A Devotion for Everyday Saints

Who are the saints in your life?

I don’t mean St. Anthony, who you might pray to when your keys are lost, or St. Teresa who served the orphans of Calcutta. To be sure, those men and women are saints to us all.

But who are the people in your life who you owe your faith to? The ones who came before you and made a way so that God could move?

I think of those who formed and founded my faith – John and Susannah Wesley, the early circuit riders of Methodism, the men and women who preached in open fields and town squares.

I also include writers, professors and theologians in my collection of saints. Rachel Held Evans, Toni Morrison, Mary Oliver, and Brennan Manning. Some I’ve never even met, but whose writings, sermons and teachings challenged and shaped my faith, inspiring me to think differently and believe more spaciously than I ever would on my own.

Among the saints in my life, I count former pastors, youth leaders, family members, and friends. These are people who may never have a book written about them or be canonized in the church, but whose small, regular acts of love and devotion impacted my life in immeasurable ways.

These everyday saints are the ones I remember this week as we celebrate All Saints Sunday.

All Saints Sunday is a celebration, a reminder of those whose lives shone with God’s light and faithfulness. We mark this day by lifting up these men and women who taught and guided us, their legacies shining over generations.

We read in Hebrews 11 and 12 the history of the men and women on whose shoulders our faith rests:

“And what more should I say? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets— who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions, quenched raging fire, escaped the edge of the sword, won strength out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight. Women received their dead by resurrection. Others were tortured, refusing to accept release, in order to obtain a better resurrection. Others suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned to death, they were sawn in two,* they were killed by the sword; they went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, persecuted, tormented— of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground.

Yet all these, though they were commended for their faith, did not receive what was promised, since God had provided something better so that they would not, without us, be made perfect.

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely,* and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us.”

Hebrews 11: 32 – 12:1 NRSV

The beauty of the life of faith is that our legacies are not constructed by superhuman feats of strength or power. Rather, in the small daily acts of love, the listening ear lent to a client, the compassionate response to a homeowner in need, the gentle guiding of a volunteer team, this is where we join the saints in leaving legacies of faith.

So, this All Saints Day, who will you remember and give thanks for? How are you working out your own faith so that others may someday name you as one of their everyday saints?

With you on the journey,

Chaplain Amy

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A Prayer Meditation for All Saints Day
by Safiyah Fosua

We give you thanks, O God, for all the saints who ever worshiped you
Whether in brush arbors or cathedrals,
Weathered wooden churches or crumbling cement meeting houses
Where your name was lifted and adored.

We give you thanks, O God, for hands lifted in praise:
Manicured hands and hands stained with grease or soil,
Strong hands and those gnarled with age
Holy hands
Used as wave offerings across the land.

We thank you, God, for hardworking saints;
Whether hard-hatted or steel-booted,
Head ragged or aproned,
Blue-collared or three-piece-suited
They left their mark on the earth for you, for us, for our children to come.