All Saints Day functions for living Christians in various ways. Patron saints come to mind, even though they have their days during the year. Exemplars and models of hope-filled living also glow in the solemnity. Yet no human knows all the saints, a reason that the snippet from the Book of Revelation read at mass is appropriate: during his vision of the heavenly worship the Seer heard the voice of many angels surrounding the throne and the living creatures and the elders; and their number was ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands [5.11].
The festival of the saints not only spurs on Christians to share in glory. Its more valuable function prepares Christians to endure the cost to reach it. Preparing Christians is a reason relics have been prominent from the beginning. In an archived post at ThinkingFaith Jan Graffius traces the relics of a Roman martyr connected regions of Italy, England, northwestern France and the capital of the United States.
Jan Graffius explains how the physicality of Christian faith contributed to the value placed on relics, and describes how one saint’s relics help us to think about Christian witness. https://t.co/1Nce3GmYqK #AllSaintsDay
— Thinking Faith (@ThinkingFaith) November 1, 2020
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