The Saints are the presence and the face of God. The Church, when declaring a person a saint, highlights the presence of God in our life, communion with Jesus Christ, and the unity of the whole Church in the Spirit of God as a sign of her activity in the world. In them, God himself speaks to us and offers us a sign of his kingdom, towards which we are drawn by the testimony of the truth of the Gospel which is reflected in their lives.

We venerate the saints’ memory for their exemplary nature, so that the union of the whole Church in the Spirit may be strengthened by the exercise of fraternal charity which we see in them. The first “task” of the saints, as concrete persons, with their virtues and defects, is to be a living reference to the liberating and saving presence of God, who wants us to be His People and his Family.

God, in communicating with us in the lives of the saints, does so in a thousand ways and often in unusual ways. So, it is with Saint Arnold Janssen, who, leading a simple life, performed and continues to perform extraordinary works.

Whoever encounters this model of life proposed by the Church, maybe inspired and encouraged to allow God to work in them and thus continue manifesting God’s presence and God’s face by being a witness of life themselves letting their own lives be a witness of the life-giving presence of God.