I really like the feast of All Saints and enjoy celebrating it. One reason is because the Feast of All Saints is a big tent feast. Everybody is in it. We are all together. While we haven’t achieved eternal life, we are certainly candidates for it. We are on our way, and most important today is that we are on our way together.

Another reason why I like the feast is that I grew up in a parish named All Saints. My mother was in the parish when it started in 1907. It was a young diverse Catholic community out on the northern edge of Houston and about three miles from downtown. Today, All Saints would be considered an inner-city parish but it has a lot of life. Gentrification has made it young again.

We are a very mobile society and over the course of several decades, Catholics might live in a good many parishes. That is understandable but there is a certain sadness to it, since it causes so many of us to be spiritually rootless.

All Saints was a marker in my life. My mother, father and three siblings were buried from that church. I made my First Communion, Confirmation and celebrated my first Mass as a priest at the altar of All Saints. Later, as a bishop, it would be the first church where I would celebrate the Sacrament of Confirmation. To me, All Saints in the Houston Heights is a sacred place that provided me with clear markers for my spiritual journey.

All Saints! Such a crowd. Think of it- millions, millions, and millions of men and women who faced an unbelievable range of difficulties and burdens in this life but maintained their faith in Jesus Christ or lived good lives according to their consciences. Not all the saints are saints at this moment. All of us are, however, on the journey to sanctity and we are on that journey together!

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“Tony, Tony, Look around- something’s lost, and must be found!”

Today is Halloween, which makes tomorrow the great feast of All Saints Day. Let’s remember our special saint- St. Anthony- as we prepare for the feast…

Several times I have referred to the fact that religious life inside the enormous Roman Catholic family of faith is warm and cozy. We feel close to our parents and other relatives who have gone before us. We talk to them while we are driving the car. We call their attention to our problems as though we didn’t think they were aware of them, but of course, they are! If that is true of our relatives, it’s even more true about heroically holy men and women who the Church has given the title “Saints.”

When we head out to Dallas on I35, we ask St. Christopher to stay close to us. When a new pet is brought in to the house, we know he is a special friend of St. Francis of Assisi. On that great saint’s feast day, we frequently have a communal blessing of animals, because he saw every living being as a brother or a sister. In other words, he is a good friend of the pets!

The one that I turn to most frequently is St. Anthony of Padua, the patron of lost items. Do you ever misplace your car keys? Have you wondered around your house for 15 minutes looking for your eye glasses only to have your daughter tell you they are on your head? Well, those are light hearted items, but we really do believe that St. Anthony has a special interest in people who are in serious trouble because of something important having been lost. We don’t ask him to perform miracles, but we do ask him to help us use our brains, our memories and our eye sight more effectively. I have had this devotion my entire adult life, and I can tell you something- it WORKS! Maybe I should say, he works.

PS. A more serious prayer is:
St. Anthony, perfect imitator of Jesus, who received from God the special power of restoring lost things, grant that I may find (name your lost item) which has been lost. At least restore to me peace and tranquility of mind, the loss of which has afflicted me even more than my material loss. To this favor, I ask another of you: that I may always remain in possession of the true good that is God. Let me rather lose all things than lose God, my supreme good. Let me never suffer the loss of my greatest treasure, eternal life with God. Amen.

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I really like the feast of All Saints and enjoy celebrating  it.  One reason is because the Feast of All Saints is a big tent feast.  Everybody is in it.  We are all together.  While we haven’t achieved eternal life, we are certainly candidates for it.  We are on our way, and most important today is that we are on our way together.

Another reason why I like the feast is that I grew up in a parish named All Saints.  My mother was in the parish when it started in 1907.  It was a young diverse Catholic community out on the northern edge of Houston and about three miles from downtown.  Today, All Saints would be considered an inner-city parish but it has a lot of life.  Gentrification has made it young again.

We are a very mobile society and over the course of several decades, Catholics might live in a good many parishes.  That is understandable but there is a certain sadness to it, since it causes so many of us to be spiritually rootless.

All Saints was a marker in my life.  My mother, father and three siblings were buried from that church.  I made my First Communion, Confirmation and celebrated my first Mass as a priest at the altar of All Saints.  Later, as a bishop, it would be the first church where I would celebrate the Sacrament of Confirmation.  To me, All Saints in the Houston Heights is a sacred place that provided me with clear markers for my spiritual journey.

All Saints! Such a crowd.  Think of it- millions, millions, and millions of men and women who faced an unbelievable range of difficulties and burdens in this life but maintained their faith in Jesus Christ or lived good lives according to their consciences.  Not all the saints are saints at this moment.  All of us are, however, on the journey to sanctity and we are on that journey together!

Special thanks to the young saints at my parish, St. Theresa’s here in Austin, pictured above.

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I really like the feast of All Saints and enjoy celebrating  it.  One reason is because the Feast of All Saints is a big tent feast.  Everybody is in it.  We are all together.  While we haven’t achieved eternal life, we are certainly candidates for it.  We are on our way, and most important today is that we are on our way together.

Another reason why I like the feast is that I grew up in a parish named All Saints.  My mother was in the parish when it started in 1907.  It was a young diverse Catholic community out on the northern edge of Houston and about three miles from downtown.  Today, All Saints would be considered an inner-city parish but it has a lot of life.  Gentrification has made it young again.

We are a very mobile society and over the course of several decades, Catholics might live in a good many parishes.  That is understandable but there is a certain sadness to it, since it causes so many of us to be spiritually rootless.

All Saints was a marker in my life.  My mother, father and three siblings were buried from that church.  I made my First Communion, Confirmation and celebrated my first Mass as a priest at the altar of All Saints.  Later, as a bishop, it would be the first church where I would celebrate the Sacrament of Confirmation.  To me, All Saints in the Houston Heights is a sacred place that provided me with clear markers for my spiritual journey.

All Saints! Such a crowd.  Think of it- millions, millions, and millions of men and women who faced an unbelievable range of difficulties and burdens in this life but maintained their faith in Jesus Christ or lived good lives according to their consciences.  Not all the saints are saints at this moment.  All of us are, however, on the journey to sanctity and we are on that journey together!

Special thanks to the young saints at my parish, St. Theresa’s here in Austin, pictured above.

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