Communion of Saints

The communion of saints is the heritage we received, the promise we make to others, and strength for the journey in which we ourselves are engaged. It is eucharist, it is the sacramental life, flashed across the cosmos by the beam of my own life.…

The communion of saints is every color, every level, every challenge of humankind. It is the cosmic vision of Christ made plain.…It is the Christ-face drawn differently in every age by every people.

To stand at an altar praying, "I believe…in the communion of saints" is to make a solemn promise to be what eucharist is all about: the life of Christ, the healing of humanity, the presence of the spirit of God, the willingness to sacrifice ourselves for others. When we visit the graves and say the memorial prayers and tell the family stories over the bodies of the dead, we tell of the Christ we saw in them.…The communion of saints stands before us, stark witness to the holiness of God, reminding us always to leave behind us for those yet to come a searing memory of the same.

—Joan Chittister, In Search of Belief, pp 182-183