High Days and Holy Days in
October 1
All Saints’ Day All
Saints, or All Hallows, is the feast of all the redeemed,
known and unknown, who are now in heaven. When the
English Reformation took place, the number of saints in
the calendar was drastically reduced, with the result
that All Saints’ Day stood out with a prominence
that it never had before. This
feast day first began in the East, perhaps as early as
the 5th century, as commemorating ‘the martyrs of
the whole world’. A Northern English 9th century
calendar named All Hallows as a principal feast, and such
it has remained. Down the centuries devotional writers
have seen in it the fulfilment of Pentecost and indeed of
Christ’s redemptive sacrifice and resurrection. The
saints do not belong to any religious tradition, and
their lives and witness to Christ can be appreciated by
all Christians. Richard Baxter, writing in the 17th
century, wrote the following: He
wants not friends that hath thy love, And made converse
and walk with thee, And with thy saints here and above,
With whom for ever I must be… As for
my friends, they are not lost; The several vessels of thy
fleet, Though parted now, by tempests tost, Shall safely
in thy haven meet.... The
heavenly hosts, world without end, Shall be my company
above; And thou, my best and surest Friend, Who shall
divide me from thy love?* There
were 1,255 ancient English churches dedicated to All
Saints - a number only surpassed by those dedicated to
the Virgin Mary. *(Maurice
Frost (ed.), Historical Companion to Hymns Ancient and
Modern ( Of
course, very many of the early ‘saints’ were
also martyrs, and so… 1
The first martyrs The
first martyrs of Rome are recorded in the old Roman
Martyrology, which states that: At Rome, the birthday is
celebrated of very many martyrs, who under the Emperor
Nero were falsely charged with the burning of the city
and by him were ordered to be slain by various kinds of
cruel death; some were covered with the skin of wild
beasts, and cast to the dogs to be torn asunder; others
were crucified, and then when daylight failed used as
torches to illuminate the night. All these were disciples
of the apostles and the first fruits of the martyrs whom
the Holy Roman Church sent to their Lord before the
apostles’ death. 3
Hubert (bishop, d 727) With
hunting very much in the public mind at the present, here
at least was one man who was converted while hunting.
Hubert was out on Good Friday hunting stag when he came
across a stag with a crucifix between its antlers. This
so shook him that he converted to Christianity, and went
on to become Bishop of Tongres-Maestricht. History does
not tell us if he killed the stag or not, or if he ever
hunted stag again. 4
Charles Borromeo Why
should being a ‘lay’ person stop you from as
full as ministry as being ordained? Here is a saint for
all lay people who suspect they can do as good a job… Charles
Borromeo was an Italian who lived in 5
Guy Fawkes night A Roman
Catholic plot to murder James 1 of England and his
parliament at the state opening was uncovered when Guy
Fawkes was found in a cellar under the House of Lords on
guard over barrels of gunpowder on this night in 1605. 9
Nektarios of Pentapolis (bishop 1846-1920) Here is
a bishop who cleaned toilets and was much loved.
Niktarious had been appointed Bishop of Alexandria, but
then fled to 9
Remembrance Sunday High
Streets everywhere will soon be blossoming with red
poppies: everyone from toddlers in prams to old grans
will be wearing one. By Remembrance Day over 40 million
are expected to be sold around the county by an army of
many thousands of volunteers. The money raised will help
our ex-Service people and their dependants To achieve all
that takes more than flower power, The annual Poppy
Appeal is a highly sophisticated operation manned by a
large permanent staff and more than 5,000 voluntary local
organisers. Each year there are new angles in the
advertising campaign to be decided on, regional launches
with celebrities to be organised, and the national launch
to catch the imagination of the media. It is a
sobering thought that we have just completed the
bloodiest century that the world has ever known. More
people died in wars last century than ever before in the
history of mankind. Many millions of those died fighting
fascism or communism. A new
Millennium, and yet again we are at war – this time
with terrorism. 11
Armistice Day At
11.00 a.m. on the eleventh day of the eleventh month in
1918, after four and a quarter years of war, the guns at
last fell silent on the battlefields of Europe as Germany
admitted defeat and signed an armistice. 13
Frances Xavier Cabrini (1850 – 1917) In the
aftermath of the terrorist attack on 21
Presentation of Mary at the This
feast is now also called the Presentation of the Lord. St
Luke records this event in the following words: “When
the time of their purification according to the Law of
Moses had been completed, Joseph and Mary took him
(Jesus) to 30
ADVENT As
we begin Advent, here are some apt words from William
Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Some
say that ever ‘gainst that season comes Wherein our
Saviour’s birth is celebrated The bird of dawning
singeth all night long, And then, they say, no spirit
dare stir abroad, The nights are wholesome; then no
planets strike, No fairy tales, nor witch hath power to
charm, So hallowed and so gracious is the time. Or
this Celtic prayer from Poems of the Western Highlanders Jesu MacMary, at dawn-tide, the
flowing, 30
St Andrew’s Day Andrew
is a good patron saint for those of you holding a
Christmas party this year - and who hope you have rightly
estimated the amount of food you’ll need. Andrew was
the disciple who, when faced with 5,000 people to feed,
brought a boy to Jesus who had two small fish and five
barley loaves. When Andrew wasn’t being wildly
optimistic with the catering arrangements, he was out
fishing with brother Peter and friends James and John.
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