Last Saturday, with an hour to spare between the parent-chauffeur’s Saturday drop-offs (a daughter’s tennis lesson) and pick-ups (a son’s piano lesson), Soren squeezed in a father-son outing to an elderly friend. Her backyard and sidewalk were covered with hundreds of walnuts, so much so that she had pulled a muscle stepping on one while walking to her car.
 
By the end of the hour, the walnuts were bagged and on the front curb ready for pick-up. Our friend was relieved, and she gave our smiling 11-year-old son not one, but two!, large candy bars from her pre-Halloween selection.
 
With the Solemnity of All Saints tomorrow, we can’t help but want to tie this little yardwork moment to the larger story to which we are all called. Each day, we live out our callings, not in an empty arena, but in one that is jam-packed with all the saints, cheering us on. It’s a powerful image. As Christians, we don’t “do life” in empty stadiums.
 
It often doesn’t feel that way though. We awake each morning to days filled with actions that feel hidden and unseen. Changing your baby’s diaper, putting the next meal on the table, helping an elderly friend with a little errand, being stuck in traffic on your way to work to provide for your family. These moments often seem inconsequential.
 
But it’s precisely in moments like these that the saints are cheering you on and interceding for you. And as we raise our children to—we pray—have hearts for service, do we actually tell them that they have countless fans up there in the stands?

In this fifth week of the month, we invite you to focus on Level 5 of your Trinity House, Hospitality & Service. Before sharing more about the supernatural level, here are some highlights from the extraordinary things going on at the natural level when families serve their neighbors:

• Volunteering releases feel-good chemicals in the brain, such as dopamine, serotonin, and endorphins.

• Giving to strangers is critical for children’s development of morality,character, and empathy. (Learn more at the Institute for Family Studies here).

• In one study, volunteers giving two or more hours per week, compared with those who do not volunteer at all, experienced increased life satisfaction and lower levels of depression and loneliness.  

And at the supernatural level? We invite you to pray through these passages this week and then discuss them with your children, perhaps at the dinner table or when you pray together in the evening.

• “Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses,let us rid ourselves of every burden and sin that clings to us and persevere in running the race that lies before us” (Heb. 12:1-2).

• “Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms” (1 Peter 4:10).

• “Since all the faithful form one body, the good of each is communicated to the others…We must therefore believe that there exists a communion of goods in the Church. But the most important member is Christ, since he is the head…Therefore, the riches of Christ are communicated to all the members, through the sacraments…As this Church is governed by one and the same Spirit, all the goods she has received necessarily become a common fund” (Catechism, 947).

As we serve our families, neighbors, and communities, we are linking arms with St. Teresa of Calcutta, St. Vincent de Paul, St. Catherine of Genoa, St. Elizabeth of Hungary, and countless others whose lives exemplified service. Their examples—and their prayers for us—are a gift to every family.

So, on the Solemnity of All Saints tomorrow, let’s invite our children to serve with the saints, to recall their remarkable stories and witness—even as we look up at the stadium stands, wave to the “cloud of witnesses,” and run with joy the race that lies before us!