We started the month of November with the celebration of All Saints Day, when we honor all those heroes of the Faith who now share in the heavenly banquet. We call all those in heaven the “communion of saints” because they are now living that perfect oneness with God and one another that we are all called to.

While each of us, as individuals in the Church, are called to strive to be a saint, St. John Paul II said that the family, the domestic church, is called to be a communion of saints. Responding to the call to holiness is important if a family is going to become the family God wants them to be. We might think of saints as people who lived a long time ago or are far removed from our everyday experiences. However the saints are close at hand, and God wants to make each of us a saint. Each member of the family has the task of helping the other members of family to grow in holiness through faith, hope, and love.

St. Paul describes being a disciple on the road to becoming a saint as like running in a race. He urges all of us to run as to win! The family is the training ground for this race. In the family the virtues are taught and character is formed. God provides what we need to run the race as to win through the family. To become a saint is simply to cooperate with God and allow Him to mold us into the person that He created us to be.

Pope Emeritus, Benedict XVI once said, “Holiness, the fullness of Christian life, does not consist in carrying out extraordinary enterprises but in being united with Christ, in living his mysteries, in making our own his example, his thoughts, his behaviors.” He went on to say that what is essential to holiness is “never leaving a Sunday without an encounter with the Risen Christ in the Eucharist…. It means never beginning and never ending a day without at least a brief contact with God.”

How holy is your family? How can you live holiness to an even greater extent in your family? How do you love God in the ordinary circumstances of life? Who are some of your favorite saints, and how can they help you live out holiness in your family?

Here is a family project for the month of November for making your domestic church, your family, a bit more of a communion of saints. Select a few saints and learn about their time period and culture. Learn why they are invoked for specific causes or intentions. Then plan a family dinner that includes a dish or two from that saints culture.