate the Feast of All Saints—not just the saints who’ve been officially recognized through the Church’s very thorough process of canonization, but all the saints.

All Saints includes those women and men whose faith is known to God alone and whose courage, integrity and holiness remains hidden from the world at large. Every one of us knows one or more of these “secret saints” (living and deceased). We lived with them or worked with them or witnessed the difference their lives made in the world around us. We honor them on November 1st because their quiet witness to the Gospel deserves to be recognized. We celebrate their unsung holiness because their daily lives are models of Christian living that all of us imperfect Christian disciples can follow.

Throughout the liturgical year the Church provides us with many occasions to pay attention to the witness of individual saints. Their unique, and sometimes very diverse, stories show how different saints teach us with their actions as well as their words what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ. But because on November 1st, we focus on all the saints and not just one or more particular saints, we have a unique opportunity to reflect on what the universal call to holiness means for ordinary people—like you and me …

– Read the full article –