Greetings in Christ,
Each year for Christmas Jackie gets me new calendar for my study. For several years now it has been a calendar of Orthodox Christian icons, this year’s being a commemoration of American Orthodox saints. I love icons and what they can teach the believer about the faith through the lives of those who have been faithful witnesses to Christ. Each day of the year on this calendar is given over to the live or lives of particular saints.
In all honesty, I have to look up most of the saints listed as so many of them are unknown to me. And that is as it should be, the vast majority of the saints of God are always going to be unknown to the larger world. They labor for the Lord and the love of His Kingdom without any regard for the world’s notice of what they are doing. It is not a pretense of humility rather it is an act of love being returned to God for all His grace and mercy.
When I consider the names of the saints on my office calendar I am also reminded that there are uncounted millions of saints who will never be listed in any public way but whose efforts of love are known to God. We see them every day, though we may know them as a saint as their works of love are directed away from themselves toward the Father and others around them.
It is the devoted and Christ centered work of these myriads of unknown saints that presents the living Gospel of God’s love to the world and for them we give thanks for the love of God they live in their daily lives.