4/11/2024 0 Comments Saints among us saint logo![]() Reminded that God was with the faithful of the past, we are reassured that God is with us today, moving us and all creation toward God’s end in time. In the knowledge that others have persevered, we are encouraged to endure against all odds (Hebrews 12:1-2). It lifts us out of a preoccupation with our own immediate situation and the discouragements of the present. To rejoice with all the faithful of every generation expands our awareness of a great company of witnesses above and around us like a cloud (Hebrews 12:1). It is a time to express our gratitude for all who in ages of darkness kept the faith, for those who have take the gospel to the ends of the earth, for prophetic voices who have called the church to be faithful in life and service, for all who have witnessed to God’s justice and peace in every nation. It is a time to claim our kinship with the “glorious company of apostles … the noble fellowship of prophets … the white-robed army of martyrs” (Te Deum). The day reminds us that we are part of one continuing, living communion of saints. The Faithful of every generation An excerpt from the Companion to the Book of Common Worship (Geneva Press, 2003, 150-151)Īll Saints’ Day is a time to rejoice in all who through the ages have faithfully served the Lord. Previously it had been connected with the Easter season as a feast of all martyrs. We also pray that we may be counted among the company of the faithful in God’s eternal realm.Īll Saints’ Day has been celebrated on November 1 since the year 835. This is an appropriate time to give thanks to members of the community of faith who have died in the past year. Rather than putting saints on pedestals as holy people set apart in glory, we give glory to God for the ordinary, holy lives of the believers in this and every age. While we may give thanks for the lives of particular luminaries of ages past, the emphasis is on the ongoing sanctification of the whole people of God. All Saints’ Day was established as an opportunity to honor all the saints, known and unknown.Īll Saints’ Day has a rather different focus in the Reformed tradition. By the middle of the church’s first millennium, there were so many martyrs (particularly due to the persecution of Diocletian) that it was hard to give them all their due. In early Christian tradition, saints’ days began as a way to mark the anniversary of a martyr’s death - his or her “birthday” as a saint. Greek icon of saints and angels around Christ’s throne (c.
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