The Holy Father’s Angelus reflections for today’s Feast of All Saints are particularly beautiful. Below is an excerpt, but the full address is brief, so do read the whole thing:
In each of [the saints], in a very personal way, Christ was present, thanks to his Spirit which acts through the Word and the Sacraments. In fact, being united to Christ, in the Church, does not negate ones’ personality, but opens it, transforms it with the power of love, and confers on it, already here on earth, an eternal dimension.
In essence, it means being conformed to the image of the Son of God (cf. Rom 8:29), fulfilling the plan of God who created man in His own image and likeness. But this insertion in Christ also opens us – as we have said – in communion with all the other members of his Mystical Body which is the Church, a communion that is perfect in “Heaven”, where there is no isolation, no competition or separation. … In the saints we see the victory of love over selfishness and death: we see that following Christ leads to life, eternal life, and gives meaning to the present, every moment that passes, because it is filled with love and hope. Only faith in eternal life makes us truly love the history and the present, but without attachment, with the freedom of the pilgrim, who loves the earth because his heart is in Heaven.
Today’s a solemnity, of course, but also one of the most joyful days of the Church’s year. In that spirit, here are three minutes of pure musical joy, courtesy of Louis Armstrong and Danny Kaye:
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