All Saints… Again?

Once again we come to a feast of All Saints. “But wait!” I hear you cry, “wasn’t that back on the first of November?”

Right you are!

But today on the Benedictine calendar is the feast of All Saints of the Benedictine Order.

And on a Friday the thirteenth, no less.

Many Orders (and some countries) have their own All Saints and All Souls days.

Today is a day for us to rejoice in the lives, and to pray for the intercession, of Saint Benedict and the many other Benedictine saints.

And there are hundreds of them, from Saints Benedict and Scholastica in the sixth century, right up through Blesseds Columba Marmion and Alfredo Schuster in the twentieth.

We beseech Thee, O Lord,
grant that the example of the holy Monks
may stir us to a better life,
so that we may imitate the actions
of those whose solemnity we celebrate.

Through our Lord, Jesus Christ, Thy Son,
Who with Thee liveth and reigneth
in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God,
world without end.

Amen.

(Collect for All Saints of the Benedictine Order)