When we commemorate the saints we are inflamed with another yearning:
that Christ our life may also appear to us as he appeared to them and that we may one day share in his glory.
~ Bernard of Clairvaux

Toyohiko Kagawa.  Lilias Trotter.  Archbishop Oscar Romero.  Sadhu Sundar Singh.  Augustine of Hippo.  Dorothy Day.  Frank Laubach.  Susanna and John and Charles Wesley.  William Seymour.  William Law.  Teresa of Avila.  Mother Teresa.  Martin Luther.

Women and men.  Poor and rich.  Uneducated and educated.  Sinners and saints.  From every inhabitable continent.  Eastern Orthodox—Roman Catholic—Protestant; from every denomination and Tradition.  Across the centuries of the Church.

We are not alone.  We are among, as the writer to the Hebrews puts it, “so great a cloud of witnesses” (Heb 12:1a). Going on before us were those whose lives focused upon becoming like Jesus.  They are a perpetual inspiration.

As we know, more liturgical church traditions have found such assistance in these examplars of faith that they commemorate many of them annually.  For the Roman Catholic Church, the day this short entry is being written (May 21) is the Feast of St. Cristóbal Magallanes and Companions, a Jesuit who lived and was martyred, along with his colleagues, in Mexico in the early 20th Century.  A favorite service in many churches is the blessing of the animals, held on or near October 4, the day commemorating St. Francis.  Rabbits and dogs and cats and large farm animals at peace in the same sanctuary . . . this must be heaven!  Shortly thereafter Teresa of Avila is remembered, October 15, a chance to again enter her "Interior Castle."

The inspiration and direction these figures can offer is inestimable.  Take Thérèse of Lisieux, for example.  While living only until the age of 24 and ill most of her short life, her preference for the small things and seeing the mundane and difficult as redemptive has much to offer us who often celebrate only the fantastic and present the ordinary and everyday as despicable.  Thérèse of Lisieux is a patron saint for anyone who seeks contentment with what is as opposed to what might be.

That put, there are plenty of saints from which we can gain that the larger Church has not titled "St."  Some of these are knownly broadly, like Bonhoeffer and Day and Merton and Lewis, and some of these are known only to us, like friends and family and mentors.  What is important is discovering and reflecting upon the ways that others have aligned their lives with the life of Jesus and to allow this to ecourage us in the same direction.

We can come to know and be inspired by these extraordinary figures through books, videos, and a variety of means.  How ever, be encouraged to dig into the life of one or two people, getting to know them as if you lived with them in person day-to-day.  In so doing you will find inspiration and a vital companion for the journey.