ALL SAINTS’ DAY; 1st NOVEMBER
ALL SAINTS’ DAY 1st NOVEMBER Today is the beautiful celebration of All Saints’ Day, a day of commemoration and joy for all those who have attained the graces to be in heaven. As observed previously, it is a feast day of ancient origin, dating from 615 AD and established as a formal feast day in the 8th century. It is a sacramental recognition of the dead, in a month that is focused on the Holy Souls; today, All Saints, being those who have attained sainthood, and tomorrow, All Souls, for those whose path is still towards heaven. Father Weiser observed that the purpose of the feast day is twofold: “As the prayer of the Mass states, ’the merits of the saints are venerated in common by this one celebration’, because a very large number of martyrs and other saints would not be accorded the honour of a special festival since the days of the year would not suffice for all these individual celebrations. The second purpose was given by Pope Urban IV: Any negligence, omission, and irreverence c...