The Feast of All Saints | Wednesday 1 November 2023

Today is Wednesday 1 November, the feast of All Saints, in the 30th week of Ordinary time.

The choir of Westminster Cathedral, directed by James O’Donnell, sing O quam gloriosum by Victoria: ‘How glorious is the kingdom, where all the saints rejoice with Christ.’

O quam gloriosum est regnum,
in quo cum Christo gaudent omnes Sancti!
Amicti stolis albis,
sequuntur Agnum, quocumque ierit.
O how glorious is the kingdom
in which all the saints rejoice with Christ,
clad in robes of white
they follow the Lamb wherever he goes.

Today’s reading is from the book of the Apocalypse.

Apoc 7:2-4,9-14

I 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, saying, ‘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.’

And I heard the number of those who were sealed, one hundred and forty-four thousand, sealed out of every tribe of the people of Israel: After 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. They cried out in a loud voice, saying,
‘Salvation belongs to our God who is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb!’

And 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 worshipped God, singing,
‘Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom
and thanksgiving and honour
and power and might
be to our God for ever and ever! Amen.’

Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, ‘Who are these, robed in white, and where have they come from?’ I 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.

Today’s reading comes from the Book of Revelation, the last text of the entire Bible. And quite a few people flee in panic from it. But, instead of running away, why not ask yourself “what is the mood of this passage?” Does it speak to you today?

What do you think of the “great multitude …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”. Might these people be known to you? Imagine them all…how does it look in your imagination?

Now listen as the passage is read to you once more: can you hear the crowd singing to God? What are they saying?

Finally, see if you can gather up all the reflections that have come to you during this time of reflection, and turn them into a prayer to 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.