[caption id="attachment_1644" align="alignright" width="150"] Blog by Sr. Barbara Kane, OP[/caption]
Trick or treat!!! Do you remember getting dressed up so no one would recognize you and going from house to house, ringing doorbells and yelling, “Trick or Treat?” We had such fun being someone or something else. If you attended Catholic school, the day after Halloween was all Saints Day and you dressed up as your favorite saint.
What is it about Saints that attract us? Certainly they are holy. In fact, the definition of Saint is a person of remarkable holiness who lived a life of heroic virtue. But, there is another quality that is appealing – authenticity. We are drawn to people who live authentic lives. They are what they seem… what we see is what we get. What does authentic look like? It looks like trees. They are totally authentic. Bursting with leaves in the spring, letting them go in the fall. A tree would never think “I’m going to keep these leave in the winter. I look so much better covered!” All of nature is authentic.
Only people are guilty of being unauthentic. On Halloween, we celebrate a day of being someone else – a witch or superhero, a bumble bee or black cat. We become someone else just for a minute to get something usually yummy candy. Isn’t that how we live much of our lives? We put on a mask to be someone we’re not, to get ahead, to impress others. But, that makes us someone we’re not. We lose our authenticity.
We don’t need a mask to get God’s attention. God loves us exactly how we were created – created in God’s own image. Your authentic, much loved, image of God self is so much greater than your masked self. Why not take off our masks and lift our faces up to the SON and be renewed. So often, we focus on externals forgetting what makes us beautiful to the only one that really counts – God. That brings us full circle to those Saints that we celebrate today… men and women who have taken off their masks. Why don’t we join them?
Blog by Sr. Barbara Kane, OP[/caption]
Trick or treat!!! Do you remember getting dressed up so no one would recognize you and going from house to house, ringing doorbells and yelling, “Trick or Treat?” We had such fun being someone or something else. If you attended Catholic school, the day after Halloween was all Saints Day and you dressed up as your favorite saint.
What is it about Saints that attract us? Certainly they are holy. In fact, the definition of Saint is a person of remarkable holiness who lived a life of heroic virtue. But, there is another quality that is appealing – authenticity. We are drawn to people who live authentic lives. They are what they seem… what we see is what we get. What does authentic look like? It looks like trees. They are totally authentic. Bursting with leaves in the spring, letting them go in the fall. A tree would never think “I’m going to keep these leave in the winter. I look so much better covered!” All of nature is authentic.
Only people are guilty of being unauthentic. On Halloween, we celebrate a day of being someone else – a witch or superhero, a bumble bee or black cat. We become someone else just for a minute to get something usually yummy candy. Isn’t that how we live much of our lives? We put on a mask to be someone we’re not, to get ahead, to impress others. But, that makes us someone we’re not. We lose our authenticity.
We don’t need a mask to get God’s attention. God loves us exactly how we were created – created in God’s own image. Your authentic, much loved, image of God self is so much greater than your masked self. Why not take off our masks and lift our faces up to the SON and be renewed. So often, we focus on externals forgetting what makes us beautiful to the only one that really counts – God. That brings us full circle to those Saints that we celebrate today… men and women who have taken off their masks. Why don’t we join them? 