Halloween is coming up on Tuesday, which means that Wednesday is All Saints Day. Most northern cultures have always celebrated the halfway point between the fall equinox (our Michaelmas) and winter solstice (our Christmas), and so All Hallows Eve took the place of Samhain (pronounced Sau-ihn), celebrated in Britain since very ancient times as a marker of summer finally giving way to winter. Traditionally, however, such observances always began with fasting and meditation, at least leading up to midnight, as any feast, Christian or otherwise, always entailed some serious preparation (I don’t mean just shopping!). So let us consider this brief moment as our own opportunity for peaceful reflection and preparation for this celebration. 

Who are the saints? Do you know (of) any? Historical, biblical, modern-day inspirational figures, family, mentors, friends? Might your name give you a hint? Maybe, you’ve been named after someone important to your parents, or share a name with a historical saint? In my family, in the olden days, people celebrated their “angel days” instead of their birthdays. They either didn’t even know their actual birth dates, or were always named after the saint on whose special day they were born (each famous saint has “their day”). This is as recent as my grandfather’s mother Nadezhda celebrating – apparently, always with enthusiasm! – on Sept 17 her namesake Hope, whose sisters Faith and Charity, and mother Sophia share that day. What a lovely way to bridge our regular lives with those of the saints – all of whom were humans, not angels! (except for St Michael 🙂) 

But how do you decide who is truly a “saint” — who gets to decide this? — and what does it mean to celebrate the feast of ALL saints? Not just your namesake? Speaking of my childhood, I spent many happy hours looking at old family albums. Some of our photos date as far back as the late 1800s. Now, I continue to show them to my kids. You might also celebrate your families by gathering over food, telling stories, and looking at photos. This helps us remember that we are all just the next set of branches on a great big vine, as well as to connect with the world beyond our immediate little circles of the here and now. That great big world is filled with both beauty and tragedy on a scale that surpasses our own hopes and troubles, which sometimes helps put them in perspective. 

Similarly the Church passes down the saints’ stories and images as a sort of a “family album”. Is it an album of holy and perfect, boring and excessively proper people? Not at all. These people simply had great personal relationships with God, and many of them suffered for or exemplified their faith in remarkable ways. We sometimes feel pain, too; though hopefully never on the same level as the martyrs of old (and sadly, present). What else do we share with these exemplary people though? First, it’s the Image of God, our Creator. And second, the guidance of the Spirit, as we continue to do our best to “let the light shine through”. This is from the old joke that defines a saint by referring to the stained glass in church windows. And I might add, a saint COLOURS the light as it shines through him or her, forever expressing the universal power of love, but always in his or her individual ways. Thanks be to God!