The Gratitude of Our Hearts

In this month of November, not only do we think of Thanksgiving, but with All Saints Day at the beginning of the month, we also give thanks for the heroic witness of the saints through the ages.  The saints dedicated their lives to the service of God, proclaiming by word and example the good news of God in Christ (as we say in our Baptismal Covenant).   We tend to think of the saints as those whose lives were exemplary, but if you take even a cursory look at the lives of the saints you'll see that the reason they are examples is that, to a person, the saints had very human lives, yet were able to overcome their human foibles and witness to God's good news in Christ in unique ways.  In older versions of Lesser Feasts and Fasts, several guidelines are given for inclusion of saints on the church calendar for special commemoration.  These guidelines (with definitions) include: heroic faith, love, goodness of life, joyousness, service to others for Christ's sake, devotion, recognition by the faithful, and historical perspective.  Doesn't sound too difficult, does it?  The thing about the saints, given their very humanness, is that they really are great examples of how ordinary people can do something realistic with their lives, not only to talk about, but to actually live by our words to show with the example of our lives the gratitude of our hearts.   --Marc