For newcomers to Alexian Village, here’s my sad “All Saints List.” For those who know me, you’ve probably forgotten, so here’s my sad list once more.

Tiffany, Courtney, Heather, Tracy, and Brittany.

Poor things have no one to personally pray to. They are unable to mirror or manage the behavior and actions of a saint in their own lives. Someone to whom aspire, inspire, move, rouse, stir, animate, fire the imagination, and most importantly, encourage.

For that is what those who lived among us did and now do within us. Their lived lives now become verbs. Action words. Words that lead to action. Saints.

Why else would the Church create and use the past lives of men and women to continue living actively in the lives of those named after them?

In the Beatitudes, Jesus cleverly, as usual, holds out opposites to make a positive, pious point. He takes an extortionist named Matthew to write for us his beautiful Gospel. He takes a Jew-killer, blinds him for a while, and whose writings we hear at every single Mass. Changes his name to Paul, smart move Jesus.

To be gender-neutral, there’s also Leroy, Harold, Walter (my dad), and Horace. Poor guys … and gals.

Jesus even endows Oscar for his saintly-lived life in El Salvador for the benefit of the truly least fortunate. And, nobody names their kid Judas but what a potent name. If it wasn’t for Judas Jesus would not have been crucified, which last time I checked, is a pretty important part of our salvation story.

Yet, there is hope for those sadly named guys and gals. We offer adoption to them holthis day. Pray that they uncover a hero/heroine that we call “saint’ adding some of those active verbs making their life’s journey holy, meaningful, and worthy.

So, to Leroy, Tiffany, Harold, Courtney, Walter, Tracy, Horace, and Brittany? Good luck.

To those of us carrying and bearing saintly names, we can only say, “thank you” to our parents and hope that those names walk us with us throughout our lives.

Oh, by the way, my great niece’s name? Nova. I rest my case.