People's Prayers: Prayers of the People: The Heavenly Chorus ~ All Saints Sunday '26 [Pentecost 23] Yr A

For Sunday, November1, 2026, Readings: Revelation 7:9-17, Psalm 34:1-10, 22; 1 John:1-3,

Matthew 5:1-12

They will hunger no more, and thirst no more, the sun will not strike them, nor any scorching heat; for the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd...[Revelation 7:9-17]

I sought the LORD and he answered me and delivered me out of all my terror...The LORD ransoms the life of his servants, and none will be punished who trusts in him. [Psalm 34:4, 22]

See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called the children of God; and that is what we are...And all who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure. [1 John :1-3]

[Jesus] taught them saying, "Blessed are the poor in spirit...those who mourn...the meek...those who hunger and thirst...the merciful...the pure in heart...the peacemakers...those who are persecuted...Rejoice and be glad for your reward is great in heaven... [Matthew 5:1-12]

What does the designation Saint mean to you? Would you define it differently for yourself than for others? Has your concept of saint changed during your life? The word “saint” comes from the Greek word hagios ~ hay-gee-ose in US English, or hyee-ose in Greek ~ which means “consecrated to God, holy, sacred, pious.” Yet most saints and Saints, the ordinary and the officially designated, are/were flawed humans with real human frailties and struggles, even a few sins along the way. When and how then did their lives become so exemplary?

There are those people who have been given the title of Saint through some official process. There are some mythical folks who have the title unofficially whose legends, perhaps a composite of real and fictional people, hold great object lessons. And there are the many from far history to our current day who have done/are doing extraordinary things, humbly, in God’s name, through great faith and without such a precise designation. They seem to have a special light revealing itself to all around them.

The official designees have official days in their honor in some faith-communities. For the rest, we have All Saints Day to cover all those known to God, unknown to us, and even some we have known, whose presence in their and our own times have given us examples to emulate and/or at the very least inspire us.

It seems that defining "Saint" in this day and age still conjures a mind-image of someone many centuries and continents removed from our everyday place and time in this world; someone who is an example of complete perfection in every facet of life that is unattainable for us, and, if we're honest, undesirably difficult. For those so named, there seems to have been something extra in their attitude of life and in what drew others to them.

As an Episcopalian, I have come to appreciate that there are many on our Liturgical Calendar who are not designated official “Saints” but are remembered for particular gifts and talents that shone in ways that changed themselves and others in how to relate to God. The best discussion I have found of “sainthood” is from Sister Joan Chittister, a Roman Catholic nun, which follows. This piece offers us some food for prayerful thought on ways we might discover our inner saint:

"For centuries the church has confronted the human community with role models of greatness. We call them saints when what we really often mean to say is "icon," "star," "hero," ones so possessed by an internal vision of divine goodness that they give us a glimpse of the face of God in the center of the human. They give us a taste of the possibilities of greatness in ourselves. What qualities will be necessary to live a life of integrity, of holiness, in the twenty-first century? What models of those values, if any, have been raised up to show us the way to God in a world that is more preoccupied with the material than with the spiritual, more self-centered than selfless, more concerned with the mundane than with the divine, more parochial than cosmic? (They) are male and female, Christian and non-Christian, married and unmarried, religious and lay, pragmatists and artists, named saint by a process or proclaimed saint by the people who lived in the shadow of their lives. They are people like you and me. With one exception, perhaps. In their eyes burn the eyes of a God who sees injustice and decries it, sees poverty and condemns it, sees inequality and refuses it, sees wrong and demands that it be set right. These are people for whom the Law above the law is first in their lives. These are people who did not temporize with the evil in one system just because another system could have been worse. These are people who saw themselves clearly as the others' keepers. These are people who gave themselves entirely to the impulses of God for the sake of the world."

~ Sister Joan Chittister, Roman Catholic nun and former Prioress of the Benedictine Sisters of Erie, PA, an activist, author and speaker on a variety of subjects such as spirituality, religious life, peace, and justice among others. The excerpt is from: "A Passion for Life: Fragments of the Face of God", Orbis, Maryknoll, NY, 1996

It does not matter if one is not an official Saint. There are certainly exemplary qualities of those who are official as well as those who are not, but they all stand out as Sr. Joan says, because: they give us a glimpse of the face of God in the center of the human. It is an attitude for us to acquire in our quest for eternal life. The readings from Revelation, Psalm 34, and 1 John all provide us with positive and comforting affirmations on God’s relationship with us, as well as a chance to reflect on how we can improve our relationship with God. The work of developing the conscious yet humble attitude of being a child of God, and regularly reminding ourselves that the full presence of God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit are within us always, can bring us ever closer to having that light shine through us, for our neighbors and for ourselves.

In the Gospel for this week, the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus teaches those present that often those who might be considered the least of us are especially blessed. It opens up a way of living for us to contemplate, a pathway of living intentionally into the blessings of God. As we look into the ideals of the Beatitudes, we may discover new habits of prayerfulness and a fresh Christ-consciousness in things we say and do. Examining our own personal attitudes of be-ing regularly, will take us through each day accompanied by that ever-growing Communion of Saints and saints until we, too, join the Heavenly Chorus.

LET US, GOD’S PEOPLE, PRAY

Leader: ~ Lord of All Saints and All Sinners, as we celebrate the Holy Saints of the Ages, we also commend to You the everyday saints who are living among us now. Grant us the wisdom to follow the examples set for us, to seek a saintly heart within our own flawed humanness, and to discover our blessed place in the Beatitudes of Christ.