By Annette Owen
Here’s your bit of church history for the day.
On Nov. 1 in 731 A.D., Pope Gregory III dedicated a small chapel within St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome to “all the saints” and instituted All Saints Day as an annual feast day for the church in Rome. A hundred years later, Pope Gregory IV expanded the commemoration of All Saints Day as a feast day for the entire church.
All Saints is a clever catch-all observance that ensures all the saints are honored. As some of you may know, the Catholic Church observes a myriad of feast days for saints throughout the liturgical year. Every canonized saint has a feast day, but the truth is that not every saint is canonized.
While we can think of canonized saints as the uber do-gooders, the truth according to Scripture is that every baptized believer — everyone who confesses Christ as Savior — is a saint. This means All Saints Day is a way to collectively honor and remember all the noncanonized saints — all the believers “who from their labors rest, who thee by faith before the world confessed, thy name, O Jesus,” as you’ll soon hear in our moment of Prayer Through Music.
Today, our commemoration of All Saints Day includes reading the names and remembering the members of our community who passed from this life into glory this past year. It’s a moment that invites us to remember and give thanks for the many saints who have inspired us, challenged us, encouraged us and breathed life into our own journeys of faith.
Beloved of God, who are the saints who have impacted your life? Whose blessing and legacy do you carry with you? Whose prophetic witness or faithful service inspires you?
Today calls us to remember the saints with gratitude and honor them with resolve. You see, All Saints is not just a day to remember the dead; it’s also an invitation to acknowledge that we — those who are baptized and confess Christ — are living saints. We are the ones younger generations are looking to. We are the ones they will remember and hopefully honor as saints one day.
Beloved of God, how will you be remembered? How are you speaking life into the lives and faith journeys of others? As we worship together on this All Saints Day, let us remember the saints with grateful hearts and honor them with faithful action.