Thursday, March 28, AD 2024 7:24pm

For All the Saints

 

“There are no real personalities apart from God. Until you have given up your self to Him you will not have a real self. Sameness is to be found most among the most ‘natural’ men, not among those who surrender to Christ. How monotonously alike all the great tyrants and conquerers have been; how gloriously different are the saints.”

CS Lewis

Something for the weekend.  It being All Saint’s Day, For All the Saints seemed appropriate.  Written by Anglican Bishop William Walsham How in 1864.  Ralph Vaughn Williams in 1906 wrote the music, Sin Nomine, the tune of Sarum being used up to that time.

All Saints Day reminds us of all those holy men and women whom God, in His infinite mercy, sends us as torches to light our path in a dark world.  Filled with God’s love and grace, they make golden the pages of our histories with their lives and witness.  Feeling the lure of sin just as much as any of us, they turned to God and reflected His love to us.  They come in all sorts of humanity:  men and women, all nationalities, wise, simple, warriors, pacifists, miracle workers, saints whose only miracle was their life, humorous, humorless, clergy, laity, old, young, united only in their Faith and their love for the Highest Love.

It is too easy as we go about our prosaic lives to forget the Ultimate Reality that the saints clearly see.  May we, with them, one day behold that Ultimate Reality in the face, in the Beatific Vision.

For all the saints, who from their labors rest,
who thee by faith before the world confessed,
thy Name, O Jesus, be forever blessed.
Alleluia, Alleluia!

Thou wast their Rock, their Fortress and their Might;
thou, Lord, their Captain in the well fought fight;
thou, in the darkness drear, their one true Light.
Alleluia, Alleluia!

For the apostles’ glorious company,
who bearing forth the cross o’er land and sea,
shook all the mighty world, we sing to Thee:
Alleluia, Alleluia!

For the Evangelists, by whose blest word,
like fourfold streams, the garden of the Lord,
is fair and fruitful, be thy Name adored.
Alleluia, Alleluia!

For Martyrs, who with rapture kindled eye,
saw the bright crown descending from the sky,
and seeing, grasped it, thee we glorify.
Alleluia, Alleluia!

O may thy soldiers, faithful, true, and bold,
fight as the saints who nobly fought of old,
and win, with them the victor’s crown of gold.
Alleluia, Alleluia!

O blest communion, fellowship divine!
we feebly struggle, they in glory shine;
all are one in thee, for all are thine.
Alleluia, Alleluia!

And when the strife is fierce, the warfare long,
steals on the ear the distant triumph song,
and hearts are brave, again, and arms are strong.
Alleluia, Alleluia!

The golden evening brightens in the west;
soon, soon to faithful warriors comes their rest;
sweet is the calm of paradise the blessed.
Alleluia, Alleluia!

But lo! there breaks a yet more glorious day;
the saints triumphant rise in bright array;
the King of glory passes on his way.
Alleluia, Alleluia!

From earth’s wide bounds, from ocean’s farthest coast,
through gates of pearl streams in the countless host,
and singing to Father, Son and Holy Ghost:
Alleluia, Alleluia!

0 0 votes
Article Rating
6 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Philip
Philip
Saturday, November 1, AD 2014 8:53am

Realizing that we can not canonize our dearly departed family, I will go out on a limb…..Donald, Larry’s singing beautifully today, beholding the face of God. Sainthood and honor forever!

Philip
Philip
Saturday, November 1, AD 2014 9:49am

“In Heaven he speaks of God’s love.”

Contemplating your message I am certain that Larry was familiar with things holy and of God. Larry was not a stranger nor God a stranger to Larry.
This is due to you and your wife.
Larry speaks of God’s love in heaven because he witnessed God’s love on earth. Thanks be to his parents!

Have a remarkably fulfilling All Saints day.

Mary De Voe
Saturday, November 1, AD 2014 11:29am

“In Heaven he speaks of God’s love.” How wonderfully said.

TomD
TomD
Saturday, November 1, AD 2014 12:11pm

“Realizing that we can not canonize our dearly departed family, I will go out on a limb”.
Oh, but we can. We just cannot publicly express certainty about the salvation of our dearly departed. Among family, among friends, we certainly can. It really isn’t much of a limb, because you wrote the truth.

trackback
Saturday, November 1, AD 2014 12:56pm

[…] Martyrologies – Peter Kwasniewski Pope Francis on Evolution, Church Teaching for Longest Time For All the Saints – Donald R. McClarey JD, The American Catholic The Darkness of Sin & the Light of Love […]

Discover more from The American Catholic

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading

Scroll to Top