All Saints/All Souls

This Sunday we will gather with Christians all around the world who light candles and remember loved ones who have died over the last year. We do this because November 1st, (next Tuesday), has for many centuries been All Saints Day. This is the day Christians have remembered all those who firstly died as martyrs for the faith, and then all those great people of faith (saints) who the rest of us look up to and are inspired by. From the twelfth or thirteenth centuries All Souls Day was held on November 2 to remember all people of faith. Today we remember all those who have gone before us, who have paved the way for us, and especially those we have loved and who loved us. We give thanks for the ways they have blessed us over our lifetimes and, as Zacchaeus reminds us, we honour their memory by how we bless others ourselves .  As we do this we also take another step in letting them go, trusting that they now rest in God, as they have always.