All Saints Day is one of my favorite feast days of the Church!  I have been inspired by the lives of the Saints ever since reading stories about them as a kid.  But it was only recently that I began to understand that they have left us examples to follow in every state of life and circumstance. These are the ones who have went before us in a blaze of glory. They underwent hardships and trials and persevered in love to the end. Their victory was in, through and with Christ. We called to imitate them as they imitated Him. And more than imitation, they identified themselves with Him.  The Saints lived Christ.

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There is a war going on between light and darkness and we’re in the thick of it.  St. Paul describes it in my preceding post as the battle against principalities, powers, world rulers of this present darkness and  spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. The Church Militant must put on the armor of Christ, be girded with truth,  wear the breastplate of righteousness, have their feet shod with the equipment of the gospel of peace, completed with the helmet of salvation, the sword of the Spirit and shield of faith. The full armor of Christ is what we put on by becoming one with Him in the Eucharist, prayer and responding to his grace—and  this is how we can identify ourselves with Christ and live His life. After the smoke of battle clears, as Father John Corapi is wont to say, we will be one of two things— a winner or a loser.  A winner, a member of the Church Triumphant—a Saint.