November 1, 2016

All Saints

November 1, 2016:  All Saints

How many more than 12 connections with today do you see?
Legend below
Listen

  • Litaniae Sanctorum/Litany of the Saints chant:  Latin, English
  • Litany of the Saints/ Becker [lovely though not approved as Litany of the Saints in Catholic liturgy because it includes people not canonized and lacks called-for intentions]
Pope Francis
Malmo homily:  In celebrating All Saints, we remember all who lived their Christian life in the fullness of faith and love.  We celebrate holiness seen in daily fidelity, loving God and others to the point of self-renunciation:  parents who sacrifice for their families....  The saints found the secret of happiness, with its source in God's love.  The Beatitudes are their path, their goal, their native land, the way of life the Lord teaches, the image of Christ and so of each Christian.  “Blessed are the meek”:  Jesus says, “I am meek and lowly in heart”; it reveals his abundant love.  Meekness draws us to Jesus and one another; it enables us to advance towards unity.  SS. Mary Elizabeth Hesselblad and Bridget prayed and worked to create fellowship among Christians.  One sign of this is that we're commemorating the Reformation.  The saints bring about change through meekness.  With meekness we come to understand God's grandeur and to worship him.  Meekness is the attitude of those whose only wealth is God.  The Beatitudes are the Christian’s ID card.  We're called to be blessed, to be Jesus' followers, to confront today's troubles with the spirit and love of Jesus and recognize and respond to new situations with fresh energy.  Blessed are those who remain faithful while enduring evils others inflict on them, and forgive them.  Blessed are those who look into the eyes of the abandoned and show them their closeness.  Blessed are those who see God in every person, and strive to make others discover him too.  Blessed are those who protect and care for our common home.  Blessed are those who renounce their comfort to help others.  Blessed are those who pray and work for full communion between Christians.  All these are messengers of God’s mercy and will receive their reward.  We're are called to holiness.  The saints spur us on; we need one another if we're to become saints.  Implore the grace to accept this call with joy and bring it to fulfilment.  May we be blessed in our efforts and attain holiness in unity.

Angelus:  As Catholics, we're part of a great family and sustained in the same communion.  Express your faith in prayer, the sacraments, and generous service to those in need.  Be salt and light, wherever you find yourselves, through the way you live and act as disciples, and show respect and solidarity with our brothers and sisters of other churches and Christian communities, and with all people of good will.  We're not alone; we have Mary's help and companionship.  She's first among the saints, the first disciple of the Lord.  We flee to her protection and present to her our sorrows, joys, fears, and aspirations, knowing that she watches over us and cares for us with a mother’s love.
Read
  • Rv 7:2-4, 9-14  Angel: “Do no damage until we put the seal on God's servants.”  144,000 were marked, from every tribe of Israel.  White-robed multitude:  “Salvation comes from our God, seated on the throne, and from the Lamb!”  Angels worshiped:  “Blessing, glory, wisdom, thanksgiving, honor, power, and might be to God!”  Elder:  “They made their robes white in the Lamb's blood.”

  • Ps 24:1bc-2, 3-4ab, 5-6  "Lord, this is the people that longs to see your face."  The Lord’s are the world and those who dwell in it.  Those with clean heart may stand in God's holy place; God will bless and reward them.
  • 1 Jn 3:1-3  See the Father's love:  We're God's children now and shall be like him; we'll see him as he is.  Hope; make yourself pure like God.
  • Mt 5:1-12a  Jesus taught:  “Blessed the poor in spirit, mourners, meek, hungry for justice, merciful, clean of heart, peacemakers, persecuted, insulted; they'll be comforted, satisfied, shown mercy, rewarded, inherit the land, see God, be called God's children, be greatly rewarded.  Rejoice!
Reflect
    • Creighton:  One way we can celebrate All Saints is to allow God to unmask us and comfort us as his children. Those in the 1st reading with white robes were stripped of identities the world had given them, washed away by the “Blood of the Lamb.”  They faced the destructive and violent ways of God's opponents.  The seven Beatitudes are celebrations of the taking-off of masks.  The saints resisted wealth, power, vengeance, regret, and other forms of pretending.  Recall today persons we knew or know who exemplify each Beatitude, including people from our own family and history.
      All Saints/ Durer
    • One Bread, One Body:  "High life":  The saints (in heaven and on earth) stand before the throne and the Lamb.  We're citizens of heaven, raised up in company with Christ.  We grow in sanctity when we set our hearts "on what pertains to higher realms where Christ is seated at God's right hand," "intent on things above."  Are my heart, mind, and spirit earth-bound in sin or around God's throne in praise, eagerly awaiting the coming of our Savior"?  To be saints, we must give our lives to Jesus...
    • Passionist:  Today's feast has a wide embrace, celebrating the holy ones gone before us and those now living.  The “saints” are everyone embraced by God’s love who's tried to live accordingly:  those before Christ who searched for God, Israelites who tried to love and obey God, Christians, who strove to follow Jesus, family members who have gone before us trusting in God, people we meet who reflect the beauty of the gospel.  God’s blessing embraces the poor in spirit, mourners, the meek, those hungry for justice, the merciful, the clean of heart, peacemakers, the persecuted.  God's loving embrace makes us “holy.”
    • DailyScripture.net:  "Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven":  Jesus' message is that we can be happy by pursuing God's will for us through living the Beatitudes.  The Beatitudes respond to our natural desire for happiness, for entering into the Lord's joy; they also confront us with choices about how we live and how we use his gifts.  God alone can satisfy our deepest longings.  The beatitudes are a sign of contradiction to the world:  happiness through poverty, hunger, mourning, and persecution?  But poverty of spirit leads to finding true Treasure, hunger can be nourished through God's word and Spirit, and mourning over sin leads to freedom from guilt and oppression.  Jesus promises that heaven's joys will more than compensate for present troubles and hardships. "No one can live without joy; that is why one deprived of spiritual joy goes after carnal pleasures" (Aquinas)
    Dress legend
    • 'Angel' pin:  Angels around throne:  “Blessing, glory, wisdom, thanksgiving, honor, power, and might to our God!” (1st reading)
    • 'Lamb' tie bar:  A multitude stood before the Lamb; Salvation is from our God and the Lamb; the white-robed survived the time of distress and made their robes white in the Lamb's blood (1st reading)
    • White shirt:  Saints made their robes white in blood of the Lamb (1st reading); liturgical color of today's celebration
    • 'Abacus' tie pin:  number of the marked (1st reading)
    • 'Children's faces' tie:  "Lord, this is the people that longs to see your face" (psalm); Saints (feast); the Father loves us so much, we're God's children (2nd reading)
    • 'Eyeball' tie pin:  We shall see God as he is (2nd reading)
    • 'Peace sign' tie bar:  "Blessed be the peacemakers" (gospel)
    • 'Hands' pin:  Those with sinless hands... (psalm)
    • 'Hearts' suspenders:  ...and clean heart may stand in the Lord's holy place (psalm); God's love, Saints' love; Blessed the pure of heart (gospel)
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