Everyone can be a saint by following the Beatitudes, pope says

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- God wants everyone to be a saint, and the clearest path to achieving that goal is loving service to others, Pope Francis said.

Celebrating the feast of All Saints, the pope led the midday recitation of the Angelus prayer Nov. 1 with thousands of visitors in St. Peter's Square. Hundreds of them had just finished the annual Race of the Saints, a 10-km run that begins and ends at the square.

The runners remind everyone that "the Christian life is a race, but not the way the world races, no! It is the race of a heart that loves," the pope said, adding thanks to the runners for supporting a Salesian Missions' project in Ukraine.

God calls everyone to holiness, the pope said, and he gives all the baptized what they need to become saints, "but he does not impose it."

God gives everyone the freedom to follow the example of Jesus, to discern and accept God's plan, to treat others the way God would and to place themselves at "the service of others with an ever more universal charity, open and addressed to all," Pope Francis said.

The Eight Beatitudes, listed in the feast day's Gospel reading -- Matthew 5:1-12 -- are a clear roadmap to sainthood, the pope said, and the path followed by Blessed Carlo Acutis, St. Maximilian Kolbe, St. Teresa of Kolkata and St. Oscar Romero.

Everyone can list many saints, he said, both those formally canonized and those "I like to call the 'saints next door,' the everyday, hidden ones who carry on their daily Christian lives," the pope said. "Brothers and sisters, how much hidden holiness there is in the church!"

"So many brothers and sisters" have lived lives "shaped by the Beatitudes: poor, meek, merciful, hungry and thirsty for justice, peacemakers," he said. "They are 'God-filled' people, unable to remain indifferent to their neighbor's needs; they are witnesses of luminous paths, which is possible for us as well."

The feast of All Saints is a good time to reflect, Pope Francis said. "Do I ask God, in prayer, for the gift of a holy life? Do I let myself be guided by the good impulses that his Spirit inspires in me? And do I commit myself personally to practicing the Beatitudes of the Gospel?"

The pope also encouraged people to visit, if possible, the graves of their loved ones Nov. 2, the feast of All Souls. And he told them the Mass "is the greatest and most effective prayer for the souls of the deceased."

As always, the pope asked people in the square to pray for peace in Ukraine, Israel and Palestine, for the victims of a terrorist attack on a military base in Chad Oct. 28, and for the victims of recent flooding in Spain, particularly in and around Valencia.