Striving for purity of heart
Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God.
A reflection on All Saints Day and the Glory of God. (Nov. 1, 2025)
Today is All Saints Day. “Let us all rejoice in the Lord, celebrating a festival day in honor of all the saints.” This is how the traditional Mass begins this day.
Each year on November 1st, we celebrate those who have made it to heaven. This celebration can be traced back to the early Church. After Christianity was made legal in 313, a common commemoration of all the saints started to appear in different cities. The day was made a universal feast by the Catholic Church around 800 AD.
While the Church has formally investigated and canonized hundreds of saints that we venerate today, heaven itself is full of millions of saints. Most of them are unknown to us. But they are our brethren who have made it home. We celebrate them today.
Glory to God!
The Scriptures give us a glimpse of the glory of the saints in heaven.
The prophet Daniel writes, “And those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the firmament; and those who turn many to righteousness, like the stars for ever and ever.”1 Jesus tells us in the Gospel of St. Matthew, “Just as the weeds are gathered and burned with fire, so will it be at the close of the age. The Son of man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all evildoers, and throw them into the furnace of fire; there men will weep and gnash their teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father.”2 Finally, St. John recounts his vision of the saints in the Book of Revelation: “After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no man could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits upon the throne, and to the Lamb!”3
Glory to God!
This is our hope – that someday we will share in the glory of the saints in heaven, in the presence of God. Standing in the beatific vision. And yet we know that we have not reached that glorious state here. Our transformation in glory is a process that takes place over the course of our life if we are faithful to grace.
St Paul explains this in his Second Letter to the Corinthians. He writes: “And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being changed into his likeness from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.”4
We are being changed into His likeness — the likeness of Christ — from one degree of glory to another. This change comes from beholding the glory of the Lord. St. Irenaeus made this connection back in the Second Century in his book Against Heresies. He wrote there two things:
The glory of God is a living man.
The life of a man is the vision of God.
The living man referred to by St. Irenaeus is Christ himself, in whom the glory of God is fully revealed. The living man is also one who is a Christian. One who has put on Christ. One who is being changed into His likeness. And that will be fully realized in the beatific vision in heaven. In this life, “man achieves his perfection by giving glory to God. He attains the consummation of [t]his perfection not in this life, but in the life to come.”5
All of this poses the question to us: What is holding us back? What is preventing us from growing in the glory of God today?
The primary obstacle or impediment is lack of purity of heart. Or to put it another way, living our life covered in slime. What do I mean by lack of purity of heart?
The Spiritual Doctine of Father Louis Lallemant is a spiritual classic, published in 1885, and cited in works on the spiritual life. The book discusses the pursuit of perfection, specifically the perfection of holiness. Jesus said, “Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect.” Perfection in holiness is what he it talking about. Union with God.
Father Lallemant lists purity of heart is the #1 goal for those who desire to reach union with God. He defines purity of heart as follows: “Purity of heart consists in having nothing therein which is, in however small a degree, opposed to God and the operation of His grace.”6 Purity of heart is having nothing in your heart that is opposed to God and the operation of His grace.
One of the ways that we oppose God and the operation of His grace is engaging in voluntary sins and imperfections that slime us. Although the book does not use the word “slime,” the book does discuss being slimed. Father Lallemant writes: “The slightest faults and least imperfections, when voluntary, inflict four evils on the soul: first, they darken and blind it more and more; second, they sully it; thirdly, they disturb and oppress it; fourthly, they diminish its strength and enfeeble it.”7
When I presented the question, what is preventing us from growing in the glory of God today, I indicated that the primary obstacle or impediment was lack of purity of hear, or living our life covered in slime. I keep referring to being slimed even though that is not normal spiritual terminology. I think a short video clip may help illustrate what I am talking about.
Spiritual slime is a real thing. If one has made any progress in the spiritual life, you know by experience that you are constantly being slimed. Sometimes we slime ourselves. When we sin, we feel dirty. We feel gross. We know that we have slimed ourselves. But repenting and confessing our sin allows us to be washed clean by the Blood of Jesus. Other times, people around us or things we are exposed to in our daily life slime us. Some of this we can avoid. Some of it we cannot avoid. What are some examples?
There are things presented to us on television that leave us slimed. I stopped watching television years ago because I got tired of feeling like I needed to pray for a half hour afterwards to get rid of all of the slime deposited on me. Even if I did not watch bad television shows or movies, you still had commercials, which are terrible.
We can also get slimed listening to bad music. If you in a restaurant and bad music comes on, you can pray and cover yourself in the Blood of Jesus and protect yourself. If you voluntarily listen to music that you know you should not be listening to, however, you are going to get slimed.
When someone we are talking to is gossiping or bad mouthing someone, we get slimed. We feel dirty afterwards.
Again, some of this we can avoid. Some of it we cannot avoid. But living life in a state of being constantly slimed is not the path to being full of the glory of God!
What is the remedy? The main remedy is to strive for purity of heart.
Jesus said, “blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God.”8 Although that applies full in the next life in heaven, this beatitude applies to this life as well.
The pure of heart shall see God.
The life of a man is the vision of God.
A living man is the glory of God.
In other words, purity of heart is the path to glory.
What are some things we can do to pursue purity of heart?
Note all venial sins and correct them. Father Lallemant points out that “the multiplication of venial sins is the destruction of souls.”
Observe the disorderly movements of the heart and correct them. Again, Father Lallemant counsels us: “We ought to pay the strictest attention to the least movements of the spiritual life within us, seeing that God makes more account of them than of all the occupations and all the actions of our natural life.”
Watch over our thoughts and correct them.
Recognize the inspiration of God, His designs, His will, and encourage ourselves to accomplish them.
Being aware of these principles and putting them into action will help us reduce the number of ways that we oppose God and the operation of His grace. We must accompany these efforts with a life of prayer. When we pray, we place ourselves in the presence of God. We behold His face. We behold His glory. And we are transformed and strengthened by that.
One of the optional dismissals at the end of Mass is: Go in peace, glorifying the Lord by your life. This is our mission statement for today, All Saints Day. Glorify the Lord by your life. That some day we will join our brethren in heaven, standing in the presence of God, and beholding His glory.
I will give St. Paul the last word. He writes in the First Letter to the Corinthians: “So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.”9
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.
Audio recording of this reflection on Soundcloud:
Eric A. Welter is an employment lawyer and trial attorney with a long-time devotion to intercessory prayer. He is a Catholic Christian who has been involved with intercessory and healing prayer ministry for over twenty five years.
Daniel 12:3. All Scripture quotations are from the Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition, unless otherwise indicated.
Spiritual Doctrine, at 122.
Id. at 428.
thanks Eric - Part of local Praying team called FIAT