PRESENT WEEK'S GLIMPSE OF GOD

Glimpse of God for the week of November 1, 2026

A Reflection on All the Saints that walk with us, on this our mutual holy ground, 
and All the Souls that have walked with us on their journey of faith to their final reward.,
eternal rest, peace, and happiness in the loving embrace of God. 
As we begin a new week, we honor All Saints Day today and All Souls Day tomorrow.  Two of these days encompass that which we strive to be here one earth, sinners striving to be saints so that when we enter our eternal reward, we can join all those beloved souls of who have gone before us in faith.
To me, All Saints day is not just about those who have been officially declared saints by the Church and through their example and love for God, inspire us to seek a greater holiness. To me it means more than that. For me it is about those who walk on this mutual holy ground with us on our faith journey every day. It is about those who we are blessed to walk with, our beloved family members, friends, coworkers, community members, neighbors, parishioners and even the stranger.
As we walk with each other, the saints are those who endure our impatience, our weaknesses, have been the recipient of our sinful choices, tolerate our moodiness and our inability to be compassionate, pray for us as we are merciless and selfish, instead of being merciful and selfless, and see us at our worst and not our best and choose not to judge us or condemn us. They choose to remain with us because they know that that is what God would want them to do, and they also realize that is what God does for them as well. They, those saints in our lives; our parents, our family members, our spouse, our community members, our friends, fellow parishioners, choose to love us through and in all of that.
You might think of them as martyrs, but the difference is that they are not dying for their faith in us, but they are dying to their very self as they invite us to be a better person, the best person that God created us to be, and they know we have the potential to become.  They call us to a greater, deeper, and better knowledge of God through their life and their example. They invite us, by God’s design, to grow in relationship with Him. Those saints in our life choose to die to themselves, their desires for themselves wanting to let out their frustration because of our selfishness and our tempers,  while they are walking with us, so that they can show us what God truly desires for us and how we can best reach that. They are allowing God to make them His instrument as they walk with us on our mutual holy ground. Our parents, our spouse, our children, our friends, and even those whom we do not know well are gifts from God, His instruments of love.
Like many gifts, we don’t always recognize their beauty or significance, purpose, or reason. As we live each day as sinful human beings, we are given the gift and presence of others who are also sinners striving to become saints, to help us see our self as God sees us; His beloved children, loved unconditionally and His greatest creation. 
As we walk with each other on our faith journey here on earth, on this our mutual holy ground of God’s great creation, we walk together one with each other, one with Christ,

so that we stay focused on the direction that will lead us to our eternal reward, that true and lasting holy ground. So that we all can become our best self, the person that God created us to be and have the potential to become.
Who is your faith journey saint? Who are you walking with that is inviting you to become your best self and at the same time, challenges and does not condemn you, when you are your worst self?  When you are in their presence, can you admit, that you see a something greater than just a Glimpse of God, but maybe a bigger picture of who God is? Does your saint inspire you? Lead you to a deeper sense of holiness and a spirit of humility? Are they at peace with their God as they look in the mirror, and even as see their reflection, they can recognize themselves as a sinner, but more importantly they know and believe that in their sinfulness, God loves them unconditionally because they are His beloved child, His greatest creation?
Has God called your saint back home to Himself? As you remember their saintliness, can you pray to them now as they stand before God in the company of Mary and the communion of saints? Can you ask them to pray for you as you continue to be a sinner who also strives to be a saint here on earth?
All Saints Day and All Souls day should bring us a sense of peace as we think about the saints here on earth that we will walk with today, have walked with us in our yesterdays, and will walk with us in our tomorrows. Their souls, the souls of the just, are now resting in God’s loving embrace, but their memory, their love, their presence, will always remain in our hearts, and we should never forget them or think them to be gone forever. Although we miss their physical presence, their presence and impression, their impact and their love will remain in our mind, within our heart and a part of our spirit, as long as we choose to remember them and not forget them. This week, take each day to remember those saints that walk with you and your saints that have walked before you to their final journey. Think of the virtues, qualities, gifts, and graces that God has bestowed on them that makes them saintly. As you admire these virtues and qualities in another one of God’s beloved children, ask him to help you nurture your own special gifts, qualities, charisms, virtues so that you can grow closer to Him. Ask for the grace to recognize those virtues and gifts, within yourself, those that will help you become your best self, the person that He created you to be, have the potential to become, and will make you a living saint here on earth.
God has many gifts in store for you to help you as you seek to grow in holiness. Allow God’s goodness, His love, His invitation to grow with Him, His peace, His mercy, His dying example of selflessness and His loving embrace, be the GLIMPSE, the big picture that keeps you focused on being the best person that you can be and want to be. 
As you reflect on the saints that have journeyed with you and the souls that have gone before you, thank God for them, and in and in a spirit of humility, thank God for calling you to be a saint in their lives and on the faith journey of others. For the souls who have gone before you in faith, pray to them and for them as they find eternal rest in the loving embrace of God. 
If they have harmed you, or if you have caused them harm during their earthly journey, seek greater saintliness by forgiving them and seeking their forgiveness.

SUNDAY – “G” God’s goodness
God is good and gracious.  He provides all that we need to grow in relationship with Him. What glimpses or gifts has God placed in your life that have allowed you to grow in a deeper relationship with Him? Have you been given the gift of quiet time in the midst of your busy day? Have you been gifted with a better understanding of prayer and how God wants you to speak from your heart, honestly and without fear?  Can you recognize the goodness of others that surround you and how they have helped you grow in love with your God and in a deeper relationship with Him? Your parents, grandparents, siblings, teachers, friends, co-workers, community members, neighbors? Thank God for being so good to you.
MONDAY – “L” God’s love
God’s love is eternal.  His love for you will never die, grow short, end or be restricted.  He loves you unconditionally, and there is nothing that you can say or do that will make God love you less. Do you believe that? On your journey toward holiness, who is a beacon of the unconditional love of God? How have you been a beacon to of the unconditional love of God?

TUESDAY – “I” God’s invitation
God invites us to be in relationship with Him. He invites us to be in communion with Him each and every day. This communion will be a communion of transformation, conversion, renewal, and refreshment. It is an invitation that comes not because we have earned it, or won it, or deserve it. It is free but it comes with a commission and mission. It is an invitation for us to unite our will to God’s so that we can be our best self, the person that He has created us to be, the person that others want us to be, and the person that we can face in the mirror and not run away from. Your mission, if you choose to accept it, is to extend the invitation to others and be ready and willing to talk about the good news with them. Have you opened your invitation? Is it still sitting on your desk, unopened? Opened but still in the envelope? Right out front ready to reread again? Is it in a prominent spot that reminds you of how much God loves you and wants to be in relationship with you? Say your own RSVP. No regrets. 
WEDNESDAY – “M” God’s mercy
God’s mercy is such a gift. It requires grace to share it, grace to receive it and grace to extend it. Can you recognize how God’s grace has opened your heart to receive His mercy and can you see how you have extended it to others? How has mercy been extended to you?

Blessed are the merciful they shall be shown mercy…. 

THURSDAY – “P” God’s peace
We can’t experience true peace without God. In the midst of life, where we can get stressed out and anxious, the peace that God longs for us to have and hold onto is overshadowed by many other things.  Being at peace doesn’t mean that there won’t be stress, but rather in the midst of life and its stresses God’s presence brings about the peace that we need so that we can keep putting one foot in front of the other and not turn back.
The prayer of Saint Francis, the prayer for peace, is a foundational prayer that when one prays it, one begins to experience what true peace is and can be. As we pray for peace with Saint Francis, we begin to see as a co-worker in the vineyard of God, building His kingdom one brick, one act of mercy, one prayer at a time. What is you level of peace? is it at the brim flowing over and abounding? Is it in the middle, half of peace yet still the other half filled with worry, concern, and anxiety? Is it empty, because your worries, anxieties, weaknesses have sucked up all your peace and left you deflated, discouraged, or defeated? Good news!!! God’s peace flows like a river, it will never run dry, it will never leave you empty, and it will never be denied. Blessed are the peacemakers; they shall experience peace… 

FRIDAY – “S” God’s selflessness and selfishness
God calls us to be selfless not selfish. Jesus’ death was a selfless act of unconditional love and surrender. He chose to die for us so that we can experience eternal peace, joy, and happiness with Him when our earthly journey is ended. How are you called to be selfless? How hard is it to selfless and not selfish? How do others encourage you to be selfless? Who has been a selfless model for you to follow? When you are tempted to be selfish instead of selfless, what changes your mind? Only God can be selfish and when He is it is for our own good. God is selfish in that He wants us for Himself. He loves us so much that He wants us to be in relationship with Him while here on earth so that we can see Him face to face when our earthly journey has ended. He wants us to give our time to Him and not spend so much on the computer, playing video games, texting, partying, over working, self-medicating because only when we give our time to Him in prayer can we recognize and receive the graces that we need to grow to be our best self.  God is selfish in that HE is the only God, and He doesn’t want us to be deceived by the devil in believing that the world and all that it allures us with, is a god.  Only God forms us in our mother’s womb, gives us life, nurtures us throughout our earthly life with the sacraments of the church, gives us His grace so that we can live and be the best person that we can be, and promises us eternal life.
There is no god but God. Who or what is your god: consumerism, social status, power, prestige, laziness, self-centeredness, ego? have you been deceived by your god? Do you allow the only one true God into your heart and mind so that He can steer you clear of the false gods that are ready to claim you as their own?
SATURDAY – “E” God’s embrace
It is the embrace of God, the love of God, the spiritual hug from God that makes one stronger, healthier, healed, whole, at one with God. How far are you from God’s embrace? What does the embrace look like? Is it in the face of compassion, mercy, forgiveness, healing, rest, enjoyment, fun, laughter, or in the form of pets, creation, the sunrise, or the sunset? God’s embraces here on earth are as many and as often as one opens their heart and mind to seeing and experiencing them.  Our greatest spiritual embrace is the Holy Eucharist, but yet we, as the body of Christ, are called to be embracers, to embrace others. How have you been God’s embrace to others? How have others been God’s embrace to you? As you walk with those saintly people in your life, how have their embraces lessened your fear, calmed your spirit, healed your soul, and awakened your hope?