President’s Desk - November, 2008

HOW MANY SAINTS IN YOUR FAMILY

As I was reflecting on what to share with you this month, our pastor Father Bernard mentioned in his homily this morning that Bishop Moreno asked the confirmation class who they felt were saints in their families. Father said he carried that question with him in his own homilies and was so interested in the responses like: grandmother, aunt, mothers etc.; however, the one that really struck him was a large muscular man that said "MY MOM."

I would ask you: who do you feel are the Saints of your family? I think we sometimes get confused with the fact that there are many saints in heaven that are not canonized, that is recognized by the Church to be definitely in heaven. He was told by his confessor once to focus on being a Saint not a canonized one. That makes it easier to think about if we think about Revelation when St. John "…had a vision of a great multitude, which no one could count, from every nation, race, people, and tongue." Our families are included in that number.

As a ministry, we were praying for a young lady that was given little hope as she lie in the hospital with no seeming cure for her illness. Her mom consistently came here to talk to me, ask for prayers, sign in to our prayer book as well as the prayers of her family and the school where her children attended. Last week I looked up and saw this beautiful happy face of the mom coming through the door and behind her a daughter that had the biggest smile I have ever seen and a radiance that was stunning. She was out of the hospital, happy even though she had to wear a permanent machine that will constantly pump the medication she will need for the rest of her life. Prayers were answered.

As they shared with me the mom told me that just before they found the cause of the illness and the treatment her mother passed away. It was seven days later that her daughter came out of the hospital. The mother and daughter did not use to get along very well but have found common ground now. The daughter has the personality of the grandmother and it is a beautiful family reunion in our faith. We shared that it was through the prayers of the grandmother that all this happened. They believe their grandmother is one of the Saints we are talking about.

We also have two people in the ministry that we have prayed for  One is our Treasurer, Tony Limon and our prayers for his new kidney were answered about three months ago. He has an infection now but the kidney is doing well. Also our prayers for a cure for a heart ailment of Claudia is happening in January. I am sure there are some family Saints interceding for them as well as our prayers.

To be focused on being a Saint requires us to live the 10 commandments and mainly to live in the LOVE of God and our human family. We all have the teachings of the church and can look at St. Paul as an example to accomplish this. My challenge for this ministry is that we daily focus on this each day of our life.

As we also focus on All Souls Day we cannot lose site of the fact that we have to pray for those that still want so badly to be one of the great multitude in the heavenly court and need our prayers to get there. We can never ASSUME all our family is in heaven if they are not canonized. No prayer is left unused so if we offer prayers for someone that is already there they can be used for someone else. We cannot pray to much, that is impossible.

In this month of November we can reflect on all our family Saints as well as those that still need our prayers to experience the BEATIFIC VISION with all our other family members. To conclude, Bishop Morneo told the confirmation class: "It takes one to know one."

God Bless You.

Gayle