All The Saints All The Time

   Welcome to Friday with Chairman Joe.
 
   Today is All Saints Day, when the church honors all the saints, known and unknown. The Catholic Church especially makes use of the strong spiritual bonds between the saints and us down here in the church militant. All my schooling was in Catholic schools until I joined the Navy, so I got a thorough indoctrination in the benefits of knowing the saints.
   Even the Navy, by no means a religious organization, has a patron saint in Michael the Archangel, best known for kicking Satan out of Heaven. The Navy's job is to resist evil, even if it means killing people. Saints are saints because they've resisted evil, preferably starting with the evil within themselves. Saints also do good when they can.
   During my time in school, I learned about God, but even the pope says it's impossible to truly know God. God sent prophets to bring us his laws and lambast us when we did wrong. Jesus came with a message of love, but he set high standards. Turn the other cheek. Sell what you have and give to the poor. A lot of people could not relate to that. So we got the saints. People like us. Imperfect as they were, they at least tried.
   All the apostles are saints. And Saint Paul who spread the word. He too was a tough act to follow. Saint Peter is a little more sympathetic. He actually denied Jesus. And Jesus forgave him. Forgiveness is huge with Jesus. So we can always find a saint to suit our foibles. There are saints for drunks, for thieves, for those who've hit rock bottom.
   In elementary school. all my classmates were named after saints. Even our middle names were supposed to be saint's names. I remember the nun one day humiliating one kid because his middle name was Truman. I hope little John Truman was able to forgive Sister N.
   We were regularly marched over to the big Romanesque church across the street to participate in liturgical ceremonies. I enjoyed the breath of fresh air away from classwork and the chance to gather wool under the lofty ceilings of Holy Name Church.
   Oftentimes we heard a recitation of the litany of the saints. It started with God, then Jesus, the Holy Ghost, the archangels, and moved on down through the apostles, the evangelists, the martyrs (Saint Stephen), and we in the pews would respond, "Have mercy on us," after each name. Every so often there would be a phrase such as "All you holy angels and archangels," to make sure no one got missed. We then moved on to a long list of saints, many of whom I'd never heard. But you'd perk up when you heard a familiar name: Saintt Ambrose, Saint Gregory, Saint Anthony.
   Saint Anthony! Now there was a saint I knew well. He was the saint to help you find missing items: "Something is lost cannot be found, please Saint Anthony look around." And it worked! It might take him awhile, a day, a week, possibly a year, but the thing always turned up, usually in a few minutes. I remember a priest once saying that it was a shame that Saint Anthony, Doctor of the Church that he was, was only remembered when we lost something. But I don't think Anthony minds a bit.
   So the saints, especially Mary, Jesus' mother, have provided great comfort to believers through the ages. Those things learned in youth haunt us forever. If they were bad things, it's best to exorcise them as best we can. But if they were good things, then may they have mercy on us.