Learning From the Saints

All Saints Day Mass: Salesian Reflection
Gardner Hall
Salesianum School 2025 

Good morning, when I first volunteered to give this reflection I felt that it was an exciting way to get out of my comfort zone, but at the same time, it was scary to write something for Mass. Hearing all of the other reflections made me feel nervous, it impassioned me to write something up to the standard set before me. In a similar way, we strive to live up to the standards set by those who were here before us but what most of those people don’t mention is who they strived to live up to, and I think that’s the saints.

On, All Saints Day, we remember how we as a community are challenged to live by the words that the saints taught and lived by. Everybody here knows our two main saints, Saint Francis de Sales and Saint Jane de Chantal, but there are so many more than just those two. I could list off a decent number of them but that isn’t the point of All Saints Day; the point is to remember all of them, not just a few, not only the ones we know of by name, but the names lost to history as well.

I believe the best way to remember the saints is by recalling their teachings and what they stood for. This goes beyond just our saints, anybody who has passed on and is in heaven now can resonate with what those important people taught. Many of us have a loved one that passed, I have found it helps dealing with the pain that follows by remembering them the same way we do with the saints. Whether it is a relative, a friend, or somebody else, we can remember those we have lost by how they wanted us to live Jesus.

I have had to deal with this with my dad. His passing during my sophomore year left me with a giant hole that I couldn’t fill. I spent the weeks after his death upset, confused, and angry that it had happened to me specifically. All I wanted to do was curl up and cry and never go back to school, but life goes on even if you stay stagnant and I couldn’t stop forever. I was lucky enough to have some of the last words my dad told me be about how proud he was of me and how he wanted me to succeed in life. What he told me that day stuck with me, I focused solely on doing what my dad wanted me to do - succeed. A few days later I came back to school and started to work. I put my all into living by what he wanted for me. I started to do better in and out of school, still in mourning but with new-found determination. I believe that during this time, God was helping me through this difficult process and helped me to succeed.

Getting through difficult times helps shape who we are, but they also challenge us to change.

The saints' teachings are an example of this, they want us to better ourselves and they give us these teachings so we can better ourselves. Everybody has faced one or more points of difficulty in their lives, leaning on God for help.

The next time you are bogged down with a hard test or have a project you are struggling with, ask God for help. He is always working for you even when you don’t realize it and is trying to better you and make you a better person. The only hard part about that is, opening yourself up to the challenges that come at you. The next time you are struggling, look to God, to the saints, and anybody else who wants to help you better yourself. Lean on your family, your teachers, and your brothers for help and they will come through for you just like the saints because everybody has the ability to act as a saint and embody the best of the saints for others if we open ourselves up to it.

Brothers Unite! Live Jesus!