All Souls' anyone. . .

It is a long tradition in Christianity that certain days were dedicated to intercession for selective groups of the dead. The foundation of All Souls' Day for a general intercession on November 2 is due to Odilo, abbot of Cluny, who died in 1048. The observed date, which became essentially universal before the end of the 13th century, was determined to follow All Saints’ Day. After celebrating the feast of all the members of the church who are thought to be in heaven, on the next day, the body of Christ shifts to remember and pray for those souls suffering in purgatory.

In contemporary Western Christianity, the annual celebration is held on November 2nd and is part of the season of Allhallowtide that includes All Saints' Day (November 1st) and its eve, Halloween (October 31st).  During Luther's life, All Souls' Day was broadly commemorated in Saxony although the Roman Catholic meaning of the day was transformed. Ecclesiastically in the Lutheran Church, the day was joined with and is often viewed as a continuation of All Saints' Day, with many Lutherans still attending and adorning graves on all the days of Allhallowtide, including All Souls' Day.  Sadly, it no longer appears as a stand alone day on Lutheran calendars (as it once did).  

We give thanks to Almighty God, through our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, for remembrance of the faithful departed, especially those among our family and friends who have heard the words "well done thy good and faithful servant" (Matthew 25:31-40).   The Commemoration of the Faithful Departed is one way we acknowledge that those who die in the Lord are not dead but live and we will live with them on the day the Father has appointed to bring to completion all that was begun in them and in us.

 

My old friend Fr. William Weedon wrote:

All Souls Day is what today was traditionally called. A most fitting day, then, to offer up to God this wonderful little prayer from Seed Grains of Prayer, which Loehe gathered from the great Lutheran devotional tradition (prayer 341): I would remember before Thee also my parents, pastors, teachers, children, kindred and benefactors, who have gone before me in the blessed faith and are now at home with Thee. If, through Jesus Christ, my prayer finds favor in Thy sight, do Thou, in my stead, repay unto them my thanks and love, in whatever manner it be possible. Unto all whom I have ever pained, deceived, or caused to sin, or whom I have robbed of honor, health, or possessions, whom I can no longer ask for pardon, nor restore unto them, because they already are gone into joy and pardon of every sin -- gone home to Thee -- to all these, O Lord, grant good for all my evil, both now and in the day of the resurrection of the just; even as Thou knowest how, and in how far all this which I ask can be granted. As for myself, let me spend my remaining days in prayer, in adoration of the most holy name of Jesus, and in praise and thanksgiving for the hearing of my prayers and those of all Christian people which have ever been offered up unto Thee through Jesus Christ. Amen. 

On this day we recall more broadly all who have lived and died in the Lord by baptism and faith and now rest in His everlasting arms.  The anonymous and the named, those whom everyone recalls and those whom few remember, the mighty whose works need not be described and those whose labor of love is known to a small circle -- they all live together today as we remember and give thanks to God for all the blessings afford to them in their lives, through them to us by their lives, and to whom do now live in His nearer presence, waiting with us the day of the resurrection. 

 

We Sing for All the Unsung Saints

1 We sing for all the unsung saints,
    That countless, nameless throng,
Who kept the faith and passed it on
    With hope steadfast and strong
Through all the daily griefs and joys
    No chronicles record,
Forgetful of their lack of fame,
    But mindful of their Lord.

 

2 Though uninscribed with date or place,
    With title, rank, or name,
As living stones their stories join
    To form a hallowed frame
Around the myst’ry in their midst:
    The Lamb once sacrificed,
The Love that wrested life from death,
    The wounded, risen Christ.

 

3 So we take heart from unknown saints
    Bereft of earthly fame,
Those faithful ones who have received
    A more enduring name:
For they reveal true blessing comes
    When we our pride efface
And offer back our lives to be
    The vessels of God’s grace.