November 6, 2026
(THIRD MEDITATION.)
Summary of the Morrow's Meditation.
We will profit by this holy octave for meditating upon an article in the Creed, the dogma of the Communion of Saints; and we shall see: 1st, what the Communion of Saints is; 2d, what are the advantages it obtains for us; 3d, what are the duties it imposes upon us. Our resolution shall be: 1st, to have recourse to the saints with confidence in all our troubles, and to excite ourselves to imitate them in our manner of acting, of speaking, and of thinking; 2d, to exercise a tender charity towards each other. Our spiritual nosegay shall be the prayer Our Lord addressed to His Father: Grant that Christians "may be but one as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee" (John xvii. 21).
Meditation for the Morning.
Let us adore Jesus Christ founding the dogma of the Communion of Saints, to unite together in one single family, of which He is head, the Church triumphant, the Church suffering, and the Church militant. Let us thank Him for this magnificent institution, of which St. Bernard said: "There are saints in heaven and there are saints on earth; this feast is the festival of them all taken together."
FIRST POINT.
What is the Communion of Saints?
It is a divine institution whereby all the saints who are in heaven, all the just who are in purgatory, all the children of the Church who are upon earth, form but one sole and same thing, even as the Father and the Son are but one. After the divine nature, where even the number terminates in a perfect unity, nothing is more beautiful than this Communion of Saints, wherein the divine unity is represented. We are one with the Father, who calls us His children; one with the Son by resemblance to His divine life; one with the Holy Spirit, who gives Himself to us to sanctify us; one with all the saints: with all the martyrs, the confessors, and the virgins; one with all the great heroes of Christianity: the Pauls, the Xaviers, the Francis de Sales; one with Jesus Christ, and by Jesus Christ one with God. O holy and beautiful unity! At the beginning God was alone with His Word and His Holy Spirit; He created the world, and He wills that unity should result from it: unity of all men, unity of all the saints, unity of all the angels, and unity in Him, not out of Him; otherwise there would be no longer unity (John xvii. 11).
SECOND POINT.
What are the Advantages the Communion of Saints Obtains for us?
1st. It ennobles us; because it is great, the nobility of the Christian, whose family raises itself up to the skies, where it reigns upon immortal thrones, and extends to the very extremities of the earth, everywhere where the Church, its mother, has children; and where has she not? How noble is the Christian, who, on entering into heaven, does not find himself among strangers, but in his own family and amongst brethren; and what brethren they are!—the Pauls, the Chrysostoms, the Augustines, and innumerable others (Tob. ii. 18; Eph. ii. 19). O Communion of Saints, how dear you are to me! Living here below in your unity and your faith, I will never leave you; on departing this life I shall find you again above in the most beautiful portion of yourself, in my co-citizens and my brethren of heaven. Here below I salute you in faith, O holy city of my God! Soon, soon, in a moment, I shall be united to you. I shall be inebriated by your beauty and your delights. Oh, how I long for that moment! O Jerusalem, I am at your door, I am standing there, my feet move, my whole body presses itself forward, that it may enter into your glorious unity. 2d. The Communion of Saints enriches us. Of ourselves alone we are miserably poor; but when I recite the Creed: "I believe in the Communion of Saints," I feel myself to be rich, like the indigent man who finds a treasure. This treasure is the merits of Jesus Christ and of all the saints, family possessions which are not divided amongst the members, because charity does not know anything about mine and thine, but which are as a common heritage of which I may avail myself in the presence of God to such an extent as to be able to say to Him: Lord, I offer Thee, in order to cover my poverty and strengthen my prayer, the torments of the martyrs, the labors of the apostles and of apostolic men, the austerities of the anchorites, the merits of all the saints: an inexhaustible fund of which the Church continually dispenses to me the product by indulgences. 3d. The Communion of Saints assures us of powerful protectors in heaven and of brethren upon earth. In heaven a portion of the happiness of the saints consists in interesting themselves in us, in praying for us; tranquil in regard to their own lot, they occupy themselves with ours, and only await our petitions before presenting them to God and supporting them by their merits. What an advantage and a consolation for us who are on earth! In virtue of the same principle I am nowhere either a foreigner or unknown; I am in my own family; I am a brother. O consoling dogma!
THIRD POINT.
What are the Duties which the Dogma of the Communion of Saints Imposes on us?
1st. It obliges us to show, by a holy life, that we are worthy of the great family of which we are members. Remember, we say to the children of a family, the blood that flows in your veins; it is the blood of heroes. Be worthy of them, and do not be the scandal of a degenerate race. The saints from out of heaven use the like language to us: Members of our family, members of our body, be worthy of us; live as we lived. What we did, why should not you also do? 2d. The Communion of Saints imposes on us the duty of invoking the saints with confidence, of honoring them above all on the days of their feasts, of loving them as our benefactors, of thinking often of them as our models, of looking upon this earth as an exile, and of sighing after our reunion with them. 3d. It imposes on us the duty of praying often for the souls in purgatory, and gaining as many indulgences as possible for them. 4th, and lastly. It prescribes us tenderly to love each other as members of one same body. The word communion excludes division and coldness. It was thus that it was understood by the primitive Christians, who formed but one heart and one soul; it was thus that St. Paul understood it when he said to the faithful: Have all of you but one same spirit, one same soul, one same understanding, one same heart (Philipp. i. 27; ii. 2).
Resolutions and spiritual nosegay as above.