Feast of all Saints

Tuesday November 1, 2022

Whenever this feast comes around, I remember a story that was told by Fr. Phillip Chircop SJ our dear friend. He was giving a retreat to the sisters of Saint Mother Theresa of Calcata, a great saint of our time. Fr Phillip had met the holy lady a number of times. Anyway after her death he was invited to lead a retreat in Calcata with her nuns. This is a great honor to preach in the very mother house of a great holy lady like St. Mother Theresa. As he was giving the retreat he noticed the sisters giggling. Him thinking he had knocked it out of the park asked at lunch why everyone was smiling and giggling during his talk. One of the sisters in a very deep Indian accent said “Oh fader, it was so obvious you never lived with the woman (she used another word here that may not be too holy for this space)” And the whole refractory erupted in belly hurting laughter. Well Fr Phillip being a Jesuit threw his prepared remarks and said let me hear it.

Come to find out that St. Mother Theresa was a pain to live with. She was totally irrational, totally unpredictable and yet she blundered her way into sainthood. And I love love absolutely love this… blundered her way into the heart of God. Because finally I have a saint who never claimed to be too holy, never had the gift of bilocation just a woman who tried and tried and led the whole world try with her to end poverty among many things.

So as we reflect on the saints please remember you are a saint too and there is no book, no rubrics just life. Saints tell us God is in all things even in the blunders.