Wednesday of this week is the Solemnity of All Saints. It is a feast that honors all of those faithful citizens of heaven who have gone before us, "marked with the sign of faith." On this day, we honor all the saints, those whose names we know, and those who are unknown.  Among those we honor could very well be our relatives and friends who have died, who now share in the beatific vision of God's glory. 
Pope Benedict just recently canonized four new saints, among them St. Theodore Guerin, who is the eighth American to be canonized. St. Theodore (a woman known as "Mother Theodore" since she was the superior of the Sisters of Providence) was canonized a saint because of her heroic virtue in the midst of many obstacles.  She came to Indiana from France as a young woman of 25, founded schools and orphanages, and established pharmacies, giving her life as a witness to Jesus Christ.   
Saints are like signs pointing us in the right direction on our path to heaven. We honor the saints because they gave their lives completely to God and wanted only to do His will. We don't worship the saints; we venerate them. When we talk to the saints in prayer, it is much like asking our friends to pray for us. We are confident that the saints, who are close to God, will pray with us and for  our intentions. The prayer of a holy person is powerful (cf. James 5:16), so we know that the intercession of the saints is powerful indeed. 
Some may wonder why Catholics give so much honor to the saints, rather than going directly to God.  The honor we give to the saints really adds to the glory we give to God. Imagine a great artist taking a friend through his studio. But instead of looking at any of the paintings, the friend looks only at the artist. The artist might very well ask, "Don't you want to look at any of my paintings?" The friend might say, "I'm afraid that looking at your works will diminish my appreciation of your greatness as an artist." 
We can easily see how silly that is. Admiring the works of a great artist only adds to our appreciation of the greatness of the artist. So it is with God. When we admire His greatest work (His saints), we grow in our appreciation of the beauty and greatness of God. We also grow in our ability to become a great masterwork of the Master Artist.  

By learning about the lives of the saints, and striving to model our lives after theirs, we prepare ourselves to become God's work of art, His handiwork.

(Ephesians 2:10) 

We are all called to be saints. 

As we honor all of God's saints this Wednesday, let us ask their intercession that one day we will be added to that great company of saints in heaven.

NOTE ON ALL SOULS' DAY: There are two specific grants of a plenary indulgence applicable to the souls in purgatory. The first grant is given to a member of the faithful who, between the 1^st to the 8^th of November, makes a visit to the cemetery and prays for the faithful departed. The second grant is for a member of the faithful who visits a church or chapel on All Souls' Day (Thursday, November 2), and prays the Our Father and the Apostles' Creed.