“All Saints Day”… What am I Supposed to Do with the Saints Anyway?
Heading towards Halloween. There are two “Holidays” one right after the other next week. October 31, Halloween, we are very familiar with. The next day, November 1st, is “All Saints Day”. Have you ever heard of that one?
In all honesty, in the past, it’s made me kind of nervous. I grew up in Catholic school so I was introduced to it a wee bit. Actually, even with all my years of Catholic school, they never did much with it either. With the controversy of evil underpinnings surrounding Halloween, I always wondered if, All Saints Day, November 1st, was positioned the day after to address the wreckage through whatever help the Saints might bring.
Because my Protestant tradition doesn’t do anything with Saints, I left it at that. Until a few years ago when they came back into my life during Spiritual Direction training. As a side bar to the curriculum in one of my first classes, we were handed a sheet with 50 or so faithful Christians from history and instructed to choose one to “walk with”.
“Spiritual Giants”. With a mixed group of denominations in the class, they wisely, didn’t refer to them as “Saints”. They weren’t all Catholic. Some were Catholic, some Protestant and others godly historical figures.
"Eeeks!" Red, flashing alarm bells rang in my head.
“Hey, I’m not Catholic and I don’t do Saints. I keep all of my dedication and worship for Jesus ONLY!”
Of course, I didn’t say that out loud, but inside my dukes were up, ready for battle.
"Calm down, calm down.”
I knew the Lord had led me to this class. I had a friend, very similar in her faith tradition and passion for Jesus who talked glowingly about her experience taking these classes and everything I had experienced so far was wonderful.
“Ok, I can do this. I’ll do it prayerfully and cautiously. If it crosses the line. I’ll stop.”
But it didn’t. As the year continued, we were instructed to be learning a little here and there about the Giant we had chosen, watching for how God wanted to use that person’s life as a blessing to ours.
I LOVED it!
It felt like having an invaluable opportunity to be mentored by someone who had victoriously won their race. Someone who loved God, like I wanted to, in their own country and century and who battled to be faithful to Him and their callings, like I wanted to. It took me out of the small cul-de-sac of my life and opened a world of 1000s of Christians before me who could provide the missing puzzle pieces I needed to run my race.
Christians like C.S. Lewis, Eugene Petersen, Henri Nouwen, Elisabeth Elliott, John Wesley.
It was never about “worshipping” any of them. They would never want that. But only to help us, just like we pray our lives of faithfulness will help other believers after we're gone.
To help us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. To link arms, learn through their triumphs and struggles, be strengthened by their courage and faithfulness, receive new perspectives by seeing through their eyes.
I watched as walking with our spiritual giants changed me and my classmates, making us more like Christ in ways we had always longed for.
So, today, as I see “All Saints Day” on the calendar, I don’t cringe or get a creepy, eerie feeling anymore. I smile as warmth flows through my body thinking of the faithful, especially the ones I have “walked” with and whisper a prayer of thanks.
It was such a powerful experience for me to learn this practice that I am in the process now of writing a book about it. I can’t wait for others to experience it too.
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When you think of the faithful ones (aka.. “Saints”), who have lived before you, like Mother Teresa, Rich Mullins, Oswald Chambers … who are you especially drawn to?