The Solemnity of All Saints is an important holy day celebrated each year on November 1. It is dedicated to all of those people who have died and are now with God in Heaven.
It is also known as All Hallows Day, Hallowmas, and All Saints Day.
Initially, the saints who were honored by the Church were all martyrs. Later, other people who had modeled their life after Jesus and exhibited heroic sanctity were also venerated.
Many saints are recognized on a particular day on the calendar. All Saints Day is an opportunity to also remember those saints who have not been formally canonized and who are known only to God.
All Saints Day is a holy day of obligation. All Catholics are required to attend Mass.
A celebration of our heroes:
There are saints who are known to God alone:
Our connection with everyday sanctity:
Communion with the saints. “It is not merely by the title of example that we cherish the memory of those in heaven; we seek, rather, that by this devotion to the exercise of fraternal charity the union of the whole Church in the Spirit may be strengthened. Exactly as Christian communion among our fellow pilgrims brings us closer to Christ, so our communion with the saints joins us to Christ, from whom as from its fountain and head issues all grace, and the life of the People of God itself”.
Catechism of the Catholic Church 957
The perfection of God is expressed in the diversity of the saints:
Exemplifying holiness in spite of human weakness:
Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, “Who are these, clothed in white robes, and whence have they come?” I said to him, “Sir, you know.” And he said to me, “These are they who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve him day and night within his temple; and he who sits upon the throne will shelter them with his presence. They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; the sun shall not strike them, nor any scorching heat. For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of living water; and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”
Revelation 7: 13-17
We are all called to be saints:
Flesh and blood bound for Heaven:
A “great cloud of witnesses” encourage and support us:
This feast day helps us to reflect on the double horizon of humanity, which we symbolically express with the words “earth” and “heaven”: the earth represents the journey of history, heaven eternity, the fullness of life in God. And so this feast day helps us to think about the Church in its dual dimension: the Church journeying in time and the Church that celebrates the never-ending feast, the heavenly Jerusalem. These two dimensions are united by the reality of the “Communion of Saints”: a reality that begins here on earth and that reaches its fulfillment in heaven.
Pope Benedict XVI, Angelus Address, November 1, 2012
Venerating their honor serves us, not them:
Celebrating the glorified dead at the Pantheon:
The Truth, Goodness, and Beauty of the Catholic Church
Beautiful Catholic Cathedrals:
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