Skip to main content

ALL SAINTS - 1 NOVEMBER


ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN NOVEMBER

Saints celebrated on the 1st of November 

Feasts, Solemnities, and Liturgical Seasons

ALL SAINTS 

The Church in this great festival honours all the saints reigning together in glory; 

1. to give thanks to God for the graces and crowns of all his elect; 

2. to excite ourselves to a fervent imitation of their virtues by considering the holy example of so many faithful servants of God of all ages, sexes, and conditions, and by contemplating the inexpressible and eternal bliss which they already enjoy, and to which we are invited;

3. to implore the divine mercy through this multitude of powerful intercessors; 

4. to repair any failures or sloth in not having duly honoured God in his saints on their particular festivals, and to glorify him in the saints which are unknown to us, or for which no particular festivals are appointed. 

ONE SOLEMN COMMEMORATION

Therefore our fervour on this day ought to be such, that it may be a reparation of our sloth in all the other feasts of the year; they being all comprised in this one solemn commemoration, which is an image of that eternal great feast which God himself continually celebrates in heaven with all his saints, whom we humbly join in praising his adorable goodness for all his mercies, particularly for all treasures of grace which he has most munificently heaped upon them. 

In this and all other festivals of the saints, God is the only object of supreme worship, and the whole of that inferior veneration which is paid to the saints is directed to give sovereign honour to God alone, whose gifts their graces are: and our addresses to them are only petitions to holy fellow-creatures for the assistance of their prayers to God for us. 

PRAISE AND THANK GOD

In all feasts of saints, especially in this solemn festival of All Saints, it ought to be the first part of our devotion to praise and thank God for the infinite goodness he has displayed in favour of his elect. A primary and most indispensable homage we owe to God, is that of praise, the first act of love, and complacency in God and his adorable perfections. This is the uninterrupted sweet employment of the blessed in heaven to all eternity. 

With what infinite condescension and tenderness does the Lord of all things watch over every one of his elect! With what unspeakable invisible gifts does he adorn them! And with what honour has he crowned them! 

HIS GIFTS ALONE IN US HE CROWNS

To what an immense height of immortal glory has he raised them! and by what means? His grace conducted them by humility, patience, charity, and penance, through ignominies, torments, pains, sorrows, mortifications, and temptations to joy and bliss, by the cross to their crowns. 

And casting their crowns before his throne they give to him all the glory of their triumphs. "His gifts alone in us he crowns." 

We are called upon with the whole church militant on earth to join the church triumphant in heaven in praising and thanking our most merciful God for the graces and glory he has bestowed on his saints. 

CONTEMPT OF THE INCONSTANT, PERISHABLE, AND FALSE HONOURS OF THIS WORLD

How does their immortality inspire us with a contempt of the inconstant, perishable, and false honours of this world! How does the unspeakable joy of that state, which satisfies all the desires, and fills the whole capacity of the heart, make us sovereignly despise the false empty pleasures of this life, and trample under our feet the threats and persecutions of a blind world, with all that we can suffer from it or in it! 

THERE IS BUT ONE GOSPEL AND BUT ONE REDEEMER

There is but one Gospel, but one Redeemer and divine Legislator, Jesus Christ, and but one Heaven. No other road can lead us thither but that which he has traced out to us: the rule of salvation laid down by him is invariable. It is a most pernicious and false persuasion, either that Christians in the world are not bound to aim at perfection, or that they may be saved by a different path from that of the saints. 

"AS OUR HEAVENLY FATHER IS PERFECT"

The torrent of example in the world imperceptibly instils this error into the minds of many, - that there is a kind of middle way of going to heaven: and under this notion, because the world does not live up to the gospel, they bring the gospel down to the level or standard of the world. It is not by the example of the world that we are to measure the Christian rule, but by the pure maxims of the gospel. All Christians are commanded to labour to become holy and perfect, as our heavenly Father is perfect. 

WE MUST STUDY TO DIE TO OURSELVES

We must study to die to ourselves. By the frequent use of the sacraments, assiduous prayer, pious reading, or meditation, and the practice of devout aspirations, we must unite our souls to God. This crucifixion of self-love and union of our hearts to God are the two general means by which the Spirit of Christ must be formed and daily improved in us, and by which we shall be imitators of the saints.

 (From Fr Butler's Lives of the Saints)

⬅️ Marian Feast Days

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

WELCOME

  Please pick your saints: January - Saints by date  1    2    3    4    5    6    7    8    9    10    11    12    13    14    15    16    17   18    19    20    21    22    23    24    25    26    27    28    29    30    31   February - Saints by date  1    2    3    4    5    6    7    8    9    10    11    12    13    14    15    16    17 18    19    20    21    22    23    24    25    26    27    28    29   March - Saints by date: 1    2    3    4    5    6    7    8    9    10    11    12    13    14    15    16    17   18    19    20    21    22    23    24    25    26    27    28    29    30    31   April - Saints by date: 1    2    3    4    5    6    7    8    9    10    11    12    13    14    15    16    17   18    19    20    21    22    23    24    25    26    27    28    29    30   May - Saints by date: 1    2    3    4    5    6    7    8    9    10    11    12    13    14    15    16    17   18    19    20    21    22    23    24    25    26    27    28    29    30   

ST JOHN BERCHMANS, RELIGIOUS - 13 AUGUST

  ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN AUGUST Saints celebrated on the 13th of August WELCOME! SAINT JOHN BERCHMANS, RELIGIOUS   (Patron Saint of Altar Servers.) The eldest boy of a poor cordwainer, in a small Belgian town, John was ever a dutiful, prayerful, and studious child. Our Lord called him when but young to leave his father and his father’s house, to serve Him in the Society of Jesus.  And because he was so good a son, it cost his father much to give him up to God; but he was too good a Christian to refuse outright.  HE WAS SENT TO ROME John had hardly taken his religious vows when he was sent to the centre of Christendom, the holy city of Rome. His modesty, his purity, shone out as great virtue always does; and the young laymen who attended the lectures would come to gaze upon his beautiful and holy face, and go away the better for the sight. GREAT VIRTUE Three short years, and his last sickness found him sighing for heaven, and three days before the great feast of Mary’s Assumption in 1

ST LAURA OF CORDOBA, WIDOW AND MARTYR - 19 OCTOBER

  WELCOME! SAINT LAURA OF CORDOBA, WIDOW AND MARTYR   Laura, a widow and martyr of Cordoba in Spain, is mentioned in the Spanish martyrology of Tamajode Salazar, who refers to Luitprand, where it says the following: St Laura is said to have been of a noble family, and  according to the wishes of her parents she married an equally noble man and gave birth to two daughters.  After the death of her husband and her daughters, she went to the monastery of St Aurea, named St-Maria de Cuteclara, and after her martyrdom led the same for nine years as her successor.  After she had made wonderful progress in all virtues, she was finally summoned to renounce the faith before a Saracen judge. But since she remained steadfast, she was first beaten very cruelly and then thrown into a bath of boiling pitch, where she remained in praise of God for three hours and then flew to heaven on October 19, 864.   St Laura is of the 48 Martyrs of Cordoba. PRAYER: Grant, we beseech you, almighty God, that we who