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Sentence

Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 5:10

                                                                                                                             

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Collect  

Eternal God, neither death nor life can separate us from your love:
grant that we may serve you faithfully here on earth, and in heaven rejoice with all your saints who ceaselessly proclaim your glory; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen

                                                                                                                                                      

Readings

This Week:

• Revelation 7:9-17
• Psalm 34:1-10, 22
• 1 John 3:1-3
• Matthew 5:1-12

• Next Week:

• Joshua 24:1-3a, 14-25
• Psalm 78:1-7
• 1 Thess 4:9-18
• Matthew 25:1-13

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A Thought to Ponder

A Brief History of Halloween, All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day


Halloween, All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day fall between 31 October to 2 November and their names are all Christian in origin. While Halloween has taken on a cultural and commercial life of its own in recent years, in the past, All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day were much more important. But where did these observances come from, and how were they celebrated?
Some people believe that these three days replaced the ancient pre-Christian Celtic festival of Samhain, which marked the transition into winter. It was said that at this time of year, the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead became blurred, and the souls of the dead could revisit their former homes. Perhaps it makes sense then, that the later Christian All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day were made to coincide with this time of year – indeed, all saints was originally a spring festival that was moved to 1 November.
Halloween – or All Hallows’ Eve, takes its name from the Feast of All Saints’ Day, which later became known as All Hallows. All Hallows’ Eve was quite literally the eve before the holy day. But it wasn’t just a vigil before a religious feast day. Several saints have feast days on 31 October. Halloween was also associated with misbehaviour and was sometimes called Mischief Night.
Michael says, “people get together, they have some fun, they tell stories and there are opportunities for bad behaviour, a sort of licensed misrule. You could go out, be badly behaved (within certain societal bounds) and get no more than a stern telling off or a clip around the ear.” It was also acceptable for poorer members of the community to visit their richer neighbours asking for charity.
All Saints’ Day – Christians have honoured their dead since the early days of the church, and there are records of this from at least the 4th century. All Saints’ Day was originally a commemoration of martyrs, people who died for their faith, but was later expanded to include all saints, as the name suggests. Originally a spring festival, in the 8th century, Pope Gregory III moved All Saints’ Day to 1 November to mark the papal dedication of a chapel honouring all saints in St Peter’s Basilica, Rome.
One of the great holy days of the year, All Saints’ Day was celebrated with church services that started in the afternoon of All Hallows’ Eve and went on until the evening of the following day. There would have been a great mass, vespers and other services, so that much of the day was spent in church. And that experience was designed to impress.
All Souls’ Day and All Saints Day remain important dates in the calendars of both the Roman Catholic Church and Church of England. However, after the Reformation, All Souls’ Day was removed by Protestants, who believed after death, souls either went straight to heaven or to hell. There was no need to offer prayers for the dead in purgatory if there was no purgatory. “Protestantism rejected the efficacy of prayers for the dead.
There is no intermediate stay as there is in Catholicism, where good works performed on your part by the living (the saying of prayers, celebration of masses and the giving of alms) can alleviate your suffering and speed up the purging of your sins and getting you into heaven.“ In 1928, All Souls’ Day was reinstated into the Church of England calendar: “It comes back as a commemoration of the dead, not of a day when masses would be said to speed the redemption of their souls. I think the restoration of All Souls’ into the calendar of the Church of England has an awful lot to do with the terrible slaughter that took place between 1914 and 1918. Commemoration is very much in people’s minds in the aftermath of World War I.” by Dr Michael Carter

Sermon

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