All Our Saints

I am lucky enough to have a group of friends, going back to our time as students together. We still meet regularly with our partners, to compare our different experiences and our varied challenges. We don’t solve many problems, but we laugh and see them in a better perspective. Memories and companionship are precious gifts.

As Christians we share an even richer treasure. Our saints, remembered on so many days of the church calendar, are a hugely varied group. At Morning Prayer during the week we learn about them on their special days. There are the very famous ones, of course, who may have special appeal for us, like St Peter, St Francis or St Mary Magdalene. But there are a host of others, drawn from different places and centuries, who stretch our knowledge and imagination. On 1 October, for example, we heard about Remigius, working as a missionary in France at the end of the fifth century; also about the earl of Shaftesbury, a social reformer in Victorian England.

Most, if not all, of these saints, people touched by God’s love and power, feel remote to us. But what we have in common is our relationship with Christ: a friendship so deep that it transcends our differences and binds us together, giving us strength when we need it.



So we continue our season of remembrance in November, celebrating the ‘great crowd of witnesses’ who have passed their faith down to us through all manner of difficult times. And we can look around us in church and see the light of Christ giving life in turn to ourselves and our children. 

Lord our God                                                                                 

you call us in every age, in every place,                                                    

into friendship with Christ.                                                                    

Rejoicing in our whole community of faith,                                          

may we laugh and sing, mourn and endure together                          

as we learn to be your holy people. Amen.