Apocalypse 7:2-4, 9-14 / 1 John 3:1-3 / 1 Thess 1:5-10 / Matthew 5:1-12
There are more than 10,000 saints that the Church has canonized. By that, it means that the Church has officially declared that these saints are in heaven.
But of course, beyond that, the 1st reading tells us how many saints there are in heaven – a huge number, impossible to count, of people from every nation, race, tribe and language.
If it is impossible to count, then it is also quite impossible to imagine how packed Heaven is with saints.
But despite this countless number of saints, we do know some of them, or at least we must know one of them.
There are the more well-known saints like St. Peter, St. Paul, St. Jude who is the patron saint of desperate and hopeless cases, St Francis of Assisi, St. Anthony whom we invoke for lost articles, and other saints that we may have a Devotion to.
But at least we must know one particular saint, and that is our patron saint.
Some of us may be thinking, “Our who?”. Yes, our patron saint, the saint we took as our patron and it is in our baptism name.
So, from our baptism name, we would know who is our patron saint. And we can get to know our patron saint by checking out whatever information about the patron saint.
But if for some reason our baptism name is not taken from a saint, then maybe God wants us to be a saint!
But seriously, getting to know our patron saints is really helpful for the spiritual life.
We can turn to our patron saints for intercession in our needs. We look to our patron saints as a model of faith and as a model for life and for inspiration.
So, if your name is Damien, then your patron saint is Saint Damien of Molokai, or also known as St. Damien the leper.
St. Damien offered to go to Molokai to serve the lepers there, and unfortunately, he contracted the disease and died from it.
But from his own writings, he revealed the ordinary human struggles he had to endure in order to overcome his initial revulsion for the day-to-day life with his flock of lepers.
He constantly thought of how Jesus reached out to the lepers and he wanted to do the same.
Indeed, St. Damien is a model of self-sacrifice, of perseverance and of love for God and for the lepers.
If your name is Therese, or Teresa, then your patron saint is St. Therese the Little Flower, who taught us how to do little things with great love for God.
She inspired St. Mother Teresa who took on the motto of “doing little things with great love” in serving the poorest of the poor.
So, the saints, especially our patron saint can be our model of faith and model of life.
A lady by the name of Rita was asked if her husband has any faults. She replied, “Oh, as many as the stars at night.”
When asked if her husband had any virtues, she said, “Oh, not much, maybe only one, like the sun in the sky.”
When asked how she was able to cope with her husband’s faults, she replied, “When the sun shines, its brilliance covers all the stars.”
But she also added that she had wondered what her name Rita meant, and she found out about St. Rita, and how she converted her wayward husband with her love, patience and forgiveness. And she wanted to do likewise.
So, it was St. Rita who inspired her to be a more loving and understanding wife.
So, on this Feast of All Saints, let us find out more about our patron saints.
Our patron saints want to help us in our need, but more importantly, our patron saints want to help us to journey towards heaven by living a life of love and gentleness, mercy and forgiveness, peace and righteousness.
Like the saints who have gone before us, we too will face difficulties and opposition and even persecution.
But let us persevere in faith and love. We may experience sorrow for doing what is right and loving.
But as Jesus promised us, we will rejoice with the saints.
That is our eternal reward in heaven.
May the saints, and especially our patron saints pray for us.
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