A Word from Your Pastor - November 1 Solemnity of All Saints

Dear Parishioners:

Happy Solemnity of All Saints!  This is truly a Family Day.  We acknowledge that we are part of a family that has a great destiny.  Glory in the Kingdom of Heaven is our aim.  By the action of God’s grace in our hearts and in our lives, through our cooperation with that grace, we are promised a place among the Saints in Glory.  Our identity is not at all anything that the world tells us.  Rather, our identity is “Saints in Training.”

Holiness is the call of all who are baptized.  We belong to God.  We are set apart to accomplish a great work in God’s Name.  When we allow this to be central to our self-understanding, something different happens in us.  We live no longer for ourselves, but for God and for those whom He has entrusted to us.

Being a member of the Communion of Saints, we acknowledge that we are responsible for others.  The Saints in Glory, the cloud of witnesses who have gone ahead of us, pray for us and spur us on to victory.  The Holy Souls in Purgatory, our ancestors in Faith still in need of purification before their entrance into the Kingdom, also pray for us and rely on us to pray for them since they cannot pray for themselves.  Other “Saints in Training” also rely on us for our example and for our support through prayer and action that will help them along the way to the Kingdom.

When we fix our hearts on Heaven, we see the world around us differently.  When God is truly first in our lives, we find that the delights of this world pale in comparison to the joy of a living and true relationship with Him.  The call to holiness is a call to a delight that will never end.

November 2^nd is the Memorial of All Souls.  On this day, we keep in mind those who have gone before us who are in need of the final purification to enter into Heavenly glory.  It is fitting for us to pray in a special way for those who have died in the past year and for all our benefactors.  A number of those who have been generous to the St. Timothy community and who literally built the Parish and the School have received their call to the Kingdom.  May they rest in peace.  May their souls and the souls of all the faithful departed, through the Mercy of God, rest in peace.  We remember them at the Masses of All Souls’ Day, especially the evening Mass sponsored by the St. Timothy Bereavement Committee.