For all the saints - Rector's Rambling for November 3, 2019

Back in August we had a Social Outing to the Solanus Casey Center here in Detroit.  It is located over on Mt. Elliot, in the Capuchin Franciscan Monastery of St. Bonaventure.

This is a special place to me for many reasons.  One is that I am an Anglican Third Order Franciscan so I am drawn to Franciscan things and places.  It is a place of quiet holiness, and I do enjoy popping in there at random times to pray and meditate in their chapel (which has recently been renovated back to a more traditional look).

But there are several things about Fr. Solanus Casey, who is in the process of being recognized as a saint in the Roman Catholic Church, that are very appealing to me.

First of all, he is local.  A saint in our own backyard.  He must have walked or been driven by our own St. John’s Church many times in his years here in Detroit.  Secondly, he is relatively recently deceased.  He died in 1957 and we have a parishioner whose aunt had a miraculous healing at Fr. Solanus’ intercession.

But I think what is most appealing to me about Fr. Solanus is that he was in many ways a “regular” guy.  He wasn’t an academic, and before joining the Franciscans he was a streetcar driver and prison guard.  His inability to grasp higher philosophical theological studies meant that he was assigned menial tasks in the monastery (doorkeeper), but did them with such faithfulness that God used him for a wonderful holiness – his love for Jesus and for Jesus’ people was infectious!

Each of the saints have remarkable attributes, and reading their hagiography (holy biography) is a chance to see how God can use people of all sorts of backgrounds and abilities to make them into the saints He wants them to be.  We just need to cooperate with him.

No matter what your starting point, God can make you into a saint.  Ask Him to transform you into the saint He desires you to be, and then let Him do it!