Growing up in the Roman Catholic Church, I was raised with the tradition of All Saints' Day and All Souls' Day. All Saints' Day was for the Big Letter saints - the famous ones. You know the types: St. Francis, St. Paul, St. Barnabas (of course). And All Souls' Day was for everybody else.
In the Episcopal Church, we do it a bit differently. On All Saints' Day, we celebrate ALL the saints, living and dead. At least at St. Barnabas, we use All Saints' Day to give thanks for those who have touched our lives, in the Church's past (I call them the Capital Letter Saints), in the life of our congregation, and those, living and dead in our own lives, whose examples draw us into a life in Christ.
In our liturgical calendar, we also have a day dedicated to remembering "The Faithful Departed." It's on the same day as the Roman Catholics celebrate All Soul's Day. It's a much less well known feast than All Saints' Day. In my mind, it gives us one more chance to give thanks for the great cloud of witnesses - those people who live lives of quite faith and who have carried on the faith and work of the church for nearly two millennia.
So, on this day, we give thanks for the faithful departed - for their lives, their faith, the work and their witness.
Fran +
In the Episcopal Church, we do it a bit differently. On All Saints' Day, we celebrate ALL the saints, living and dead. At least at St. Barnabas, we use All Saints' Day to give thanks for those who have touched our lives, in the Church's past (I call them the Capital Letter Saints), in the life of our congregation, and those, living and dead in our own lives, whose examples draw us into a life in Christ.
In our liturgical calendar, we also have a day dedicated to remembering "The Faithful Departed." It's on the same day as the Roman Catholics celebrate All Soul's Day. It's a much less well known feast than All Saints' Day. In my mind, it gives us one more chance to give thanks for the great cloud of witnesses - those people who live lives of quite faith and who have carried on the faith and work of the church for nearly two millennia.
So, on this day, we give thanks for the faithful departed - for their lives, their faith, the work and their witness.
Fran +
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