Oct

31

Beauty of Holiness

Posted By pennysilvers | Filed Under Penny Silvers 

Penny Silvers

Here is a very brief meditation on the communion of saints on this All Hallows’ Eve.

saints_angelico.jpgOne of the most moving plainchants of the Church is the Litany of Saints, sung during Easter Vigil, Ordinations, Canonization of Saints, and during Papal Funerals. After invoking the mercy of the Trinity, the Church on earth names the glorious saints beginning with the Blessed Virgin Mary, to the Archangels and Angels, John the Baptist, Joseph, the Prophets and Patriarchs, Peter and Paul, down through the glorious martyrs, and saints of God, rank upon rank of the glorious heavenly company whom we ask to pray for us.

What a wonderful cloud of witnesses, those who have triumphed and are now beholding God face to face. These are our elder brothers and sisters in the Faith whose lives are masterpieces of the Holy Spirit’s work. Through their Yes to God, extraordinary things were accomplished so that we may have hope in our daily striving here on earth. The lives they lived are witnesses to the transformative power of the Holy Spirit. The holiness they lived is the splendor of God’s Truth worked out in ordinary living. It is this splendor that attracts us and pulls us into the interior life of the Trinity. There is nothing more powerful than a changed life lived for the glory of God.

Veneration of the saints is a confusing concept for our separated brothers and sisters in the Christian faith. There is an assumption that to venerate the saints takes away or even reduces the glory that is due to God. The vision given by St. John in the Apocalypse gives us the answer to this concern. God doesn’t reign in isolation. The glory that is his cannot but be reflected by his saints who behold him.

One of the important things to remember about the doctrine of the Communion of Saints is that as the Mystical Body of Christ, the Church is One…even though she is in three stages, Church Militant struggling here on earth, Church Expectant in the process of purification in purgatory, and Church Triumphant in the Beatific Vision of Our Triune God. But she is still One unified by the Holy Spirit who is her soul and who animates her and gives her supernatural life.

So to venerate the saints is to be led to worship the Lord. The saints point not at themselves but to Christ Crucified and Resurrected. When Catholics venerate the saints it is in its essence to be in thanksgiving for the untiring work of the Holy Spirit who perfects our faith and transforms each of us to be images of God. Saints show us that it is possible to be holy as our Father in heaven is holy.

Sancta Maria, ora pro nobis…Omnes sancti Angeli et Archangeli, orate pro nobis…Omnes sancti Patriárchæ et Prophetæ, orate pro nobis…Omnes sancti Apóstoli et Evangelistæ, orate pro nobis…Omnes sancti Mártyres, orate pro nobis…Omnes sancti Pontifices et Confessores, orate pro nobis… Ut Ecclésiam tuam sanctam regere et conservare dignéris…. Te rogamus, audi nos.

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