Our saints' come marching in on the 'Sunday after all Saint's Day.' On this Sunday it is our common practice to name the
unknown saints that we have known in
our lives and see no longer. Our list is as full as our memories of
those that helped us find our ways in Christ and perhaps are known only
to us. By naming those that have shaped our lives in Christ we tell the
bigger story - that we are surrounded by a cloud of witnesses whose
faith in Christ has led our life in Christ.
The Sunday after All Saints Day, is akin to All Saints Day celebrated on November 1, but moved to a convenient day for modern worship. On both occasions the saints known and unknown are celebrated. The Episcopal Kalendar (calendar of saints day) keeps an active listing of saints that have been known throughout time in the church. The Book of Common Prayer, Lesser Feasts and Fasts, and Holy Women Holy Men offers collects (prayers), scripture and anthology of the saints whose feast days are given special remembrance throughout the year.
All Saint's Day, as you may have noticed, follows All Hallow's Eve (October 31) as a reminder that even though there are things out there that scare us, and sends chills down our back bone, we are not alone in the universe - we have and have always had the light of God - and people of faith all around us. On the Sunday after All Saints Day, we celebrate the known saints as recorded in the church, and the 'unknown saints, the saints you alone know, and also the ones in the making; as the familiar hymn says " . . . for the saints of God, are just folk like me, and I mean to be one too."
If you have a Saint to name on November 6th, who is here no longer, you can add your name and the saint's name to our list. Click the following link:
All-Saints and ring out the Good New in Christ, to each generation through the witness of God working in our lives.
I sing a song of the saints of God
Words: Lesbia
Scott (1898–1986), alt.
Music: Grand
Isle, John Henry Hopkins (1861–1945)
I sing a song of the saints of God,
patient and brave and true,
who toiled and fought and lived and died
for the Lord they loved and knew.
And one was a doctor, and one was a queen,
and one was a shepherdess on the green:
they were all of them saints of God and I mean,
God helping, to be one too.
They loved their Lord so dear, so dear,
and his love made them strong;
and they followed the right, for Jesus’ sake,
the whole of their good lives long.
And one was a soldier, and one was a priest,
and one was slain by a fierce wild beast;
and there’s not any reason no, not the least,
why I shouldn’t be one too.
They lived not only in ages past,
there are hundreds of thousands still,
the world is bright with the joyous saints
who love to do Jesus’ will.
You can meet them in school, or in lanes, or at sea,
in church, or in trains, or in shops, or at tea,
for the saints of God are just folk like me,
and I mean to be one too.
