For Catholics, All Saint's Day is a day to honor the saints; All Soul's Day remembers all who have died in Christ who are not considered saints. For Protestants, the "saints" mean the clouds of witness who we believe surrounds us in time and across time, as well as space. According to most reports Samhain in Ireland was one of the "thin places" in the calendar, when the dearly departed were yet close at hand, not as ghouls and ghosts and goblins, but as family. Many cultures, including the Mayan and Aztec in the Americas, welcomed the dead back once a year. It was in the 19th century that we turned the dead into "ghosts" and made them malevolent for our own entertainment (blame the Victorians). We are the outlier in that. We also used to use Memorial Day as a day to decorate the graves of the dead from the Civil War, and to picnic in cemeteries. Such things are unimaginable now; we fear the dead far more than honor them, which is our loss.
Later in the liturgical year the German church observed, at least the German immigrants in this country, the Totenfest, the remembrance of the dead, the faithful who had died in Christ in the past year. We will mark it again here on the last Sunday of Pentecost (if, to be honest, I remember it), which this year will be on November 21st. Remembering the dead is a duty we owe to them. They were our family. They were our friends. They are only finally dead when we forget them.
Almighty and everlasting God, before whom stand the spirits of the living and the dead; Light of lights, Fountain of wisdom and goodness, who livest in all pure and humble and gracious souls.
For all who witnessed a good confession for thy glory and the welfare of the world; for patriarchs, prophets, and apostles; for the wise of every land and nation, and all teachers of mankind,
WE PRAISE THEE, O GOD, AND BLESS THY NAME.
For the martyrs of our holy faith, the faithful witnesses of Christ of whome the world was not worthy, and for all who have resisted falsehood and wrong unto suffering or death,
WE PRAISE THEE, O GOD, AND BLESS THY NAME.
For all who have labored and suffered for freedom, good government, just laws, and they sanctity of the home; and for all who have given their lives for their country,
WE PRAISE THEE, O GOD, AND BLESS THY NAME.
For all who have sought to bless men by their service and life, and to lighten the dark places of the earth,
WE PRAISE THEE, O GOD, AND BLESS THY NAME.
For those who have been tender and true and brave in all times and places, and for all who have been one with thee in the communion of Christ's spirit and in the strength of his love,
WE PRAISE THEE, O GOD, AND BLESS THY NAME.
For the dear friends and kindred, ministering in the spiritual world, whose faces we see no more, but whose love is with us for ever,
WE PRAISE THEE, O GOD, AND BLESS THY NAME.
For the teachers and companions of our childhood and yough, and for the members of our household of faith who worship thee in heaven,
WE PRAISE THEE, O GOD, AND BLESS THY NAME.
For the grace which was given to all these, and for the trust and hope in which they lived and died,
WE PRAISE THEE, O GOD, AND BLESS THY NAME.
And that we may hold them in continual remembrance, that the sanctity of their wisdom and goodness may rest upon our earthly days, and that we may prepare ourselves to follow them in their upward way,
WE BESEECH THEE TO HEAR US, O GOD.
That we may ever think of them as with thee, and be sure that where they are, there we may be also,
WE BESEECH THEE TO HEAR US, O GOD.
That we mave haev a hope beyond this world for all they children, even for wanderers who must be sought and brought home; that we may be comforted and sustained by the promise of a time when none shall be a stranger and an exile from thy kingdom and household;
WE BESEECH THEE TO HEAR US, O GOD.
In the communion of the Holy Spirit, with the faithful and the saints in heaven, with the redeemed in all ages, with our beloved who dwell in thy presence and peace, we, who still serve and suffer on earth, unite in ascribing:
THANKSGIVING, GLORY, HONOR, AND POWER UNTO THEE, O LORD OUR GOD.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit,
AS IT WAS IN THE BEGINNING, IS NOW, AND EVER SHALL BE, WORLD WITHOUT END. AMEN.
