November 1: All Saints’

The Collect of the Day

Almighty God, you have knit together your elect in one communion and fellowship in the mystical body of your Son Christ our Lord: Give us grace so to follow your blessed saints in all virtuous and godly living, that we may come to those ineffable joys that you have prepared for those who truly love you; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, in glory everlasting. Amen.

O Almighty God, who hast knit together thine elect in one communion and fellowship in the mystical body of thy Son Christ our Lord: Grant us grace so to follow thy blessed saints in all virtuous and godly living, that we may come to those ineffable joys which thou hast prepared for those who unfeignedly love thee; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord, who with thee and the Holy Ghost liveth and reigneth, one God, in glory everlasting. Amen.

Revelation 7:9-17 or Wisdom of Solomon 3:1-9 or Isaiah 25:6-9 or Daniel 7:1-3,15-18 or Ecclesiasticus 44:1–14
Psalm 34:1-10,22 or Psalm 24 or Psalm 149
1 John 3:1-3 or Revelation 21:1-6a or Ephesians 1:11-23 or Revelation 7:2–4, 9–17
Matthew 5:1-12 or John 11:32-44 or Luke 6:20-31 or Matthew 5:1–12

It is believed that the commemoration of all the saints on November 1st originated in Ireland, spread from there to England, and then to the European continent. That it had reached Rome and had been adopted there early in the ninth century is attested by a letter of Pope Gregory IV, who reigned from 828 to 844, to Emperor Louis the Pious, urging that such a festival be observed throughout the Holy Roman Empire.

However, the desire of Christian people to express the intercommunion of the living and the dead in the Body of Christ by a commemoration of those who, having professed faith in the living Christ during their lives, had entered into the nearer presence of their Lord, and especially of those who had crowned their profession with heroic deaths, was far older than the early Middle Ages. Gregory Thaumaturgus (the “Wonder Worker”), writing before the year 270, refers to the observance of a festival of all martyrs, though he does not date it. A hundred years later, Ephrem the Deacon mentionssuch an observance in Edessa on May 13th; and the patriarch John Chrysostom, who died in 407, says that a festival of All Saints was observed on the first Sunday after Pentecost in Constantinople atthe time of his episcopate. The lectionary of the East Syrians set a commemoration of all the saints on Friday in Easter week. On May 13th, in the year 610, the Pantheon in Rome—originally a pagan temple dedicated to “all the gods”—was dedicated as the Church of St. Mary and All Martyrs.

All Saints’ Day is classified in the Prayer Book as a Principal Feast, taking precedence over any other day or observance. Amongthe seven Principal Feasts, All Saints’ Day alone may be observed on the following Sunday, in addition to its observance on its fixed date. It is also one of the four days particularly recommended in the Prayer Book (page 312) for the administration of Holy Baptism.

Lessons and Psalm

First Lesson

Psalm

¹I will bless the Lord at all times; *his praise shall ever be in my mouth.

²I will glory in the Lord; *let the humble hear and rejoice.

³Proclaim with me the greatness of the Lord; *let us exalt his Name together.

⁴I sought the Lord, and he answered me *and delivered me out of all my terror.

⁵Look upon him and be radiant, *and let not your faces be ashamed.

⁶I called in my affliction and the Lord heard me *and saved me from all my troubles.

⁷The angel of the Lord encompasses those who fear him, *and he will deliver them.

⁸Taste and see that the Lord is good; *happy are they who trust in him!

⁹Fear the Lord, you that are his saints, *for those who fear him lack nothing.

¹⁰The young lions lack and suffer hunger, *but those who seek the Lord lack nothing that is good.

²²The Lord ransoms the life of his servants, *and none will be punished who trust in him.

Psalm

¹The earth is the Lord’s and all that is in it, *the world and all who dwell therein.

²For it is he who founded it upon the seas *and made it firm upon the rivers of the deep.

³“Who can ascend the hill of the Lord? *and who can stand in his holy place?”

⁴“Those who have clean hands and a pure heart, *who have not pledged themselves to falsehood, nor sworn by what is a fraud.

⁵They shall receive a blessing from the Lord *and a just reward from the God of their salvation.”

⁶Such is the generation of those who seek him, *of those who seek your face, O God of Jacob.

⁷Lift up your heads, O gates; lift them high, O everlasting doors; *and the King of glory shall come in.

⁸“Who is this King of glory?” *“The Lord, strong and mighty, the Lord, mighty in battle.”

⁹Lift up your heads, O gates; lift them high, O everlasting doors; *and the King of glory shall come in.

¹⁰“Who is he, this King of glory?” *“The Lord of hosts, he is the King of glory.”

Psalm

¹Hallelujah! Sing to the Lord a new song; *sing his praise in the congregation of the faithful.

²Let Israel rejoice in his Maker; *let the children of Zion be joyful in their King.

³Let them praise his Name in the dance; *let them sing praise to him with timbrel and harp.

⁴For the Lord takes pleasure in his people *and adorns the poor with victory.

⁵Let the faithful rejoice in triumph; *let them be joyful on their beds.

⁶Let the praises of God be in their throat *and a two-edged sword in their hand;

⁷To wreak vengeance on the nations *and punishment on the peoples;

⁸To bind their kings in chains *and their nobles with links of iron;

⁹To inflict on them the judgment decreed; *this is glory for all his faithful people. Hallelujah!

Epistle

Gospel

²I saw another angel ascending from the rising of the sun, having the seal of the living God, and he called with a loud voice to the four angels who had been given power to damage earth and sea, ³saying, “Do not damage the earth or the sea or the trees, until we have marked the servants of our God with a seal on their foreheads.” ⁴And I heard the number of those who were sealed, one hundred forty-four thousand, sealed out of every tribe of the people of Israel: ⁹After this I looked, and there was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, robed in white, with palm branches in their hands. ¹⁰They cried out in a loud voice, saying, “Salvation belongs to our God who is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb!” ¹¹And all the angels stood around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, ¹²singing, “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen.” ¹³Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, “Who are these, robed in white, and where have they come from?” ¹⁴I said to him, “Sir, you are the one that knows.” Then he said to me, “These are they who have come out of the great ordeal; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. ¹⁵For this reason they are before the throne of God, and worship him day and night within his temple, and the one who is seated on the throne will shelter them. ¹⁶They will hunger no more, and thirst no more; the sun will not strike them, nor any scorching heat; ¹⁷for the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of the water of life, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”