Keep calm and hallow on

Saintliness is at your fingertips

Image: Saints in a circle dance from a mural at St. Gregory of Nyssa Episcopal Church in San Francisco

On Bluesky a few days ago, an author was sheepishly apologizing for so many posts promoting her new book. In response, Darth (a red panda in full Star Wars regalia who functions as one of the mayors of this particular patch of social media) said this:

always post and repost without fear about what u are proud of creating here

your people here will never shame u for this

This unleashed a beautiful torrent of posts about what people were proud of making:

I knitted this sweater, and it’s my own design!

It’s been ten years since I wrote this song, but I still think it’s pretty good.

I wrote this book about the history of trade unions in Italy.

Here is my dog dressed as Batman.

Here is my baby.

Hundreds of them. The Blueskyline was lit up with joy and with pride.

And here’s what I’d like to remind you of, this All Saints Day, this day of All Hallowing is that… making is making holy. It’s one of the coolest things about being human, that we get to make things — to take an idea (a sweater to keep someone warm on a cold night) and some things (balls of yarns and a couple of polished sticks) and by our imagination and effort, make it come alive, become manifest in the world. And if that isn’t saintly activity — bringing spirit into flesh, bearing witness to the creative forces of the world — I don’t know what is.

In San Francisco, the church of St. Gregory of Nyssa has a gorgeous mural high in its worship space of the saints dancing in a circle. Sojourner Truth is knees up with Hildegard of Bingen, who is turning a delighted grin to Gandhi. Hand in hand, they circle, they dance, with the joy of knowing that they helped bring into the world more acts of kindness, more acts of courage, more acts of healing than if they had never existed.

Their miracles may look bigger and flashier than ours. But we should know that we’re dancing with them, every time we make something kind and helpful — a cup of tea, a compliment — that didn’t exist before.

The days ahead, whatever they bring… I know we’ll need to employ our kindness and creativity a lot. We’ll need to be givers as well as receivers of grace.

But we’ve got this. We’re part of the company of saints. Because we’re human, and we can bring into being better things, wherever and whoever we are.