I stumbled on this little journal entry that I wrote around 11 years ago and it seems suitable for today, All Saints Day.
Oct 2015 (or thereabouts)
“I sat in the van waiting for my son to finish swimming practice. It had been a tough couple of days and I’d lost some important spiritual battles, but this morning, I got up and went to Mass, having skipped Sunday Mass altogether yesterday. At Mass, I grabbed a free Catholic calendar that has all the feast days of the saints, and as I sat in the car I looked through the names of the saints and at the pictures of the honored saint for each month. I prayed, “Will not the saints in heaven lend a hand to me who is so distraught. Will not the angels lend a hand to me who suffers in this body of death? How will I escape? Will not Jesus himself and Mary the mother of God help me who is so fickle, dumb, and helpless?”
Somehow, I felt relieved and knew the answer was yes. Yes, they would all help. Yes, they would pray for me. All I needed to do was wait.
In just a few short minutes, I heard a chorus of bird calls coming from a distance. They were geese cheering each other on. That’s why they honk. They’re telling each other to keep going. “You can do it,” they say. They flew directly over my car, and I watched them disappear behind some buildings. I looked back at the calendar. St. Francis of Assisi is the featured saint for next October. He said that all creatures have the ability and duty to praise God. What an immediate answer to prayer, a saint telling me that all creatures praise God, and overhead a flock of geese shouting out, ‘Carry on. Don’t give up!'”
Twelve years later, I say that prayer again, today.
Will not the saints in heaven lend a hand to me who is so distraught. Will not the angels lend a hand to me who suffers in this body of death? How will I escape? Will not Jesus himself and Mary the mother of God help me who is so fickle, dumb, and helpless?
Remember that God helps those who help themselves. A person has to truly want to change and take responsibility for their actions. When we die, we will be judged on what we have done. Turn your back on your sins and persevere. Try to become a saint. Even saints sinned. As I read recently, “The Saints didn’t all begin well, but they all ended well.”