FOR THE FEAST OF ALL SAINTS

Our litany today, long and beautiful, names Mary, the Mother of God, and the many saints like Mary who in the profundity of their “yes” have listened to the ways of the Spirit. They too have sung with Mary each word of her Magnificat, have known the graced and Incarnate nature of her Son and have held his death upon the cross deep in their hearts.

Today we celebrate their glorious lives of beatitude and yet find in our prayer, as did they, the immensity of need within our world today. We are poor, displaced, ill in body, mind and soul. Our  great yearning for lives of dignity and regard, healing and resurrection lie open before the altars upon which we unite ourselves in  Eucharistic prayer. In that, our very union of Truth and Sacrament, may these holy ones show us the way to our more intimate life in Christ who knows the Father in the Spirit of Love.

Lord, this is the people that longs to see Your face.

Young Maidens Running

Saint I defined for you: a slow serene

Candle in a cathedral of solitude,

a virgin lily in a nameless wood.

Yet you are flowers of petalled fire that lean

on a swift wind or waves that ride the sea

in tender rushings toward divinity.

O living phrases from the Canticle!

I sing you maidens that arise and run

in the stained footsteps of the King’s young Son.

Hence must I now for saint a new concept tell:

a maiden racing toward a sole desire

with garments glowing and her face on fire.

Jessica Powers

 Litany of the Saints