12-step Eucharist All Saints: Generous Heart, Columbus, November 4, 2026, Saint Mark’s, 5:30

“In his holy flirtation with the world, God occasionally drops a pocket handkerchief. These handkerchiefs are saints.

Many people think of saints as plaster saints, men and women of such paralyzing virtue that they never had a nasty thought or committed an evil deed their whole lives. As far as I know, real saints never even come close to characterizing themselves that way.” –Frederick Buechner, originally published in Wishful Thinking and later in Beyond Words. 

 These words from Frederick Buechner remind us that being a saint is less about ourselves and more about the way God, for some reason, works through and redeems the mess of our lives. November 1 is All Saints Day, when we remember the saints of the church who have died. November 2 is All Souls Day, when we remember all the faithful departed. 

I cannot help but remember Columbus, someone well known to all in the recovery community in Little Rock, Arkansas, by his first name alone. Every year, usually early in the morning on the anniversary of your sobriety, you receive a phone call from Columbus. You wait in anticipation for that call, celebrating one more year of an alternative life with someone you knew only over the phone. 

Columbus’ wife of forty-six years would leave him three times before he entered his final rehabilitation, after many DWIs, missed work, and days when she admitted she did not know where he was. Columbus’ last DWI occurred after he crashed the family car with two of his children inside. Columbus died in the thirty-eighth year of his sobriety. He was credited with leading thousands of men and women worldwide to sobriety, including homeless men and women, executive real estate brokers, judges, doctors, and ministers.

Columbus made 15,000 calls a year and almost half a million calls before his death. He also called people he knew were no longer in recovery, telling them he cared about them. As a result, many people say they returned to recovery because of Columbus.

Columbus’ wife described his change during his recovery as “truly unbelievable. He became a dedicated and involved father and grandfather after he came so close to losing his family.”

When I hear people wonder what they could do to make a difference in the world, I tell them Columbus’ story: one man with a generous heart, picking up the phone every day to change lives with a simple call. One day at a time. 

This may be the way saints live. They are resurrection people. They know all too well what Good Friday is like. Yet, God continues to change them and the world one day, one phone call at a time.          

Joanna. Joannaseibert.com.