All Saints Day

Today is All Saints Day, the day where the Church honors all saints, known and unknown.  Today’s gospel is over the beatitudes.  Every time I hear or read the beatitudes something just clicks and makes me feel good inside, and I feel compelled to follow the Lord even more than usual.  Read through the beatitudes and think of how you should act in order to follow what Jesus is saying here.  

Blessed are the poor in spirit
Blessed are they who mourn
Blessed are the meek
Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness
Blessed are the merciful
Blessed are the clean of heart
Blessed are the peacemakers
Blessed are they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness
Blessed are you when they insult you and persecute you and utter every kind of evil against you falsely because of me
Rejoice and be glad

So what qualities are being asked of you?  Now think of how the world says we can behave if we so desire.  It is pretty much the exact opposite.  If we choose not to follow the Lord, but rather follow society we will not be following any of the beatitudes.  How much hope can we have if we do not follow the ways of the Lord?  It just blows my mind how people who do not believe or serve the Lord live from day to day without being depressed all of the time.  No matter, just something I think about from time to time.  

So on this All Saints Day, I challenge you to think of how the beatitudes say you should act throughout your day.  Of course we are humans and we will not be able to always follow them, but on this All Saints Day let’s try to be as saint-like as possible.

Here is a link to some prayers for All Saints Day.
http://www.churchyear.net/allsaintsprayers.html

-Brent