All Saints’ Day A

Today is a day to feast on thanksgivings of memory, to recall people who have gone before us, patriarchs, prophets, and pilgrims, who were disciples in their own times. Some we know by name, others remain known only to God. Even so, as the author of Ecclesiasticus reminds us, “Their posterity will continue for ever,…

On this All Saints Day, when we remember those who have gone before us, we are reminded of how short our time on earth is. We are reminded of the precious nature of that time, and the fact that it is irreversible. We only live it once. John Steinbeck wrote the following in his epic…

Since the fourth century various Eastern Orthodox churches have commemorated a feast of all martyrs: those who have given their lives as a witness to the power of the Gospel in this life. By the sixth century, this commemoration was celebrated in Rome. Later it was celebrated in the British Isles where it was seen…

Fifty-two years ago, on All Saints’s Day, a requiem eucharist was celebrated for the Archbishop of Canterbury. To be sure, William Temple was one of the giants of Anglican Christianity in the twentieth century. During the thirty-five years between his ordination as deacon and his death at Lambeth Palace, Temple was a parish priest, headmaster…

The Feast of All Saints is here again. The great songs will be sung. We’ll celebrate that wild, mysterious reality of the communion of Saints and talk about saints, little “s” and big “s.” Many of us will sing “I Sing a Song of the Saints of God.” Unfortunately there is something of the English…