The book of Revelation is full of saints washing their robes white in the blood of the Lamb - and the letters of Paul are full of the saints who live at Colossae and Ephesus, living people, not martyrs, who even have the occasional quarrel!
All that is asked for a place with the Lord is faithfulness; be faithful onto death and I will give you the crown of life. It is that simple - and that hard!
St Agnes of Prague is canonized and the Venerable Margaret Sinclair, Sr Mary Francis of the Five Wounds will be so one day, we hope! But like the other people on this page they have played a special part in our lives that we want to share.
Mother Cherubina was tiny on the physical scale but her life was made great by the Holy Spirit. Sr Judith and Sr Modwena were, in many ways, very ordinary - but God loves ordinary people; that is why he made so many of us!
All these people were Franciscans. Brother Aloysius had known our community from childhood. He was not ordinary! Like the rest of us he was not born a saint, but was made so by suffering and surrender. His time will come when the present tragedies in the church are evaluated in the light of God, the final judge. His is the last word:
It has become a main task in today's world: to recognise suffering; to make it redemptive; to unite with science and bring healing. Joy does not follow sadness; good things are not a reward for bad things. Rather the beautiful things are built right into the ugly things. It is a package deal; life, like flowers, grows only in dirt.