By popular demand, we are sharing the text of a talk given by Lay Dominican, Ms. Cindy Pierre, O.P., at Pilgrim Center of Hope's "Celebrate the Saints Relic Veneration" event, held Oct. 31-Nov. 1, 2025.
They are our forefathers and foremothers of light and truth. Champions of our Catholic heritage. Successful finishers of their journeys. They are our models of good and faithful servants, paving the way for us to do the same. Having accomplished daunting tasks and great feats, we stand in awe of what they were able to do. Yet, the same Holy Spirit who collaborated with them to execute God’s will avails Himself to each and every one of us. We have the same Blessed Mother. The same Living Water. Like these giants of our faith, we have Christ’s shed blood coursing through our very veins. And as long as we still have breath, we have time. Time to believe, time to yearn and time to strive to be saints.
We are gathered together today to pay homage, honor and venerate the saints. While the secular world partakes in other celebrations, we are here. While many slumber after tricks and treats, we rose early to pay our respect and admiration to the victorious ones that have gone before us. I welcome you here. Please take your place among the greats. Imagine this your rightful dwelling.
The Church teaches that saints are people who are in heaven. Plain and simple. Yet their travels there are seldom plain or simple. These saints are deemed to be in heaven based on the exemplary and heroic but imperfect lives that they lived. For many, it required much spiritual and physical exertion. A stripping of self that few of us want to undergo. Yet, we are all capable of it, and God deeply desires it. He has equipped us with everything that we need to achieve it. But we must want it and Him above all things and reach for sainthood like it’s something to be grasped at. It is.
And why must we covet and reach? Not for position, glory or esteem, but for the magnificent, perpetual and beatific vision that awaits. A vision so arresting that any amount of time we spent in adoration and contemplation while on earth will feel paltry. Any love we gave or received will be as naught. For in heaven, we will see clearly, understand fully and possess perfect knowledge of our beloved Bridegroom, our king, and those in his court. We will comprise the court. What was once shrouded in mystery will be transparent before us. And we will inherit all that is noble, true and good.
God wills us all to be saints. Sainthood is not just for what we imagine to be the elite that are with us today. Rose. Catherine. Thomas. Lucy. This most sacred and holy status is for all of us. It’s the fulfillment of His dreams. The apex of His vision. When He conceived of us, this end was in His mind’s eye. And in order to become everything that He wanted us to be, thereby knowing perpetual joy, love and peace, His vision must become ours.
If God wills it, it is possible. It becomes probable when our yeses outweigh our nos. When our personal fiats, modeled after Our Lady, become our determination and doggedly sought after aim. And this can be done at any age. If you have yet to see yourself in the company of the Holy Trinity, the angels and the saints, then look again. See.
Perhaps you’re thinking it’s too early in life for me to set my sights on this. Then, I give you two recently canonized saints for the young. On September 7th, Pope Leo XIV welcomed 15-year old Eucharistic miracle promoter Carlo Acutis and 24-year old social activist Pier Giorgio Frassati into the Roman Canon. Or, perhaps you're thinking I’m too old or sinful for such lofty pursuits. Then take 85-year old, former Satanic priest Bartolo Longo as your mentor. I am certain that any and all of these holy examples eagerly await new spiritual children. Befriend them now if you haven’t already. What do they have in common? In their own individual way, they gave themselves wholly to God and to others.
My name is Cindy Pierre. I am a lay Dominican, a permanent member of the Order of Preachers. I belong to the St. Rose of Lima chapter here in San Antonio. We meet every second Saturday of the month at the Oblate School of Theology. We endeavor to follow the rule of St. Dominic Guzman, one of the saints featured today, by living out the four pillars of Dominican spirituality: prayer, community, study and preaching. We are also staunch supporters and passionate champions of the rosary. While our Order is not as renowned as some of the others, I am proud to say that Saint Pier Giorgio and three out of the four saints that we are venerating today were Dominican: St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Catherine of Siena and our founder, St. Dominic de Guzman. Take that, Franciscans! Today, we celebrate Dominican pedigree! Not bad for a bunch of somewhat unknowns. All joking aside, it is my honor, privilege and joy to be with you today.
Dominicans are known for balancing contemplative life with active ministry, enabling us to be sent all over the world to fulfill our mission. The order has a rich history in theology and education, often serve as teachers in various settings and labor to preach the gospel for the salvation of souls. But enough about us! If Grandpappy Dominic could see me now, bragging about the Order. Oh wait, he can!
What traits and attributes do these Dominicans and St. Lucy, our fourth honoree, share? Chiefly, a fiery love of God. But before they obtained their crowns of glory, they wore their crowns of thorns: disappointments, unfulfilled expectations, struggles with their vocations and suffering in many forms. But through it all, they persevered until they met their rightful end: a constant, all-consuming and enrapturing union with God.
You may know that St. Dominic lived in 12th century Spain and that before he was born, his mother had a prophetic dream of a dog with a torch in his mouth, foreshadowing Dominic’s role in spreading the light of faith. You may also know that he founded the Dominican order to combat heresies, some of which persist today. You may be familiar with his patronage of astronomers and the Dominican Republic, a country adjacent to my native country of Haiti. But amid these popular facts, did you know that St. Dominic desired to preach in barbarous lands and eventually be martyred? His love for God was so ferocious that he wanted to spare no expense, including his very life! When asked how he would respond if his enemies caught him, he bravely said
“I would tell them to kill me slowly and painfully, a little at a time, so that I might have a more glorious crown in heaven.”
Alas. That wasn’t the path that God paved for him. Dominic went on to do mighty things for God, but not in the manner that he would have preferred. This may seem like a fortuitous outcome, but to St. Dominic, it may have been an enormous letdown. At least, for a time. The lesson? We may be called to do many things that are pleasing in God’s sight, but He determines the substance and the manner. Yes! Chase sainthood! But be prepared to live it out in a way that is radically different than you envisioned.
St. Dominic and I share a zeal for going into foreign, potentially dangerous lands to minister to souls. In 2020, I fancied and accepted a teaching job in China, not because China was my first choice but because I had read about the imprisoned Christians and other religious groups there. In my some would say naive mind I saw myself using the teaching job as a cover for caring for the mistreated and wrongfully incarcerated. I saw myself as a Florence Nightingale of sorts, brandishing a Bible and words of strength and encouragement to care for the downtrodden. I was ready! Put me in coach! to do whatever the Lord willed me to do. But Covid hit and derailed all of my ambitious plans. I haven’t been able to make it to China since. Gifted with a missionary’s heart, God saw it fit to give me missions here instead like preaching before you today at the Pilgrim Center of Hope. God’s plan may not unfurl the way we think, but if we surrender, He’ll take us to where He wants us to go. And God’s destination is always better than we imagined.
Another Saint that was no stranger to disappointment was my patroness and cherished friend, St. Catherine of Siena. Born during the Black Plague in the 14th century, she was the 25th child in a family where most of her older siblings didn’t survive childhood. Her very own twin sister died as an infant. Her spiritual life was influenced by many mystical experiences, including visions of Jesus, the apostles and other saints. She joined the Lay Dominicans at the age of 16. Although she wasn’t formally educated, she amassed a significant body of theological writings and letters to earn her the title of Doctor of the Church, making her only one of four female saints to receive such prestige. There are 38 doctors in total. As if experiencing disease and death wasn’t enough, Catherine also withstood trouble in the Church. Though she worked hard for unity and peace and spoke out against religious authorities who weren’t faithful to their vocations, her heart sank when the Great Schism, a division in the Church arising from multiple, concurrent claims to the papacy, transpired. This schism would continue long past St. Catherine’s death at 33, the same age that her beloved spouse Jesus died. Despite giving herself unreservedly to Jesus and teaching us how to do the same, not everything happened the way Catherine wanted. But the challenges that she faced taught her a wisdom that we can gleam from today. She once said
“Suffering and sorrow increase in proportion to love: When love grows, so does sorrow.”
My friends, if you’ve been asking Jesus to increase your capacity to love, be prepared to welcome sorrow as love’s counterpart.
Another doctor, named the Angelic Doctor because of the purity of his wisdom, had sorrows that differed from those of Dominic and Catherine, but we have much to learn from them all the same. St. Thomas Aquinas made significant contributions to philosophy and theology in the 13th century. Native to Roccasecca, Italy, he joined the Dominican order as a friar at a young age despite family opposition. They wanted him to take a higher position that was fitting for his well-to-do beginnings. He developed the concept of natural law and argued that faith and reason went together like pb and jelly, for both can lead to truth. He was declared a doctor of the Church in 1567 by Pope Pius V, largely due to his major works, Summa Theologica and Summa Contra Gentiles. His writings blend Christian doctrine and Aristotelian philosophy. In spite of his achievements, St. Thomas' life was rife with troubles. As a youth, his infant sister was killed by lightning when they were both sleeping in the same room, giving him a lifelong fear of storms. In a Rapunzel-like move, his family captured and locked him up at home for about a year when they found out that he had run away to join the begging, itinerant Dominicans. You hear that? We were so enticing that rich young people were running towards us! This was an attempt to encourage Thomas to become an abbot instead. It didn't work. As St. Thomas developed his body of work, he was met with criticism and tension. His ideas were not universally accepted in his time. His work was censored and sometimes banned. He didn't let these challenges defeat him, though. In his Summa Theologiae, he provides five remedies against sadness that are still helping people today. While peculiar for a medieval thinker, bathing and sleeping always does a body and mind good. While their paths never crossed, Aquinas' sentiments about sorrow align with Catherine's. He is credited for saying that “sorrow can lead to a greater understanding of joy, as it highlights the value of happiness.” Ergo, the same theme that pain often accompanies bliss.
The final saint that you will hopefully spend time with today is Italian martyr St. Lucy. We started our review of the saints of honor today with Dominic Guzman, the friar who desired martyrdom. We end it with a young woman who actually achieved it. As a Christ-bearer who ultimately died for her faith, she reached the pinnacle of sorrow and joy by shedding her blood for her love of God. Born around 283 Ad in Syracuse, Sicily, St. Lucy is often associated with the themes of light and vision, as the name Lucy means light in Latin. My name, Cindy, derived from Greek and Latin names, also means “light.” Lucy is often portrayed wearing a crown of candles to symbolize the light of faith. She is the patron saint of the blind, those who are sick and writers. In Scandinavian countries, St. Lucy's Day is celebrated with processions of girls wearing wreaths of candles and white robes. Lucy lived and died during the reign and persecution of the Roman Emperor Diocletian, who is infamous for hating Christians. According to tradition, she was tortured horrifically for refusing to denounce her faith. One of those tortures was being subjected to having her eyes gouged out before her execution. Thus, St. Lucy is often depicted with eyes on a plate. Her story highlights the resilience of early Christians and the sacrifices that few of us, but some of nevertheless and still to this day, have to make to defend our beloved namesake. We don't know much about St. Lucy's history. However, she has been so impactful that many have immortalized her in literature, film and song. She is featured in Dante's Inferno and Paradiso as a guide and patroness of light. What we do know from her story and all the other Christians who perished brutally during the early 4th century is that authentic love demands perseverance, sacrifice and total abandonment to God's will and delight. Based on accounts of her final moments, she said “in the face of death, I choose life eternal.”
What about you? Do you choose eternal life? If you do, how can others tell? Do you bear the marks of Jesus in your words, countenance and actions? Do you strive to love as He loves? Jesus' deepest desire is for us to be one with him and for us to experience the same love that exists between him and God the Father.
In John 17: 20-26, it says
“I pray not only for them, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, so that they may all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us, that the world may believe that you sent me. And I have given them the glory you gave me, so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may be brought to perfection as one, that the world may know that you sent me, and that you loved them even as you loved me. Father, they are your gift to me. I wish that where I am they also may be with me, that they may see my glory that you gave me, because you loved me before the foundation of the world. Righteous Father, the world also does not know you, but I know you, and they know that you sent me. I made known to them your name and I will make it known, that the love with which you loved me may be in them and I in them."
We have been given the glory! It is waiting for each and every one of us. Our saints of yesterday, today and the future are the beacons of light that show us what is possible and achievable by partnering with the Holy Spirit and marching on. Through the sludge and trials of life, we must carry on, putting one step of faith in front of the other. Our journeys won't be easy. They will be tiresome. For some, they will be daunting and inspire fear. But we must keep going so that we may one day be made perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect. If Jesus prays for our perfection, then He will do it. To not do it would be to deny Himself, and Jesus cannot deny himself.
We are a gift to Him! Each of us in our brokenness and imperfection. He loves us with an everlasting love anyway and will restore us to perfect bliss, love, joy and peace. We only need to believe and to walk with Him and towards Him. Some of us will run in spurts. Some will crawl on our knees. Some will need to be carried. While others will take small, incremental steps along the way. Many of us will experience it all. No matter the pacing, what's important is that we move. Move with light and towards the light until our sojourn comes to a triumphant end and only until our sojourn is victorious! We are one and meant to be one.
And while you are ambling towards our beloved, remember to:
- Surrender daily. Begin each day with a renewed commitment to abandon your will.
- Discern your vocation. Ask God to reveal his specific path for your holiness. There, you will find peace and fulfillment.
- Discover your sub-vocations. What are the specific missions that God has for you?
- Make small sacrifices. Deny your flesh.
- Pray constantly. Develop and fortify your divine friendship with God. Let the mysteries of the rosary stay on your lips.
- Attend weekly and even daily mass if you can. Consume the Eucharist as often as you are able.
- Go to confession often to allow Jesus to cleanse your soul.
- Acquaint yourself with the scriptures. Read the Bible from cover to cover many times over.
- Spend time with Jesus in Adoration. Jesus is always waiting for you.
- Ask the saints to help you. They are extending their hands to help you surmount heaven. Take advantage of their intercessions and guidance. Study their lives while you live your own.
- Be prepared to be surprised and amazed by how things develop.
- Respond well to disappointments.
- Embrace and push through the loneliness.
- Love God with a fiery, all-consuming love above all things and others.
And finally...complete your journey. And with the Holy Spirit's help, allow it to sculpt and polish you into the image of God's Beloved Son. I hope and pray that you respond to our Lady's call. The call to holiness that beckons us all.
Ms. Cindy Pierre, O.P. is a Haitian-born, NYU-trained playwright who currently resides in San Antonio, TX. She is a Lay Dominican with a passion for helping others to desire and seek sainthood. When she is not teaching CCD or working in accounting, she enjoys traveling and exploring all of the arts, culture and food options that San Antonio has to offer.
Pilgrim Center of Hope provides events, experiences, and media; initiating a desire in people to encounter Jesus Christ in their daily journey of life. See what’s happening & let us journey with you! Visit PilgrimCenterOfHope.org.
