We give thanks to God for the saints today, canonized as well as uncanonized. We hope our loved ones are among the saints in heaven, but we continue to pray for them, and if they are in heaven our prayers will not be wasted but help others in need of prayer.
I would like to reflect today on the presence and assistance and help we receive from the saints in heaven. I think the most spectacular connection with the saints that we have witnessed in this country is the visit of the reliquary with relics of St. Thérèse of Lisieux in 2001. For 75 days her relics toured Ireland spending one day and night in a church or cathedral before moving the next day to another church or cathedral. There were about 4 million Catholics in Ireland at that time, and it is estimated that 3 million went to venerate her relics. There were numerous accounts of favors granted through the intercession of St. Thérèse, some of them so dramatic that they were reported in the media at that time (e.g. Joan Rigney claiming she was able to walk for the first time in 38 years) and at least two books that I am aware of have since been published with accounts of the miracles. All those graces and favors granted through her intercession should be no surprise because two months before she died, St. Thérèse promised:
I feel that I’m about to enter into my
rest. But I feel especially that my mission is about to begin, my
mission of making God loved as I love Him, of giving my little way
to souls. If God answers my desires, my heaven will be spent on
earth until the end of the world. Yes, I want to spend my heaven in
doing good on earth.” (St. Thérèse of Lisieux: Her Last
Conversations, page 114 in the revised edition translated by
John Clark OCD) (promise on July 17, 1897, death on September 30,
1897
She certainly continues to fulfill that promise.
All the saints canonized in recent centuries had their lives scrutinized in detail before being canonized and one miracle with no natural or scientific explanation is needed before they are declared Blessed and a second miracle before they are canonized. The first miracle, the one needed for Beatification of Pope John Paul II happened to a French nun confined to bed from Parkinson’s Disease (Sr. Marie Simon-Pierre Normand). She was healed after members of her community prayed to Pope John Paul II. The second miracle, the one needed for the canonization of Pope St. John Paul II, happened to Floribeth Mora Diaz in Costa Rica who was suffering from a brain aneurysm and sent home by her doctors as inoperable with a month to live. In Costa Rica, she watched the beatification of Pope John Paul II in 2011 in Rome on TV. It was at 2am in Costa Rica. She prayed to Pope John Paul II while watching his beatification. She fell asleep and when she awoke, she heard Pope John Paul telling her to get up and not be afraid. She stood up completely healed and the medical imaging showed her aneurysm had completely disappeared. That miracle allowed Pope John Paul II to be canonized in 2014.
The first miracle, the one needed for the Beatification of Carlo Acutis, was the healing in 2013 of a Brazilian boy with a malformed pancreas who was unable to keep food down. The second miracle, the one needed for the canonization of Carlo Acutis, happened to a woman named Valeria Valverde who fell off her bike in Florence. She suffered a brain hemorrhage, had surgery to reduce the pressure on her brain, was put on a ventilator to breathe, and given a low chance of survival. Her mother went to pray at the tomb of Carlo Acutis and left a petition in writing. The same day as her mother prayed at Carlo’s tomb, Valeria began to breathe on her own and the following day began to move and regain her speech, and over a week later a CAT scan showed the hemorrhage had disappeared. That was in July 2022 and in September 2025 St. Carlo Acutis was canonized along with Pier Giorgio Frassati.
The saints are near us when we pray to them. Just because the saints are in heaven doesn’t mean they are far from us. If the saints are near us when we pray, they must be very near us during Mass. All the angels and saints in heaven worship God, and during Mass we join with all of heaven in worshipping God. Just before the Sanctus (Holy, holy…), the preface to the Eucharistic Prayer always concludes by saying we join with the angels in worshiping God and some prefaces say we join with the angels and saints.
And so, with all the Angels and Saints,
we praise you, as without end we acclaim:
Holy, Holy, Holy Lord
God of hosts…
The Letter to the Hebrews describes this heavenly gathering during Mass and describes the saints present as the spirits of the just made perfect:
But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the first-born who are enrolled in heaven, and to a judge who is God of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks more graciously than the blood of Abel (Heb 12:22-24)
The saints are near us when we pray to them. Just because the saints are in heaven doesn’t mean they are far from us. If the saints are near us when we pray, they must be very near us during Mass when we join with all the saints and angels in heaven to worship God.
© Fr. Tommy Lane 2026
This homily was delivered in a parish in Ireland.
More Homilies for or November 1: Solemnity of All Saints
The saints: our intercessors 2021
The saints: friends in heaven interceding for us 2020
The saints, transformed in heaven, see God 2018
United with the saints in heaven during this Mass 2006
The saints remind us who we are
The saints have reproduced in their lives Jesus’ victory over evil
The communion of saints and our glorious future
Gospel: Homilies on the Beatitudes
Second Reading related: Love of God for us 2009
stories about saints and Halloween