Patrick Comerford
We moved in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar to the Kingdom Season, the time between All Saints’ Day and Advent. The week began with All Saints’ Day (1 November), and today is All Souls’ Day (2 November), also described in Common Worship as the ‘Commemoration of the Faithful Departed’.
I hope to sing with the parish choirs at the All Souls’ Day Eucharist in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford, this evening (2 November).
Meanwhile, before the day 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;
2, a short reflection;
3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;
4, the Collects and Post-Communion prayer of the day.
John 5: 19-25 (NRSVA):
19 Jesus said to them, ‘Very truly, I tell you, the Son can do nothing on his own, but only what he sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, the Son does likewise. 20 The Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing; and he will show him greater works than these, so that you will be astonished. 21 Indeed, just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whomsoever he wishes. 22 The Father judges no one but has given all judgement to the Son, 23 so that all may honour the Son just as they honour the Father. Anyone who does not honour the Son does not honour the Father who sent him. 24 Very truly, I tell you, anyone who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life, and does not come under judgement, but has passed from death to life.
25 ‘Very truly, I tell you, the hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live.’
November is a month when we traditionally remember the saints, the Communion of Saints, those who are blessed, those we love and who are now gathered around the throne of God, those who have died and who we still love.
We do that on All Souls’ Day, we do that on Remembrance Day and Remembrance Sunday, and we do that on All Saints’ Day.
November is a month when we traditionally remember the saints, the Communion of Saints, those we love and who are now gathered around the throne of God, those who have died and who we still love.
As the evenings close in, as the last autumn leaves fall from the trees, it is natural to remember the dead and the fallen, with love and affection.
The special days in November include:
• All Saints’ Day (1 November);
• All Souls’ Day or the ‘Commemoration of the Faithful Departed’ (2 November, Common Worship, p 15);
• in Ireland, All Saints of Ireland (6 November);
• in England, the Saints and Martyrs of England (8 November);
• Remembrance Sunday (8 November 2026);
• Remembrance Day (11 November).
On this day, there are many people in my own family I am remembering, including:
• my mother, Ellen (Murphy) Comerford, who died 12 years ago, on 20 May 2014, and my father, Stephen Edward Comerford, who died 22 years ago on 27 December 2004, both buried in Bohernabreena, Co Dublin;
• my brother, Stephen Edward Comerford, who died in Durham, North Carolina, 56 years ago, on 18 December 1970;
• my foster mother, Peggy Kerr, who died on 27 July 2010, and my foster father George Kerr;
• my foster sister or ‘cousin’, Una Kerr, who died on 11 April 2021
• my grandparents, Stephen Edward Comerford, who died on 21 January 1921, having contracted malaria five years earlier in Thessaloniki, and Bridget (Lynders) Comerford, who died on 25 March 1948, both buried in Portrane, Co Dublin;
• my grandparents, Thomas Michael Murphy, who died in Queensland, Australia, on 10 September 1949, and Maria (Crowley) Murphy, who died on 8 July 1957 and is buried beside Drishane Castle in Millstreet, Co Cork;
• and, at this time of the year, my ‘Gran’, Mary (McCarthy) Hallinan, who died on 6 November 1961; and my ‘Granddad’ Edmond Hallinan, who died on 8 March 1963, both buried in Cappoquin, Co Waterford.
Hallowe’en on 31 October is the day before we remember the Hallowed, not as the dead but as the blessed, the saints, who are model for our lives, our Christian lifestyle today. We believe the dead we love are still caught up in the love of God and are alive in Christ.
Indeed, saints do not need to be dead to be examples of ‘holy living and holy dying’ (Jeremy Taylor). Saint Paul regularly refers in his letters to fellow Christians as ‘saints.’ Saints Alive!
In the past, I have realised how many people and parishes have been shy, reluctant, perhaps even fearful, in the Church of Ireland when it comes to recalling, commemorating and celebrating the saints. A comparison of the calendars of the Church of Ireland and the Church of England is very telling.
Perhaps the people who decided on the calendar in the Church of Ireland were too afraid in the past of being seen to pray to the saints, or to pray for the dead. But, really, these are quite different to finding examples of godly living among Christians from the past, and expressing confidence that the dead we have loved are now committed to God’s love.
Yet the Church of England sees the calendar of saints as a living calendar, something that is added to as we find more appropriate examples of Christian living for today.
Saints do not have to be martyrs. But in recent years Oscar Romero was canonised and there was a major commemoration in Westminster Abbey of Oscar Romero in 2017 to mark his 100th birthday.
Saints do not have to be canonised. Modern martyrs include Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Martin Luther King, or Heather Heyer, the civil rights activist killed by far-right neo-Nazis and racists in Charlottesville, Kentucky, in 2017, and who were absolved of all guilt or blame by Donald Trump.
Many of us know people who handed on the faith to us – teachers, grandparents, perhaps neighbours. Even though many may be long dead, they remain part of our vision of the Communion of Saints.
Saints do not have to live a perfect life; as the Book of Common Prayer reminds us, ‘if we say we have no sin we deceive ourselves’ (I John 1: 8) … none of us is without sin, and none of us is beyond redemption. Some of the saints carved on the West Front of Westminster Abbey might have been very surprised to know they were going to appear there. But their lives in sum total are what we are asked to think about.
They are: Maximilian Kolbe, Manche Masemola, Archbishop Janani Luwum, Grand Duchess Elizabeth, Martin Luther King, Oscar Romero, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Esther John, Lucian Tapiedi, and Wang Zhiming.
Some years ago, I asked students to share stories of their favourite ‘saints and heroes.’ They included an interesting array of people, some of whom were the still living at the time, including Archbishop Desmond Tutu.
In interviews in the Church Times, people are sometimes asked who they would like to be locked into a church with for a few hours.
Who are your favourite saints?
Who would you like to learn from a little more when it comes to living the Christian life?
Last year marked the 1700th anniversary of the Nicene Creed, in which we express our belief in ‘the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come’. In the Apostles’ Creed, we confess our belief in ‘the communion of saints’ and ‘the resurrection of the body.’
In the introduction to the Church Calendar and this in-between time, the time between All Saints and Advent, the resources for Common Worship remind us that ‘No Christian is solitary. Through baptism we become members one of another in Christ, members of a company of saints whose mutual belonging transcends death’. The resources then quote Charles Wesley:
One family, we dwell in him,
one Church, above, beneath;
though now divided by the stream,
the narrow stream of death.
Who are the saints in your life, in your own personal calendars? Who are those you recall whose souls we have committed to God’s love and who are part of ‘the communion of saints’?
Throughout the month of November, there are opportunities to remember their names as we are reminded in the first reading in the Lectionary today (Wisdom 3: 1-9) that ‘The souls of the righteous are in the hand of God, no torment will ever touch them’ (verse 1).
Today’s Prayers (Monday 2 November 2026, All Souls’ Day):
The theme this week (1 to 7 November 2026) in Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘All Saints’ Day’ (pp 52-53). This theme was introduced yesterday with a Reflection by Matthew Anns, Senior Communications and Engagement Manager, USPG.
The USPG Prayer Diary today (Monday 2 November 2026, All Souls’ Day) invites us to pray:
Lord God, we remember all past Christian saints and martyrs who paved the way for future generations worldwide to know God, and who put God’s mission above their own lives in doing so. We pray that we can continue to follow in their footsteps.
The Collect:
Eternal God, our maker and redeemer,
grant us, with all the faithful departed,
the sure benefits of your Son’s saving passion
and glorious resurrection
that, in the last day,
when you gather up all things in Christ,
we may with them enjoy the fullness of your promises;
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 of love,
may the death and resurrection of Christ
which we have celebrated in this eucharist
bring us, with all the faithful departed,
into the peace of your eternal home.
We ask this in the name of Jesus Christ,
our rock and our salvation,
to whom be glory for time and for eternity.
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
