All Saints' Day

“ The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin, celebrated the 15th of August, is commemorative of the glorious taking up to heaven of Mary, soul and body. (This is a pious tradition.)
All Saints' Day is November 1st. Every day is a saint's day. There is not a day that the Catholic Church does not celebrate a feast in honor of some special mystery or saint. But as there are more saints in heaven than could be thus specially honored, she sets aside this one day every year in honor of all the saints in heaven. ”

“ Men in all ages, Churchmen or others, have fallen into this mistake. They have been but too ready to limit their calendar of saints; to narrow the thanksgivings which they offer to God on All Saints’ Day. ”

“ Has it not risen a light to lighten the Gentiles, a joy to angels and archangels, and saints, and all the elect of God; ay, to the whole universe of God, so that the very stars in their courses, the trees as they bud each spring, yea, the very birds upon the bough, are singing for ever, in the ears of those who have ears to hear, “Christ is risen?” And shall we, under pretence of honouring Christ and of bestowing on Him a pity which He needs least of all, try to spend Good Friday and Passion Week in forgetting Easter Day ”

“ In fact, the people pay little or no heed to the saints and give all their thoughts to the souls of their departed kinsfolk. The Feast of All Souls begins immediately after vespers on All Saints' Day. ”

“ Whitsun Week, both inclusive, take precedence of St. Barnabas' Day.
Trinity Sunday takes precedence of St. Barnabas' Day.
St. Barnabas' Day, the Nativity of St. John the Baptist, St. Peter's Day, St. James' Day, St. Bartholomew's Day, St. Matthew's Day, St. Michael and All Angels' Day, St. Luke's Day, SS. Simon and Jude's Day, All Saints' Day, take precedence of all Sundays after Trinity. ”

“ We are so near the Feast of All Saints and the commemoration of all the faithful departed—All Souls day—that we may well let our affectionate thoughts follow after our brethren who have gone before us and sleep in the peace of Christ. ”

“ The sanctity of the Lord's day has been given to seasons devoted to the adoration of his disciples, and there are so many more of these saints' days than of Sabbaths in the year that if they had no other reason to obey man rather than God this would be sufficient for this pleasure-loving people. ”

“ But some saints have more than one ḥaul per annum, the exact day of the death of most is unknown, and from the way in which many of the saint's feasts are celebrated, it is a sure conclusion that some of the ancient pagan feasts of the people, after throwing off certain of their more characteristic heathen features disguised themselves under the names of saints to avoid the extermination which threatened them. ”

“ The Elders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, however, need not be embarrassed by the arguments of Adventists, since the Church of Christ in this last dispensation has the warrant of God's word, by direct revelation, for keeping holy the Lord's day, that is, the first day of the week, as a day Of public worship and thanksgiving, a holy Sabbath unto the Lord. ”

“ The Latter-day Saints—and they alone, as far as I have seen—feel today as the people of God in days of old felt, when men were blessed with visions and visitations of angels, and often held communion with God Himself. ”

“ Twenty-five new needles are laid in a dish,
and named, and water is poured upon them. Those who cross are
enemies.
In France is held a typical Continental celebration of All Saints'
and All Souls'. On October 31st the children go asking for flowers
to decorate the graves, and to adorn the church. At night bells
ring to usher in All Saints'. On the day itself the churches are
decorated gaily with flowers, candles, and banners, and a special
service is held. ”

“ All Sundays, Easter, Pentecost, Christmas—two days each, the third day in choro only—Circumcision, Epiphany, Ascension, the Holy Trinity, Corpus Christi, these being feasts of our Lord. The feasts of our Lady are: the Purification, the Annunciation, the Visitation, the Assumption, the Nativity, the Presentation, and the Conception. Saints’ days are as follows: all the Apostles, St John the Baptist, St Mary Magdalen, St Lawrence, St Michael, All Saints, St Martin, and the Dedication of the Church ”

“ Plenary.—Visit to the Chapel or Church of the Confraternity; Confession, Communion, prayers for the Pope's intentions between first Vespers and sunset of the following feasts (i e., from about 1 o'clock P. M. of the vigils of these feasts until sunset of the feasts themselves) , Christmas, Epiphany, Easter, Ascension, Whitsunday, or any two Fridays in Lent, All Saints, and any day within eight days after All Souls, on Sunday within Octave of Nativity of the Blessed Virgin, on the third Sunday of April. ”

“ These conditions and instructions apply admirably to the Latter-day Saints, who are indeed the salt of the earth, and in whom is vested the gospel light of the world; who, as the apostle said of the Former-day Saints, are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people ”

“ Christmas is one of the great days of obligation in the Church year, then as at Easter if at no other time, Christians should gather around the table of the Lord, kneeling before God’s altar in the ministering of that Holy Communion which unites them with the past, the present, and the future—the communion of the saints of God’s Holy Church with His Beloved Son. ”

“ When the year comes round and brings the happy Christmas time; and the bells are ringing in every Christian land, we would join with universal Christendom in celebrating an event which brought "good tidings of great joy to all people." In such a spirit we take our morning walk to-day to the Church of the Nativity, to linger awhile beside the spot, where, according to tradition, our Saviour came into the world, and by the manger where they laid Him. ”

“ We may remember that among the primitive Christians the celebration of the Lord’s Supper was not as in our modern times a rare and unfrequent occurrence, coming at intervals of two, three, and even six months, but that it occurred every Sunday, and on many of the solemn events of life, as funerals and marriages, and that one part of the celebration always consisted in recognizing by a solemn prayer the unbroken unity of the saints below and the saints in heaven. ”

“ When Jesus Christ, our Saviour, was born on Christmas-day.
God rest ye, little children; let nothing you affright,
For Jesus Christ, your Saviour, was born this happy night;
Along the hills of Galilee the white flocks sleeping lay.
When Christ, the child of Nazareth, was born on Christmas-day.
God rest ye, all good Christians; upon this blessed morn
The Lord of all good Christians was of a woman born:
Now all your sorrows He doth heal, your sins He takes away;
For Jesus Christ, our Saviour, was born on Christmas-day. ”

“ For holy church commands us to observe this festival of All Saints, of which we are now keeping the octave, not only in honor of those whose names are in the calendar, and whose feasts come round in the course of each year, but also in praise of that great multitude which no man can number—of all nations, and tribes, and peoples, and tongues—who stand before the throne and in sight of the Lamb, clothed with white robes and palms in their hands. The saints whom the church has honored with canonization are but a small number in that vast multitude. ”

“ Christmas has always been observed with several celebrations of the Holy Eucharist, three at least taking place; one at midnight, another at early dawn and the third at midday. The growing devotion of the {55} American Church has demanded this celebration of Christmas and, therefore, at the last revision of the Prayer Book a second Collect, Epistle and Gospel for this day was inserted. It is customary to decorate our churches on Christmas with evergreen as symbolical of the eternal nature of our Lord ”

“ For as beautiful as is the story of the risen Christ, we do not keep Easter sacred merely by the remembrance of that story. The risen Christ is as nothing to us unless in our own hearts the Christ spirit rises—the spirit of love and service, of unselfishness and goodness. When that spirit awakens within us, then comes our Easter day. ”

“ Neither is it a small advantage that, by reading the history of the saints, we are introduced into the acquaintance of the greatest personages who have ever adorned the world, the brightest ornaments of the church militant, and the shining stars and suns of the triumphant, our future companions in eternal glory. ”

“ Last Sabbath, when a vast congregation of the people came from the east, west, north and south, and from this city and its suburbs, to pay their last respects to the honored dead, the quiet, the order, the silent and discreet feeling of resignation and peace that prevailed, should be a lesson to the Saints and a testimony to the world of the purity of faith that we have embraced, and the influence that had been exerted upon the hearts of the people by our departed leader, and his brethren who have been laboring with him. ”

“ And every Sunday and holiday in the year, after his mass, he was to turn him to the people, and exhort them to prayer for all the said persons, and to say “the salme De profundis, with a Paternoster and an Ave Maria, with special suffrages after, and funeral collect, as well for the quick as for the dead. And every Saturday and holiday he shall sing the masse of Our Lady to note, and every quarter day he and his scholars shall sing a solemn dirge for the souls aforesaid. ”

“ Then as each person has a patron saint, he insists on celebrating the saint-days of the master, mistress and each one of their family, of his own family, his father, mother, his wife’s father and mother, and, last, but not least, his own saint-day. ”

“ Hence the Prayer Book prescribes a Collect, Epistle and Gospel for every Sunday in the year, and its rubrics plainly teach us that according to the mind of the Church the principal service of every Lord's Day should be the celebration of the Holy Eucharist. Our Lord has also taught us by His example as well as by precept, that works of mercy, both spiritual and corporal, are lawful to be done on this day, and are peculiarly appropriate to it. ”

“ HAVING taught us on the first Sunday of Advent to sigh with the prophets for the redemption through Christ, the Church on this day reminds us, in the holy sacrifice of the Mass, of the joyful promises of God for the salvation of the gentiles, and of Jesus Christ's actual coming, in order to quicken our desire for it, and to produce in us an alacrity in making ready our hearts by penance and love. ”

“ The clerk read the beautiful prayers of our Church, which seem so much more beautiful at Christmas than at any other period. For that very feeling which breaks down at this time the barriers which custom, birth, or wealth have erected between man and man, strikes down the barrier of time which intervenes between the worshipper of to-day and the great body of worshippers who are at rest in their graves. On such a day as this, hearing these prayers, we feel a kinship with the devout generations who heard them long ago. ”

“ The priest then goes up to the altar; bows down in the posture of humiliation; kisses it with respect; makes mention of the saint whose relics are there; incenses it; and having saluted the people, immediately turns to the book, and reads the prayer of the day. On great festivals there is only one prayer, which has always reference to the solemnity then celebrating. Thus, at Easter, allusion is made to the resurrection of our Saviour; at Christmas, to his nativity; in masses for the dead, mention is made of the souls prayed for ”

“ But deem not that, because the day of Christian worship is chosen for the great yearly assembly of a Christian commonwealth, the more directly sacred duties of the day are forgotten. Before we, in our luxurious island, have lifted ourselves from our beds, the men of the mountains, Catholics and Protestants alike, have already paid the morning’s worship in God’s temple. They have heard the Mass of the priest or they have listened to the sermon of the pastor, before some of us have awakened to the fact that the morn of the holy day has come. ”

“ Nor would I boast a proud nativity On the luxuriant plains of Italy, With glowing, sunny landscapes, rich and fair, Tall city spires, and grand cathedrals there; Where the salubrious climate's genial heat Gives to the pulse a soft and ardent beat; Where nature, with accelerated force, With less of time, completes her wonted course. ”

“ Another instance is ready at hand in the practical abandonment of the religious observance of Sunday. To Christians Sunday is the Lord's day, and is to be observed as such. It is not true that an hour in the morning is the Lord's day, and is to be given to worship, and that the rest of the day is given to us to do what we will with. ”

“ Before we pass on to the pagan aspects of Christmas, let us gather up our thoughts in an attempt to realize the peculiar appeal of the Feast of the Nativity, as it has been felt in the past, as it is felt to-day even by moderns who have no belief in the historical truth of the story it commemorates. ”

“ Having won his congregation to solemnity of feeling, the preacher taught them that "All good Christians celebrate the day of Christ's nativity, a day of joy both in heaven and on earth: in heaven for a day of glory unto God on high; on earth for a day of peace here below, and good-will towards men ”