On this Solemnity of All Saints, we look up to all the saints in heaven who have preceded us,
who have made it to heaven, they have passed through this life, this pilgrimage, this valley of tears,
this place of sorrows and crosses, and they have been victorious.
They've passed that finish line, they have ran that race, and they have gone before us,
and they've succeeded, and they persevered, and they were faithful to God until the end.
And they passed through all these obstacles.
This obstacle course of this life, and they've won.
They've passed that finish line, and they've set the example for us.
And they're rooting us on, and we're cheering them, too, and thanking God for their lives and their example to us.
And so we cheer them, and now they are up there cheering us on, too.
And they're in our midst, too.
They're in our midst to help us.
They're in our midst to help us, and strengthen us by their prayers.
And, of course, we have the Queen of Saints, the Saint of All Saints, Our Lady, there,
encouraging us and rooting us on, too.
But much, much more than that, she's actually in the fight with us.
She's operating in our souls.
She's consoling us and encouraging us and urging us on,
and she's being that true mother on our path.
She's being that true mother on our path to holiness,
and she's really essential to our own personal holiness, which we are celebrating today, too.
We're celebrating our own vocation, our own vocation to holiness and virtue and sanctity.
We are all called and required to be saints, and this is our vocation, our requirement,
our purpose in life.
We are all called and required to be saints, and this is our vocation, our requirement, our purpose in life.
is to become saints.
So we're celebrating that today, and that's why it's such an important day,
a holy day of obligation, because we are focusing on our goal in life, our purpose in life.
Our very purpose in life is to become saints, to serve God with all our heart, soul, all our strength,
all our life, to serve God and to live in purity, to live freely,
to be free from sin, to root sin out, to keep it out, to keep it far away from us,
and to have virtue front and center in our life and before our eyes, in our own life.
And we hope to see virtue in the lives of our brothers and sisters
so that we have virtue and holiness and purity everywhere around us.
In fact, we can, if we look, we can, not too difficult to see all the evil around,
and all the bad example, all the things that keep us from God
and are obstacles to our sanctity and holiness.
We need to turn it all around.
We need to change it.
We need to bring the city of God.
We need to bring heaven here on earth,
and we all need to act here on earth as they do in heaven.
And that's why we pray in the Our Father that God's kingdom will come here on earth
as it is in heaven.
We should have the kingdom of God here on earth.
We should be living these beatitudes of poverty and meekness
and hungering and thirsting for holiness and showing mercy to our neighbor,
being pure of heart and being peacemakers,
spreading the fragrance of God's holiness everywhere we go,
in our midst, in our families, in our workplaces, in our friaries,
in our convents, and this is our vocation.
Our vocation is to spread the fragrance of Christ and of Our Lady
in our midst, in our communities, and in the world.
And we are celebrating that, and we're striving to establish it,
establish the kingdom of God here on earth.
And the only way to do that is to first do it in ourselves.
If we look and look at all the misery,
all the godlessness in the world,
and we can get depressed and sad and feel miserable
and get negative and all this.
And many people have had that spirit of hopelessness
and see all the misery in this world.
And they've asked the saints, St. Peter of Alcantara, I can remember,
someone asked, telling him all the terrible,
terrible things that are happening in the world and what should we do?
And he said, well, you can make a start by changing yourself.
Let us make a start by changing ourselves.
We need to make saints out of ourselves and no matter if everyone else is going to hell
in a basket, what's the expression, going to hell in a handbasket,
we I don't have to do that.
You don't have to do that.
We can become the only saints in this world.
And that is what we should do.
And we must do this again.
This is our vocation.
This is our purpose in life.
So let us focus on, let us, as St. John on the cross says,
where there is no love, put love and there will be love.
Where there is no sanctity, put sanctity and there will be.
Set that example, set that fire on earth as St. Francis did when the hearts
of men had grown cold.
Set that example.
Set that fire on earth as St. Francis did when the hearts of men had grown cold.
And the love of God in his day, we too can enkindle that holiness in the world
today just by you, just by me and we can do that today and so let us do that and let us
turn to Our Lady and realize the essential role that Our Lady has in her own sanctification,
in her own personal sanctification but also in reforming the world.
As Our Lady said at Fatima, God wants to save the world, bring peace to the world,
save souls from hell by establishing in the world devotion to her immaculate heart.
This is essential that we consecrate ourselves to Our Lady, that we live for her,
and we realize that if we don't turn to Our Lady, we won't have the grace to live a holy life.
We have to have Our Lady front and center in our lives and in our heart and in our continual prayers
and the model that she is, the perfect model, and to turn to her for consolation and strength
and to renew ourselves, to find the mercy of God, to find everything we need
for to accomplish our purpose in life through Our Lady.
She will obtain it.
For us, she has all the treasures of God in her fingertips to give to us.
We need to go to her and to trust in her and depend on her
and find in her all that we need to serve God in a life of holiness here.
So let us turn to her and be faithful to our consecration to Our Lady,
our total consecration to her.
Let us turn to her and be faithful to Our Lady.
Let us turn to her and be faithful to Our Lady.
Let us turn to her and be faithful to Our Lady.