Patrick Comerford
Today in the Church Calendar is All Saints’ Day (1 November), one of the 12 Principal Feasts of the Church. This celebration in the Church Calendar dates back to Pope Gregory III (731-741), who dedicated a chapel to All Saints in Saint Peter’s in Rome on 1 November to honour ‘the holy apostles and … all saints, martyrs, and confessors, … all the just made perfect who are at rest throughout the world.’
We move today from Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar to the Kingdom Season, the time between All Saints’ Day and Advent.
But many churches and parishes, including Saint Mary and Saint Giles in Stony Stratford, are going to mark All Saints’ Day tomorrow (2 November 2025) as All Saints’ Sunday.
All Saints’ Festival begins, for example, in All Saints’ Church, Margaret Street, London, this evening with the All Saintstide Choir Concert at 7 pm, following the Low Mass of All Saints at 5:15. But All Saints’ Day is being celebrated tomorrow with Low Mass at 8:30, High Mass at 11, 5.15pm Low Mass at 5:15, and Evensong and Benediction and Te Deum at 6 pm.
Later this morning, I hope to drop in to Το Στεκι Μας, Our Place, the pop-up Greek café the takes place every from 10:30 on the first Saturday of the month in the Swinfen Harris Church Hall at the Greek Orthodox Church in Stony Stratford. But before today begins, before having breakfast, I am taking some quiet time early this morning to give thanks, and for reflection, prayer and reading in these ways:
1, today’s Gospel reading (allowing for the celebration of All Saints’ Day tomorrow);
2, a short reflection;
3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;
4, the Collects and Post-Communion prayer of the day.
Luke 14: 1, 7-11 (NRSVA):
1 On one occasion when Jesus was going to the house of a leader of the Pharisees to eat a meal on the sabbath, they were watching him closely.
7 When he noticed how the guests chose the places of honour, he told them a parable. 8 ‘When you are invited by someone to a wedding banquet, do not sit down at the place of honour, in case someone more distinguished than you has been invited by your host; 9 and the host who invited both of you may come and say to you, “Give this person your place”, and then in disgrace you would start to take the lowest place. 10 But when you are invited, go and sit down at the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he may say to you, “Friend, move up higher”; then you will be honoured in the presence of all who sit at the table with you. 11 For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.’
Today’s Reflections:
Today’s Gospel reading is part of one the longest accounts in Saint Luke’s Gospel of a meal with Jesus. This meal begins with Jesus’ invitation to the house of a leader of the Pharisees to eat a meal on the sabbath.
As he arrives, he heals a man with dropsy (verses 2-6), which we read about yesterday. In today’s reading, Jesus then discusses the ways in which guests like to be given the place of honour at a dinner, a wedding or a banquet (verses 7-11), and theme continues by discussing with his host who should be on our invitations lists (verses 12-14). As the meal goes on, Jesus is prompted to tell the Parable of the Great Dinner (verses 15-24). These conversations at the dinner continue in the lectionary readings next week.
Jesus is accused at times of eating with publicans and sinners, and his detractors point to him saying: ‘Look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ (Luke 7: 34). But Jesus also eats with Pharisees too. Indeed, he may have had many meals with Pharisees, although the Gospel writers simply make a passing reference to the host without naming him (see Luke 14: 1-24), or perhaps ignore the meals altogether.
However, at this meal, I imagine an evening when Jesus is found eating with an eminently respectable member of society, a Pharisee, and a leading Pharisee at that too.
Jesus is invited to dinner on Saturday evening by a leading Pharisee, yet we do not know the name of the host that evening, nor is it clear which city he lives in. Although, I am not sure whether either really matters.
Have you ever been at a dinner where you know some of the guests were invited simply to boost the ego of those who had invited them? The Pharisee in today’s reading may have been a genial host who thought he was doing the decent thing.
A Pharisee inviting a visiting rabbi and preacher to dinner would have been common courtesy and a common experience. Nor is there is anything unusual, anything offensive, about the behaviour of Jesus at this meal. He takes his allotted or allocated place at the table, and he probably enjoys the conversation and the company with the people beside him and opposite him.
But it’s not who were prepared to welcome that tells a lot about us; rather, it’s who we forget to count in, or even those we consciously decide to exclude.
The definitions of identity, of English-ness or Irish-ness, are being hotly debated, and flags that ought to be symbols of unity and inclusion have become symbols of division and exclusion.
The far-right Reform MP Sarah Pochin threw in her tuppence worth this week, saying, ‘it drives me mad when I see adverts full of black people, full of Asian people’. Earlier this year, she used Prime Minister’s Question Time to suggest women in Britain should be banned from wearing the burqa.
Who we want to sit with, who want to eat with, who we want to count in, and who want to count out, says more about us than about them. But in Christ there is no us and them, and ‘all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted’ (verse 11).
Today’s Prayers (Saturday 1 November 2025, All Saints’ Day):
The theme this week (26 October to 1 November) in Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), has been ‘Bonds of Affection’ (pp 50-51). This theme was introduced last Sunday with reflections from Rachel Weller, Communications Officer, USPG.
The USPG Prayer Diary today (Saturday 1 November 2025, All Saints’ Day) invites us to pray:
O God, who has knit together your people in one communion and fellowship, grant us grace to follow the example of all your saints, that we may be made partakers of your heavenly kingdom.
The Collect:
Almighty God,
you have knit together your elect
in one communion and fellowship
in the mystical body of your Son Christ our Lord:
grant us grace so to follow your blessed saints
in all virtuous and godly living
that we may come to those inexpressible joys
that you have prepared for those who truly love you;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
The Post Communion Prayer:
God, the source of all holiness and giver of all good things:
may we who have shared at this table
as strangers and pilgrims here on earth
be welcomed with all your saints
to the heavenly feast on the day of your kingdom;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Additional Collect:
God of holiness,
your glory is proclaimed in every age:
as we rejoice in the faith of your saints,
inspire us to follow their example
with boldness and joy;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Collect on the Eve of the Fourth Sunday before Advent:
Almighty and eternal God,
you have kindled the flame of love
in the hearts of the saints:
grant to us the same faith and power of love,
that, as we rejoice in their triumphs,
we may be sustained by their example and fellowship;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
Yesterday’s Reflections
Continued Tomorrow
Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org
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