A litany of all the Saints

A Litany of All the Saints

Holy ones present at our beginnings:

Stand Here Beside Us!
Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebecca, Jacob and Rachel and Leah,
makers of the covenant, forebears of our race:

Stand Here Beside Us!
John and Charles Wesley, preachers in the streets;
all whose power of speaking gave life to the written word:

Stand Here Beside Us!
Louis, king of France; Margaret, queen of Scotland;
Gandhi the mahatma, reproach to the churches;
Dag Hammarskjold the bureaucrat;

all who made governance an act of faith:

Stand Here Beside Us!
Mary Magdalen, anointer of the Lord's feet; Luke the physician;
Francis who kissed the leper; Florence Nightingale;
Albert Schweitzer; all who brought to the sick and suffering the hands of healing:

Stand Here Beside Us!

Holy ones who made the proclaiming of God's love a work of art:

Stand Here Beside Us!
Johann Sebastian Bach; Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart;
all who sang the Creator's praises in the language of the soul:

Stand Here Beside Us!

Holy ones haunted by the justice and mercy of God:

Stand Here Beside Us!
Joachim of Fiora, prophet of the new age;
Johnny Appleseed, mad planter of Eden;
Sojourner Truth, pilgrim of justice;
all whose love for God was beyond containment:

Stand Here Beside Us!

Martin Luther King, shot in Memphis:Oscar,  Romero, shot in San Salvador: Janani Luwum, shot in Kampala:

Holy ones of every time and place:

Stand Here Beside Us!
From earth's wide bounds, from ocean's farthest coast,
Jesus our liberator, creator of all:

Stand Here Beside Us!
Jesus our liberator, the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end: wisdom, for creativity, for energy and for liberation to new life.

(Prayers are shared or prayed silently)

for all this and for ourselves,

We pray in faith, O God. AMEN

(Source unknown)

All Saints day

Saints are different from people in the world, not because they

do more, but because of whose they are, who they love, and what

it is they strive to do .

Anthony De Mello, the author of several books of meditations - 

tells the story of a family of five that was enjoying a day at

the beach.  The children were swimming and making castles in the

sand when in the distance a little old lady appeared.

     Her grey hair was blowing in the wind and her clothes

     were dirty and ragged.  She was muttering something to

     herself as she picked up things from the beach and put

     them into a bag.

     The parents called the children to their side and told

     them to stay away from the strange looking old lady. 

     As she passed by were they were sitting, bending down

     every now and then and picking up things, she smiled at

     the family.  Her greeting was not returned.

     Some weeks later, while complaining about the weirdos

     to be found on the beaches, the father family learned

     that the little old lady had made it her lifelong

     crusade to pick up bits of glass from the beach so

     children wouldn't cut their feet.

What makes a saint different?

Well saints pick up the glass that others toss down,

they believe in people no one else believes in,

they help others that no one else cares for,

And that, finally, my friends, is what this Sunday is about -

     it is about the one who called to the poor and the hungry,

          to those who wept and mourned,

               to those who were rejected and cursed,

                    and gave to them God's blessing,

the blessing of food, of comfort, laughter, and finally the

blessing of an eternal home with the Father - in that place where

there is no more tears  or sorrow or pain or death anymore.

(source unknown)