When I was ten years old our family moved to a little square mile town named for one of Sir Walter Scott's novels. Father Hanner was the Rector of the Episcopal Church of the Holy Comforter, or Holy Blanket as we sometimes called it, or Holy Comfortable, even! The poet Eugene Field is buried in the garden between the Church and the Rectory.
Father Hanner was a great preacher, who sometimes preached without notes from the center aisle of the church-- a rare thing in those days.
He sent me notes from several of his sermons, some just talking points, others more fully conceived, like this one he sent to the Miami Herald on October 24th, 1955, in anticipation of All Saints' Day (November 1) and All Souls' Day (November 2). I wonder how many sermons the Miami Herald has printed lately?!
ALL SAINTS - ALL SOULS
These two days cause many questions. The simplest teaching about them may be as follows:
1. All Saints Day. It falls on November 1st each year. All year long various saints' days are kept-- St. Paul, St. Mary, St. James, St. Stephen. But there are more saints than the 365 days in the year. We can't remember them all. Therefore All Saints Day sums them all up and remembers the many saints whom we might forget but whom God remembers. The nation uses the same idea in its remembrance of the Unknown Soldier-- known only to God.
All Saints Day reminds us too of the Communion of Saints. When we die we end our citizenship in the United States. We can no longer vote not exercise the privileges of citizenship. But we have another and a larger citizenship-- in Heaven. Death does not destroy it. It makes it more perfect. All the Christians of this and bygone generations, living and dead, are caught up in one great fellowship of believers before the throne of God. This fellowship we call the Communion of Saints.
2. All Souls Day is to the unsaintly what All Saints Day is to the saintly. We are not all fit at death to behold the beauty of God. We need perfecting, purification, growth in the things of God's Kingdom. A great deal of this growth for many of us will come after death. We will be more perfectly fitted for beholding of God in heaven and the worship there with saints and angels in what if known as the Beatific Vision.
So, on All Souls Day, we pray for the dead, for God's mercy on their souls, for the growth of these souls, that they may rest in a place of greenness, in a place of peace, in a place of light. We are sure the dead pray for us and so we pray for them. In Tennyson's words, "Let thy voice rise like a fountain for me day and night, for what are men better than sheep or goats that nourish a blind life within the brain, if knowing God they lift not hands in prayer both for themselves and those that call them friends."
All Souls Day is the day we pray for the less than perfect souls who have died whom Christ still cleanses-- preparing them for himself.
Interestingly, All Souls Day wasn't an official observance in the Episcopal Church when Father Hanner typed these words for the Miami Herald. According to Massey Hamilton Shepherd, Jr.'s Oxford American Prayer Book Commentary (New York, 1950), "The Reformers eliminated All Souls' Day from the Calendar, chiefly because of their distaste for 'masses of the dead," but also because they recognized that the New Testament affords no warrant for the distinction of 'all saints' and 'all souls.' In Scripture the word 'saints' is used of all the people of God, that is, all who have been sanctified by the Spirit. It does not refer to personal character, or to a special class of more distinguished believers. It was only after the Church began to develop the cult of the martyrs that the distinction between saints and other less noteworthy Christians was made. The Prayer Book propers for All Saints' Day are intended as a commemoration of all faithful departed souls."
Father Hanner reflected a "high church" understanding which is now recognized in The Book of Common Prayer 1979:
"Though the observance of [All Souls' Day] was abolished at the Reformation because of abuses connected with Masses for the dead, a renewed understanding of its meaning has led to widespread acceptance of this commemoration among Anglicans, and to its inclusion as an optional observance in the calendar of the Episcopal Church" Lesser Feasts and Fasts, 2006.
All Souls' Day is "a sort of extension of All Saints-- on which the Church remembered that vast body of faithful who, though no less members of the company of the redeemed, are unknown in the wider fellowship of the Church. It was also a day for particular remembrance of family members and friends" Lesser Feasts and Fasts, 2006.
Here is the Collect for All Faithful Departed, the new name for the November 2 observance of All Souls' Day:
O God, the Maker and Redeemer of all believers: Grant to the faithful departed the unsearchable benefits of the passion of your Son; that on the day of his appearing they may be manifested as your children; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
Another ancient prayer of the church captures the notion of praying for the perfection of those who have died:
Remember thy servant, O Lord, according to the favor which thou bearest unto thy people; and grant that, increasing in knowledge and love of thee, he may grow from strength to strength in the life of perfect service in thy heavenly kingdom; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
And this prayer captures the notion of the faithful departed praying for us:
O God, the King of saints, we praise and glorify your holy Name for all your servants who have finished their course in your faith and fear: for the blessed Virgin Mary; for the holy patriarchs, prophets, apostles, and martyrs; and for all your other righteous servants, known to us and unknown; and we pray that, encouraged by their examples, aided by their prayers, and strengthened by their fellowship, we also may be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light; through the merits of your Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
These prayers are found in The Book of Common Prayer on pages 488 and 504, respectively; and we also read this in the Outline of Faith or Catechism on page 862:
Q. Why do we pray for the dead?
A. We pray for them, because we still hold them in our love, and because we trust that in God's presence those who have chosen to serve him will grow in his love, until they see him as he is.
. . .
Q. What is the communion of saints?
A. The communion of saints is the whole family of God, the living and the dead, those whom we love and those whom we hurt, bound together in Christ by sacrament, prayer, and praise.
And I close with the Collect for All Saints' Day:
Almighty God, you have knit together your elect in one communion and fellowship in the mystical body of your Son our Lord: Give us grace so to follow your blessed saints in all virtuous and godly living, that we may come to those ineffable joys that you have prepared for those who truly love you; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, in glory everlasting. Amen.
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