All Saints Day was celebrated Thursday and the list of saints is prodigious.

From A to Z.

Starting with St. Aaron and St. Abadios.

Moving on to St. Maria Anna Sala and St. Macarious the Great.

And concluding with St. Zoticus and St. Zygmunt Gorazdowski.

There are enough saints to field an entire league of teams of saints competing for good, God and glory, and without needing Drew Brees and the New Orleans Saints.

But the world needs many more saints.

Thousands of them.

Millions.

Everywhere.

So what?

So, let's do it.

No, not you alone or me alone. Not necessarily. There are, yes, times when we find ourselves in a unique position at the right time-the cosmic tumblers clicking into place-to get something done. But even those rare occasions demand the support of others.

But where and when we cannot fail to have the effect of a saint, without being one, is when we join together in common cause to achieve a goal for the good of the community.

Who and what I am writing about is that little known saint: St. All Of Us.

Sure, St. All Of Us.

He and she were born everywhere. They live all around us, and with us. In Buckingham, Cumberland, Farmville and Prince Edward.

Together, we can be St. All Of Us.

Here are a few examples: the Farmville Area Habitat For Humanity is a classic manifestation on Earth of St. All Of Us. So is FACES. The United Way. The Heart of Virginia Free Clinic. The Never Forget Life Club. And so many others.

Our civic clubs undertake community service projects that bring St. All Of Us into plain sight. So do our churches.

Let's face it. None of us is perfect. Nobody I know, especially the guy I see every time I look in the mirror, can walk on water. But despite our human flaws we can have a holy effect, especially when we come together, even just a handful, and work hand in hand to accomplish something good in this world.

Don't get hung up on the New Year's resolutions we all keep breaking or those we cannot even bring ourselves to attempt. Most of the saints weren't perfect. Look at St. Peter. He was the most human of Jesus' 12 apostles. Peter had as many flaws as any one of us, but he kept rising above them long enough to do something as important as helping ensure the survival and spread of Christianity.

St. Paul, of course, was an accessory to murder, the stoning of early Christians-serious flaw there-until he became one himself and authored much of the New Testament.

Nor should we underestimate what may seem like a small kindness or act of faith. The widow and her mite in the Gospel of Mark shows how the reach of the ripple of our actions means more than the size of the splash. She put a penny in the collection box-it was all she had to give-and she lives on centuries later, her generosity immortalized forever.

So we do what we can, when we can.

And when we can do it together we can put our mites together and they become more mighty than we could ever imagine.

St. All Of Us needs you and me.

Because St. All Of Us is you and me.

Many folks are familiar with the British hymn “I Sing A Song Of The Saints Of God” and it is encouraging. Saints, the lyric states, “lived not only in ages past, there are hundreds of thousands still. The world is bright with the joyous saints who love to do Jesus' will. You can meet them in school, or in lanes, or at sea, in church, or in trains, or in shops or at tea, for the saints of God are folk just like me, and I mean to be one too.”

Why not.

-JKW-