One day, someone wrote to me, “Bo, I pray for you every day.” My heart leapt for joy. Here was a person who prayed for me daily. When I’m going through difficulty and a friend tells me, “Bo, I’m praying for you,” it comforts me.

I know someone else who prays for me every day. Her name is Mary. Why do I know? Because I asked our dear Mother to. I’ve also asked St. Francis of Assisi, Saint Benedict, and St. Ignatius of Loyola to pray for me every day. I thank God I have friends in high places.

I believe our prayer ministry doesn’t stop after death because love doesn’t stop after we die.

Today, I invite you to receive this beautiful gift from your Heavenly Father: a heavenly family that prays for you, cheering you on, and loving you night and day. 

Through their inspiration and intercession, we hope that one day, we will all be together being united with our dearly departed and enjoying the same great reward in heaven. 

Bo Sanchez (bosanchez@kerygmafamily.com)

Reflect

What saintly attitude can you practice today? 

Thank You, Father, for our heavenly family and their loving prayers for us. Amen.

All Saints, pray for us.

First Reading | Revelation 7:2-4, 9-14

In a vision of heaven, John the Beloved sees a multitude of saints—144,000 of them, holding palm branches and worshipping the Lamb who was slain for their sins. Some thought this was an actual number. However, in the Book of Revelation, numbers are symbolic—not literal—in meaning. The number 12 relates to the 12 tribes of Israel and the 12 Apostles. So, 12 x 12 = 144 means the totality of the people of God. On this special feast day, we honor all the saints who are now in heaven, glorifying and worshipping the Lamb.

² I, John, saw another angel come up from the East, holding the seal of the living God. He cried out in a loud voice to the four angels who were given power to damage the land and the sea, ³ “Do not damage the land or the sea or the trees until we put the seal on the foreheads of the servants of our God.” ⁴ I heard the number of those who had been marked with the seal, one hundred and forty-four thousand marked from every tribe of the children of Israel. ⁹ After this I had a vision of a great multitude, which no one could count, from every nation, race, people, and tongue. They stood before the throne and before the Lamb, wearing white robes and holding palm branches in their hands. ¹⁰ They cried out in a loud voice: “Salvation comes from our God, who is seated on the throne, and from the Lamb.” ¹¹ All the angels stood around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures. They prostrated themselves before the throne, worshipped God, ¹² and exclaimed: “Amen. Blessing and glory, wisdom and thanksgiving, honor, power, and might be to our God forever and ever. Amen.” ¹³ Then one of the elders spoke up and said to me, “Who are these wearing white robes, and where did they come from?” ¹⁴ I said to him, “My Lord, you are the one who knows.” He said to me, “These are the ones who have survived the time of great distress; they have washed their robes and made them white in the Blood of the Lamb.”

Responsorial Psalm | Psalm 24:1-2, 3-4, 5-6

R: Lord, this is the people that longs to see your face.

¹ The Lord’s are the earth and its fullness; the world and those who dwell in it. ² For he founded it upon the seas and established it upon the rivers. (R) ³ Who can ascend the mountain of the Lord? Or who may stand in his holy place? ⁴ One whose hands are sinless, whose heart is clean, who desires not what is vain. (R) ⁵ He shall receive a blessing from the Lord, a reward from God his savior. ⁶ Such is the race that seeks for him, that seeks the face of the God of Jacob. (R)

Second Reading | 1 John 3:1-3

Becoming children of the heavenly Father is one of our greatest blessings as Christians. Saint John said that this is a wonderful and awesome privilege, which we should meditate on so that our hearts will be filled with gratitude and joy. May this truth enter deeply into our hearts and give us a quiet confidence that we are truly precious and loved by God. 

¹ Beloved: See what love the Father has bestowed on us that we may be called the children of God. Yet so we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. ² Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we shall be has not yet been revealed. We do know that when it is revealed we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. ³ Everyone who has this hope based on him makes himself pure, as he is pure.

Gospel | Matthew 5:1-12

The Beatitudes provide the interior dispositions and attitudes that we should cultivate as we imitate Jesus. Begin with one of them for a week’s contemplation and seek to grow each day in that virtue. For instance, “Blessed are the pure of heart.” Let us keep our hearts and minds pure this week and avoid all pornography and crude conversations. 

Gospel Acclamation 

Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest, says the Lord. 

¹ When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain, and after he had sat down, his disciples came to him. ² He began to teach them, saying: ³ “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven. ⁴ Blessed are they who mourn, for they will be comforted. ⁵ Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the land. 6 Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied. ⁷ Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. ⁸ Blessed are the clean of heart, for they will see God. ⁹ Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. ¹⁰ Blessed are they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven. ¹¹ Blessed are you when they insult you and persecute you and utter every kind of evil against you falsely because of me. ¹² Rejoice and be glad, for your reward will be great in heaven. Thus they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”

Reflect:

What virtue do you want to grow in this week? 

What among the Beatitudes can you reflect on to help you in this?

Read the Bible in one year! Read JOB 30 - 33 today.

God’s Superabundant Goodness

The Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in Los Angeles, California, is known for the beautiful giant tapestries of the saints that line the length of its interior. Among the saints depicted, there are religious and lay, young and old, people of every race and skin color. To see so many of them together is awe-inspiring. 

That these saints are pictured to stand sideways, looking not at us but toward the sanctuary, is also remarkable. During liturgical celebrations, as the clergy and the lay faithful process into the building, we feel like the saints on these tapestries are walking with us toward the altar of the Lord.

Normally, we are made to view the saints as solitary figures, on pedestals, so different from us, and able to help us only from afar. But the tapestries in L.A. speak more truthfully, I think, because the saints are a communion—they are one, not only with God, but with each other and with us who seek to journey to God. 

The readings today remind us that the saints are from “every nation, race, people, and tongue.” Among them will be the meek, the merciful, those who hunger and give of themselves to do what is right. And they will be a multitude. 

Today, as we celebrate the many, many saints of the Catholic Church and of our lives, we celebrate God’s goodness that is truly among us—that looks like you and me, our neighbor, our sister, our brother, our friend. God’s goodness walks with us, is so much a part of our lives, and is abundantly present in the world. We ask today to not be blinded by evil and wrongdoing from seeing this superabundance of goodness that is around us and within us.

Fr. Mark Lopez, SJ

Reflection question

Who is your go-to saint whenever you need some powerful intercessor to God for your concerns?

Lord, thank You for the saints who do not get tired of praying for us. Amen.

Today, I pray for: ____________________________________