Met. Tikhon (Mollard) on the Sunday of All Saints
From the ongoing series Reflections in Christ
Metropolitan Tikhon (Mollard) is the Archbishop of Washington D.C. and Primate of the Orthodox Church in America (OCA). The following was an original posting on OCA.org as part of an ongoing series of reflections titled “Reflections in Christ.”
If we wish to master a subject, we must study; if we wish to become saints, we must learn about sanctity from the example of those who have achieved it. Today we celebrate the feast of All Saints, but the tapestry of sanctity unfurls throughout the year with the daily commemorations of many individual saints and groups of saints. As such, all throughout the year, we have the opportunity to apply ourselves to studying the lives of the saints, learning how they followed Christ. More than this, when we read the saints’ lives, we encounter Christ in them, for he is wonderful in his saints.
In addition to reading the saints’ lives, we should also seek their prayers daily, especially the intercessions of our own patron saint and the saint(s) of the day according to the Church calendar. Studying their example and strengthened by their prayers, perceiving Christ’s presence in their acts and their teaching, we hope to obtain, by God’s mercy, a place together with them in the age to come. There we will behold our Lord and God and Savior Jesus Christ, not in the lives of his saints as in a mirror, but instead face to face.
