For All The Saints

Lo! the apostolic train

Join the sacred Name to hallow;

Prophets swell the loud refrain,

And the white robed martyrs follow;

And from morn to set of sun,

Through the Church the song goes on.

From "Holy God, We Praise thy Name"

Also a great day to pray the Te Deum

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Te_Deum

I love this picture of the great cloud of witnesses.  With angels and archangel, saints and martyrs, and the whole host of heaven, WE JOIN the unending hymn.  We don't talk about a dead church and alive church.  There is one church!  Some of that church is at rest-victorious!  Some of that church is embattled here on earth-militant!  I forgot who said that a great place to visit a believing loved one who has gone to their rest is at the Altar with the crucified and living Lord, may even be better than the graveyard.

Last year I made a list of those saints who, again and again encourage me in their witness.

Giving thanks for Karl (Gustav Hoff, fraternal grandfather), Barnabas (Encourager, I would have name a son after if he would not have been called "Barny"), (Bishop) Bo (Giertz, author of my favorite book: The Hammer of God), Hans (Nielsen Hauge, pietist renewalist and faithful churchman from Norway), Martin (Luther, with whom my heart beats in strong concord on the radicality of grace), Lawrence (the Deacon whose commemoration we remember on our wedding anniversary, and who saw the poor as the church's treasure, which reminds me of my wife), Charles (Wesley, near favorite Hymnwriter), Justin (Martyr, who gives a beautiful window into the early church's worship life), Dietrich (Bonhoeffer, fellow Moravian Daily Texter, hero, pastor, teacher of prayer), Martyn (Lloyd-Jones, expositor), John (Beloved disciple), John Paul (II, brave hero, preacher of hope and defender of life), Egeria (pilgrim who also gives a window to church life in Jerusalem during the time of...),Cyril (of Jerusalem, wise pastorally bishop of a church in transition, deeply concerned with formation), Gregory(Nazianzus with siblings who cared deeply about koinonia and good teaching), John (Wesley fellow heart on fire with the Gospel), Paul (fellow convert to grace), James (brave, caring pastor of urban Jerusalem church), and For All The Saints