For all the saints...

The deep conversations

The throw away remarks

The taken for granted wisdom

seldom, if ever, appreciated for its worth at the time

but now longed for and missed.

Just a few precious minutes more.

Questions we yearn to ask

Stories we long to share

Words of thanks we'd love to pass on

to those saints who have gone

whose lives affected ours

whose influence lives on.

Yet, still today, at every turn

there are those who inspire

those who teach

those whose example still helps us

reach higher

and be more than we ever dreamed.

Those saints are found

not often in the places we naturally look:

Not in those hallowed corridors

or sanctified buildings.

Not even in those set apart

or called to serve

although, if we look carefully

we might get lucky.

But today's saints surround us

in the morning commute

in the rush hour traffic

in the doctor's surgery

and in the hospital waiting room.

There, just at the moment we need

to glimpse the love of God

shining through the reality of life

that is ours this day.

This day

we give thanks

for the saints

of the past

and we look for

those saints who continue

to hold out God's love and light

in the world today.

This day,

we endeavour

to hold out

the light of Christ

for others.

For all the saints...