Allsaintstide and Remembrance 2021
|
31 October - All Saints’ Sunday
Patronal Festival of Houghton Regis celebrating the title feast of the Parish Church. The Parish Mass is followed by lunch in church. 2 November - All Souls’ Day
11 November - Armistice Day
14 November - Remembrance Sunday
|
|
The days surrounding the Feast of All Saints (1 November), traditionally called Allsaintstide, are very important ones in our parish. During this time we celebrate our patronal festival – the dedication of the Parish Church to all the saints who ever lived and now rejoice in heaven in the presence of God.
At All Saints' we usually transfer this important celebration to the Sunday either preceding or following 1 November. This year we will celebrate it on Sunday 3 November as "All Saints' Sunday".
On All Souls’ Day (2 November) we remember, and pray for, all our loved ones who have died. There will be two Requiem Masses this year; one on the eve (Friday 1 November at 7:30) and one on the day itself at 12:00 noon. Allsaintstide and Remembrance continues as we pray for all the war dead on Remembrance Sunday and Armistice Day.
While many people think of the saints as (sometimes unreachable) examples of ‘virtuous and godly living’, this hardly does justice to the biblical insight that in our pilgrimage through this world ‘we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses’ (Hebrews 12:1). Sanctity is not about hero-worship as about accessibility; the saints are the real men and women of every age in whose lives we can glimpse heaven in our midst. They are our partners in prayer:
Before thy throne we daily meet
As joint-petitioners to thee;
In spirit each the other greet,
And shall again each other see.
- Richard Baxter
At All Saints' we usually transfer this important celebration to the Sunday either preceding or following 1 November. This year we will celebrate it on Sunday 3 November as "All Saints' Sunday".
On All Souls’ Day (2 November) we remember, and pray for, all our loved ones who have died. There will be two Requiem Masses this year; one on the eve (Friday 1 November at 7:30) and one on the day itself at 12:00 noon. Allsaintstide and Remembrance continues as we pray for all the war dead on Remembrance Sunday and Armistice Day.
While many people think of the saints as (sometimes unreachable) examples of ‘virtuous and godly living’, this hardly does justice to the biblical insight that in our pilgrimage through this world ‘we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses’ (Hebrews 12:1). Sanctity is not about hero-worship as about accessibility; the saints are the real men and women of every age in whose lives we can glimpse heaven in our midst. They are our partners in prayer:
Before thy throne we daily meet
As joint-petitioners to thee;
In spirit each the other greet,
And shall again each other see.
- Richard Baxter
