All Saints Day: Oct 31/November 1, 2026

When pain and confusion seem endless - Hold on to love.

We cultivate healing through kindness. - Hold on to love.

Last week, Jesus tried to tell us to simplify things a bit, instead of worrying about those 613 commands in the Jewish law. Just concentrate on being loving people, not rule followers.

Loving God  with all your heart, soul, and mind, and loving your neighbor as yourself fulfills the whole law and the prophets. . .

Hold on to love, and the rest will take care of itself.  And if we hold on to love, little by little, we can become more like Christ. We can become saints!  The Saints we honor today knew that and they tried to teach us by the words and lives to also know this wisdom.  They taught us about loving God.

St. Theresa of Avila taught us that prayer is an intimate friendship and a frequent heart to heart conversation with God by whom we are loved.  And we all know that communication is the key to any good relationship.

Francis of Assisi taught us to love God by embracing simplicity, caring for creation and recognizing that loving God radically overflows into loving and serving God.  And we all know that when we love someone, we do our best to please them, and to love what they love.

Theresa of Lisieux taught us to love God by doing small everyday tasks, and quiet acts of kindness with great love, rather than waiting for grand gestures.  She taught that God is satisfied with small, simple signs of love.

The Saints taught us how to love God, but are we listening, are we learning from them?  Or are we still doing things out of obligation rather than admiration for the one we love?  And the saints, by their words and actions, taught us how to love our neighbor as ourself:

Saint Maximillian Kolbe taught us from the concentration camp of Auschwitz that we love others by imitating Christ who emptied himself willing to lay down his life for another.  Again, we know that when we love someone,  we do our best to serve them in sometimes very small ways, but we do sacrifice our lives for them over a lifetime.

St. Ignatius Loyola encouraged us to see the image of God in all people through community life, compassion and discovering how God communicates through human relationships.

Mother Theresa taught that we should see and serve the face of Christ in the poorest, the most marginalized, and those who suffer, treating every act of service as a direct response to Christ.

And Saint Martin of Tours found that to be so by giving half of his cloak to a poor beggar, who later that night appeared to him as Jesus, wrapped in that cloak. 

A lesson Jesus, himself, will teach us in a few short weeks, that whenever we do something for the least of our brothers or sisters, we do it for him.

The Saints taught us how to love others, but are we listening, are we learning from them?  Or are we still doing things out of obligation rather than admiration for the one we love? It’s not that complicated to be a saint. All we have to do is strive to hold on to love, consistently, radically, and boldly:

Hold on to love where hope is found.

Hold on to love where joy abounds.

Hold to love, where grace and mercy’s overflowing.  Hold on to Love.  Hold on to love.