Solemnity of All Saints

Today's Mass Readings

If you google “Catholic Saint of the Day,” a number of good sites come up. But one of my favorites is Catholic.org. I like this site for the saint of the day because as I sit down today (October 23) to write this reflection, the first saint listed is St. John of Capistrano. But if you scroll down a little bit, you find a list twenty names long, who share the same feast day as St. John of Capistrano. And all of these are canonized and beatified saints and blesseds of the Catholic Church. One of my personal favorites who shares October 23 as a feast day is St. Severinus Boethius, who is actually the philosopher Boethius, who wrote The Consolation of Philosophy, one of the most read philosophical works during the middle ages, and still worth reading today.

The point is that every day of the year has a list of perhaps ten to twenty saints who share that day as a feast day, and all are officially beatified or canonized by the Catholic Church. So, we also have this day, November 1, All Saints Day, to celebrate all of these saints and blesseds.

And it is not only for these official saints of the Church but also for all the unofficial saints, who have not been canonized but whom we knew and loved and now hope are in heaven. So, on this day we honor all the saints and blesseds of the Catholic Church, and we also pray for all of our loved ones who have passed on and who we hope are now enjoying heaven.

Reflection by Fr. Aquinas Keusenkothen, OSB