All Saints Reflection from Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI



Here is a beautiful, brief reflection written by Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI (appearing in the Magnificat devotional magazine for today's date). 

As usual,  in just a few short words, Pope Benedict "nails it."  

I especially like his image of the saints being like stars which reflect the unspeakably beautiful light of Jesus the Son of God.

It is so very important that we teach our children and grandchildren to read about the lives of the saints and, when possible, to read the saints' writings in their own words.   There are many good videos of the saints produced by Ignatius Press and others, as well as material on our formed.org platform.   (This is free to parishioners and includes videos that can stream on any internet device..  Contact the parish office or me for more info.)

My young and formative years were in that unfortunate era (the late 1960s and the 1970s) when so many Catholics discarded devotion to the saints as "unimportant" and "irrelevant" to the modern Church.   Fortunately, we are returning to a more balanced era when we study the saints of every age, including the very large number canonized recently by Pope St. John Paul II.

For short snippet biographies of the saints (with reference to more detailed information) I recommend the website https://catholicsaints.info.   

Here's Pope Benedict: 

"To become saints means to fulfill completely what we already are, raised to the dignity of God's adopted children in Christ Jesus ....  There is no isolation in heaven.  It is the open society of the saints and, consequently, also the fulfillment of all human togetherness ..... One might say that the saints are , so to speak, new Christian constellations, in which the richness of God's goodness is reflected.  Their light, coming from God, allows us to know better the interior richness of God's great light .... Nothing can bring us into close contact with the beauty of Christ Himself other than the world of beauty created by faith and light that shines out from the faces of the saints, through whom His own light becomes visible."

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