I love learning about the saints. And it is amazing how I learn about new saints all the time, discovering them mainly in my research on the internet and in the books I read. That is very appropriate to say today as we get ready to celebrate All Saints Day tomorrow. I found out about a saint named St Erc, who lived in the time of St Patrick in the late 5th and early 6th century. He was a Druid who was converted by St Patrick who was appointed as the first Bishop of Slane in Ireland. For a time, Brigit of Kildare was his companion in his missionary travels. Tradition passes down that he was sent to Cornwall in England as a missionary, where he is known as St Erth. Today is the day that his feast day is celebrated in Cornwall, where it is said that he died in 1513.
We hear of a Pharisee in the Gospel today who criticizes Jesus for healing a man on the Sabbath. I think of how the saints we celebrate are often remembered for their simplicity and their tenacity, how they brought the faith to the people in their missionary travels and by their example of how they lived out the faith each day. As we celebrate this Irish saint who lived in the 6th century today, I know that the lives of the missionary were not easy ones, that the day to day reality they face was harsh. We can look for things to criticize about the Church and about our faith. But that is not what our faith calls us to do. May Jesus transform us and change us and help us engage in our faith in the midst of our daily reality.
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