Living All Saints Day

The Church lives in a great perspective. This perspective accompanies her always, molds her continually, and directs her towards eternity. The liturgy of the day highlights the eschatological reality, a reality which springs from the whole plan of salvation and at the same time from man's history, a reality which gives the very existence of the Church and her mission their ultimate meaning. 

That is why we live so intensely the solemnity of All Saints, as well as, tomorrow, the Commemoration of all the dead. These two days enclose, in a particular way, faith in "eternal life" (the last words of the apostolic "Creed").

And although these two days put before the eyes of our soul the inevitability of death, they give, at the same time, a testimony of life. Man who, according to the laws of nature, is "condemned to death," man who lives in the perspective of the annihilation of his body, exists at the same time in the perspective of future life, and is called to joy. 

-Saint John Paul II, Solemnity of All Saints, 1978

St. John Paul II, who canonized more Saints than all of the popes in the last 500 years combined, please pray for us, that we may one day join you in the communion of Saints.