Happy Feast of All Saints! 🙏
Dear John, Today is the feast of All Saints, a day to recognize and celebrate the myriad contributions of holy people across time to build up the kingdom of God. As it's pointed out in today's entry from Minute Meditations, "Our holiness is the same as [the saints']—God’s holiness." And, though we're separated from most saints by time, geography, and culture, the key to saintliness remains the same: joyfully accepting the gifts God graces us with. And so, the communion of saints continues to grow, with new names to hold up and examples to follow. May your faith be expanded and enriched on this famous feast. If you find our daily spiritual resources to be helpful on your journey of faith, we ask you to consider giving to Franciscan Media today. Without your help, our work is not possible. We will continue to pray for you every day, as we meet for morning prayer at 9:30. Please keep us in your prayers as well! |
Daniel Imwalle Managing Editor, St. Anthony Messenger/Franciscan Media |
Saint of the Day for November 1: Solemnity of All Saints Listen to the Story of the Solemnity of All Saints Here The earliest certain observance of a feast in honor of all the saints is an early fourth-century commemoration of “all the martyrs.” In the early seventh century, after successive waves of invaders plundered the catacombs, Pope Boniface IV gathered up some 28 wagon-loads of bones and reinterred them beneath the Pantheon, a Roman temple dedicated to all the gods. The pope rededicated the shrine as a Christian church. According to Venerable Bede, the pope intended “that the memory of all the saints might in the future be honored in the place which had formerly been dedicated to the worship not of gods but of demons” (On the Calculation of Time). But the rededication of the Pantheon, like the earlier commemoration of all the martyrs, occurred in May. Many Eastern Churches still honor all the saints in the spring, either during the Easter season or immediately after Pentecost. How the Western Church came to celebrate this feast, now recognized as a solemnity, in November is a puzzle to historians. The Anglo-Saxon theologian Alcuin observed the feast on November 1 in 800, as did his friend Arno, Bishop of Salzburg. Rome finally adopted that date in the ninth century. Reflection This feast first honored martyrs. Later, when Christians were free to worship according to their consciences, the Church acknowledged other paths to sanctity. In the early centuries the only criterion was popular acclaim, even when the bishop’s approval became the final step in placing a commemoration on the calendar. The first papal canonization occurred in 993; the lengthy process now required to prove extraordinary sanctity took form in the last 500 years. Today’s feast honors the obscure as well as the famous—the saints each of us have known.
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Our Communion of Saints The saints and blesseds are special signs of God’s activity. Their surrender to God’s love was so generous an approach to the total surrender of Jesus that the Church recognizes them as heroes and heroines worthy to be held up for our inspiration. They remind us that the Church is holy, can never stop being holy, and is called to show the holiness of God by living the life of Christ. Our holiness is the same as theirs—God’s holiness. Their lives were indeed conditioned by the culture and history of their own day; their expression of holiness is partly different from what it would be in the twenty-first century. But the essence is the same: They received God’s gift with joy. They call to us to do likewise: “Do you not know that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person; for the temple of God, which you are, is holy” (1 Cor 3:16–17). —from the book Saint of the Day: The Definitive Guide to the Saints
by Franciscan Media |
Called to Be Saints Reflect The ordinary people you encounter might be shocked to be called “saints,” but they do good, quietly and unassumingly. A special day is set aside to honor those of us with unknown names, whose ordinary fidelity goes unrecorded. Those who are deceased accompany us still, and one day we will join their company in heaven. Pray Creator God, you always sent saints with the gifts
that corresponded to the needs of their day.
Today, we have crying needs.
Send us your saints!
Amen. Act Compile your list of “Saints for the 21st Century,” from both people you know personally and those you admire from afar. For a deeper look into everyday saints, visit our article called "The Feast of All Saints: God's Glorious Nobodies." Today’s Pause+Pray was written by Kathy Coffey. Learn more here! |
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