All Saints Day 2020

Allerheilegen (All Saints Day)                                             Johann Koenig, 1599

On All Saints Day, Christians remember the faithful who have passed on to the glorious company of the saints in light. It has been observed since the 4th century after Christ and remains a Holy Day of Obligation in the Catholic Church. Over time, the original purpose of All Saints Day changed and, by the Middle Ages, "saints became the objects of prayers and petitions for merit before God." Seeing Christ "as the only source of forgiveness, [Martin Luther] cleansed the church of this abuse of the saints" but retained the holy day in the church calendar. He made his statement by nailing his 95 theses on the door of All Saints Church in Wittenburg, Germany, on October 31, 1517, ensuring that they would be seen by crowds of worshipers the following day. Today, the celebration of the beginning of the Reformation on October 31 sometimes overshadows All Saints Day in the Lutheran Church, but the days are often celebrated concurrently during Sunday worship.


Here is a prayer for today:

Almighty God, you have knit your people together in one Holy church, the body of Christ our Lord. Grant us grace to follow the example of your blessed saints in lives of faith and willing service and with them at last inherit the inexpressible joys that you have prepared for those who love you, through Jesus Christ our Lord...

And here is William Walsham How's hymn, "For All the Saints," sung to Ralph Vaughan Williams's beloved setting, Sine Nomine.

An here is an anthem for the day that is perhaps less familiar to Americans. The words are from the pen of the 17th century English minister and hymn writer, Isaac Watt, and sung to a setting by Sir Ernest Bullock, 

Give us the wings of faith to rise

within the veil, and see

the saints above, how great their joys, 

how bright their glories be.

Once they were mourning here below,

their couch was wet with tears;

they wrestled hard, as we do now, 

with sins and doubts and fears.

We ask them whence their victory came,

they, with united breath,

ascribe their conquest to the Lamb,

their triumph to his death.