Solemnity of All Saints
Solemnity of All Saints
Liturgical Cycle: A, B, C | Lectionary Cycle: I, II
Introduction
Greeting (Rom 1, 7)
To all of you who are God’s beloved
and called to be saints,
grace and peace from God our Father
and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
The Lord’s peace stay with you. R/ And also with you.
Introduction by the Celebrant
On this celebration of All Saints, we ask ourselves: What is our idea of saints? Are they to us idealistic dreamers out of touch with the world and with people, passive and joyless like their plaster statues? Today’s liturgy tells us a different story. They are ordinary people like us, of the same flesh and blood as we. But they had the courage to be different, to do the ordinary things of life in the extraordinary way of Christ from whom they drew their courage. They put us to shame with their quiet but strong gentleness, their integrity, their commitment to God and to people in justice and truth and peace. Let us ask the Lord here with us for the strength to follow him the way they did.
Penitential Act
Do we firmly believe that we sinners
are called to be saints?
Let us examine ourselves.
(PAUSE)
Lord, you tell us: Happy the poor in spirit.
We have heard you, but it is hard to do.
On our self-sufficiency and selfishness,
Lord, have mercy. R/ Lord, have mercy.
Christ, you tell us: Happy the merciful.
But the miseries of others affect us little.
On our hardness and unconcern,
Christ, have mercy. R/ Christ, have mercy.
Lord, you tell us: Happy the peacemakers.
We do not easily share the peace
of forgiveness and committed service.
On our pride and violence,
Lord, have mercy. R/ Lord, have mercy.
Have mercy on us, Lord,
and forgive us all our sins.
Give us the courage to live your gospel
and lead us to everlasting life. R/ Amen.
Opening Prayer
Let us pray to God
that the saints may inspire us to follow Christ as they did
(PAUSE)
God of hope and Lord of the future,
through the saints you inspire us today
with new hopes in the future
of the world and of people.
Make us realize, Lord,
that with your strength
our boldest dreams can come true
and even be surpassed:
that justice, peace and love
are worth living and dying for,
and that one day
you will crown your own work in us
through Jesus Christ our Lord. R/ Amen.
First Reading
Victors With Christ: St. John gives us a vision of hope in the ultimate future: those who live the gospel of will be victorious with him; their number will be immense.
I saw another angel ascending from the sunrise, carrying the seal of the living God, and he cried out with a loud voice to the four angels empowered to harm the earth and the sea,
“Do not harm the earth or the sea or the trees, until we have sealed the servants of our God upon their foreheads.”
Then, I heard the number of those marked with the seal: a hundred and forty-four thousand from all the tribes of the people of Israel:
After this, I saw a great crowd, impossible to count, from every nation, race, people and tongue, standing before the throne and the Lamb, clothed in white, with palm branches in their hands,
and they cried out with a loud voice, “Salvation comes from our God, who sits on the throne, and from the Lamb?”
All the angels were around the throne, the elders and the four living creatures; they then bowed before the throne with their faces to the ground, to worship God.
They said,
Amen. Praise, glory, wisdom, thanks, honor, power and strength to our God forever and ever. Amen!
At that moment, one of the elders spoke up and said to me, “Who are these people clothed in white, and where did they come from?”
I answered, “My lord, it is you who know this.” The elder replied, “They are those who have come out of the great persecution; they have washed and made their clothes white in the blood of the Lamb.
Responsorial Psalm
R. (see 6) Lord, this is the people that longs to see your face.
The LORD's are the earth and its fullness;
the world and those who dwell in it.
For he founded it upon the seas
and established it upon the rivers.
R. Lord, this is the people that longs to see your face.
Who can ascend the mountain of the LORD?
or who may stand in his holy place?
One whose hands are sinless, whose heart is clean,
who desires not what is vain.
R. Lord, this is the people that longs to see your face.
He shall receive a blessing from the LORD,
a reward from God his savior.
Such is the race that seeks him,
that seeks the face of the God of Jacob.
R. Lord, this is the people that longs to see your face.
Second Reading
Children of God: The key to all holiness is love: the certainty that God loves us – he loved us first – and that we are his sons and daughters. This assurance makes us capable of all hope and love.
Children of God
See the incredible love the Father has for us: we are called children of God, and we truly are. That is why the world does not recognize us; it did not know him.
Beloved, we are God’s children, and what we will become has not yet been revealed. But when he appears in his glory, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is.
Everyone with this hope aims to be pure, just as he is pure.
Alleluia Verse
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened,
And I will give you rest, says the Lord.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel
The Beatitudes: God’s Values: The values of the gospel differ sharply from the world's, yet we are to live them in the world to make it God’s world. The beatitudes are the inspiration of a Christian’s life.
Sermon on the Mount: The Beatitudes
When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain. He sat down, and his disciples gathered around him.
Then he spoke and began to teach them:
Fortunate are those who are poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Fortunate are those who mourn; they shall be comforted.
Fortunate are the gentle; they shall inherit the land.
Fortunate are those who hunger and thirst for justice, for they shall be satisfied.
Fortunate are the merciful, for they shall be shown mercy.
Fortunate are those with pure hearts, for they shall see God.
Fortunate are those who work for peace; they shall be called children of God.
Fortunate are those who are persecuted for the cause of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Fortunate are you when people insult and persecute you and speak all kinds of evil against you because you are my followers.
Be glad and rejoice, for a great reward awaits you in God. That is how they persecuted the prophets who lived before you.
Prayers of the Faithful
We are called children of God, and that is what we really are. Let us pray then in all trust and love to God, who is our Father, and let us say: R/ Lord of glory, hear our prayer.
– For all people on earth, that their friendship, love and happiness may be a sign and foretaste of the eternal happiness that you want to give to all, let us pray: R/ Lord of glory, hear our prayer.
– For all Christian Churches, that they may grow in solidarity and come closer in unity, let us pray: R/ Lord of glory, hear our prayer.
– For those who suffer from poverty and misfortunes, from persecution and injustice, that they may be convinced that Christ is on their side, let us pray: R/ Lord of glory, hear our prayer.
– For those who lack the courage to break with temptation and sin and for those who dare not commit themselves to follow the gospel of Christ, that the saints may inspire them and us, let us pray: R/ Lord of glory, hear our prayer.
– For all of us here, that we may build community, and that the seeds of holiness may grow in our hearts and deeds, let us pray: R/ Lord of glory, hear our prayer.
– For our beloved dead, that they may rest secure in the love and joy of the Lord, let us pray: R/ Lord of glory, hear our prayer.
Lord our God, you want us to be happy with your own happiness. Fill our everyday lives with your saving presence. Make us seek the kind of happiness that is real and lasting today, tomorrow and for ever. R/ Amen.
Prayer over the Gifts
Lord our God,
Jesus, your Son, had the courage
to be different and unconventional.
In this bread and this wine
we place our willingness to walk in his way.
As you change them through your Spirit
into Jesus himself,
transform us, weak as we are and timid,
into new people, ready to take the risk
of reshaping the world into your own image.
And though we cannot yet see the outcome now,
reassure us that you will bring to a successful end
what you let us begin in pain and effort,
through Jesus Christ our Lord. R/ Amen.
Introduction to the Eucharistic Prayer
It is with joy that we thank the Father for the great things his grace has worked in our brothers and sisters, the saints. Let us offer this eucharist with Jesus that, like the saints, we may try to become more like him.
Introduction to the Lord’s Prayer
God has filled our hearts with much love.
He wants us to be called his children,
and this is indeed what we are.
And so with Jesus we can truly say to him: R/ Our Father...
Deliver Us
Deliver us, Lord, from every evil
and grant us peace in our day.
Give us the courage to go with the saints
the way your own Son went to you,
in joys and hardships,
in the strength of our weakness,
as we wait in joyful hope
for the coming in glory
of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. R/ For the kingdom...
Invitation to Communion
This is the Lamb of God
who shared our sufferings
to make us share in his glory.
Happy are those
who hunger and thirst for God,
for they shall be satisfied. R/ Lord, I am not worthy...
Prayer after Communion
Holy God,
gentleness, integrity, reconciliation,
poverty and littleness before you,
suffering that is liberating –
these are not easy to put into practice,
yet they are the stuff of which saints are made.
Give us your strength, Lord,
for we ourselves are incapable
of carrying out a task made for giants.
Give us your Son
to be our companion on the journey,
for we are sure that we can do it with him,
who is our Saviour and our Lord for ever. R/ Amen.
Blessing
The saints were people like us,
weak, with faults like the ones we have;
only, they did not take these failings for granted.
They led the same lives as we do,
only in a more courageous way.
We are called to the same holiness
to which God called them.
May you respond to God’s call
with the strength and blessing
of the almighty and loving God:
the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. R/ Amen.
Let us go with the saints and with one another
the way to God. R/ Thanks be to God.
REFLECTIONS
Solemnity of All Saints
Matthew 5:1-12a
The Joy No One Can Take Away
Today we honour the saints: the famous ones in stained-glass windows, and the countless unknown ones who loved God quietly, perhaps in our own families. Jesus shows us what they had in common in the Beatitudes.
Fr. Fernando Armellini notes that Matthew places this teaching "on the mountain." In the Bible, the mountain is less a place on the map than "any place or time when we dispose ourselves to meet the Lord and to accept his word." Jesus leaves the plain, where life is ranked by health, success and a "flush bank account," and climbs to where God's very different scale of values is proclaimed.
On the first Beatitude, Armellini is striking: "the poor, according to the Gospel, are not those who have nothing, but those who do not keep anything for themselves." And its promise is not only for the next life: "From the moment we choose to become and remain poor, we enter the 'kingdom of heaven' and belong to the family of saints.”
William Barclay agrees that this blessedness begins now. It is "something into which he has entered" already, a joy "completely untouchable and unassailable," because it comes from living in the presence of Jesus.
This is the secret of the saints. They were not perfect people who never fell. They were people who kept turning to God with open hands, sharing what they had received. Holiness is not reserved for a few heroes; it is the ordinary vocation of every baptised Christian.
To reflect on: What am I keeping for myself that God is asking me to share?
Prayer: Lord, you call each of us to holiness. Through the prayers of all your saints, give us poor and generous hearts, and the joy that no one can take from us. Amen.