The Feasts Of All Saints and All Souls
Saturday 1st November is All Saints Day and Sunday 2nd November is the Feast of All Souls. Many of our saints are recognised for their acts of holiness but there are many other people who have died and gone to heaven whose deeds are not publically known. A saint is someone in life who is so close to God and so completely doing God’s will that when they die they are completely ready to be in God’s presence, a state we call heaven. On the feast of All Saints, we celebrate the lives of all of those saints that we do and do not know about. On the Feast of All Souls the next day we recognise the souls in purgatory - those are the departed and who are still on their journey to heaven.
The stories of the saints are stories of remarkable lives and very good for children to read and discuss. In particular, children love to hear the story of their namesake saint. If they do not have a saint name they could read about their confirmation saint, or another saint that has a special significance for the family.
Mary is our foremost saint because she was the one who said “yes” to God without any hesitation and because she exemplified submission to God’s will in every aspect of her life as well as being the person who nurtured and cared for God on earth in the humanity of Jesus. She was also a strong and deep-thinking woman of her own time and there’s lots of evidence of this in the Bible. She is a remarkable role model to any young girl. A remarkable male saint is St Joseph, our own school patron, who also nurtured the young Jesus and completely submitted to God’s will.