As we read the regular appointed Scripture for this Sunday, we also celebrate All Saints. The articles for reading ask about what is godliness, holiness? What are the characteristics of the saints? Who have been saints in your life?
Michael Anthony Howard, in his "Saints in the hands of a humble heaven," contrasts the saintliness and holiness portrayed in Jonathan Edwards' "Sinners in the hands of an angry God" with a God who finds us worthy of salvation, and who comes to dwell among us - who chooses to be in the midst of us, in humility and love - not an "over-and-above holiness," but an "under-and-in-service holiness.
Bob Stuhlmann, helps ground our conceptions of "godliness" and saintliness" in his "Humility Against Despair," Stories from a Priestly Life, drawing on Thomas Merton's Seeds of Contemplation, and learning godliness and saintliness from the words of the Rt. Rev. Mark Evans given to him when his son, Christopher, was born with Downs Syndrome. See "A Place to Call Home."
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