Today, we celebrate the Solemnity of All Saints, a celebration honoring all  men and women who have entered Heaven. While this includes every soul  in Heaven, the focus is particularly on those who led extraordinarily holy  lives on earth and that the Church has canonized as saints. These  individuals honored God in a variety of ways: through deep prayer and  mystical union, through enduring martyrdom or other forms of religious  persecution, and through acts of service, such as caring for the needy or  teaching the faith. Some saints were powerful preachers or miracle  workers. Others were leaders, some lived in obscurity, and still others  experienced exile or made significant personal sacrifices for their faith. In  various ways, these saints glorified God during their lifetimes.  

Honoring the saints also becomes an invitation to each one of us on earth  to strive after the holiness the saints attained. The saints give us an  example; their lives are a “how to” book in holiness. The lives of the “super  saints”—such as the Blessed Virgin Mary and Saints Francis of Assisi,  Catherine of Siena, Teresa of Ávila, Thérèse of Lisieux, Augustine of Hippo,  and Thomas Aquinas—should be studied and pondered so that we can  learn from their example. 

We must also remember that, from Heaven, the saints become powerful  intercessors for us on earth. It is true that God could deal directly with us  without using the mediation of angels and saints. He chooses to use  secondary causes, while He always remains the First Cause and Source of  all grace. The saints and angels are among those secondary causes God  chooses to mediate His grace. For that reason, we should rely upon their  intercession. Doing so is an act of faith by which we profess our belief in  God, using the saints and angels as His instruments.  

Prayer: All saints in Heaven, I thank you for the holy witness you each have  given to the Church and rejoice in the blessings you now enjoy in Heaven.  Please pray for me and for all people, that every one of us will become  holy, bearing witness to Christ with our lives, and one day enter Heaven.  May God pour forth an abundance of grace upon the world through the  example you set and the prayers you now pray before His throne. All saints  of God, pray for me. Jesus, I trust in You.