All Saints Day



This is All Saints Day. Not so very long ago, this was a Holy Day of Obligation in the United States, and in most other places. These days here in the Archdiocese of Hollywood and in our suffragan Diocese of Disneyland to the south, it is assumed that attending Mass two days in a row might be too much for the sensibilities of the local faithful and cause siezures or palpitations or some such. So All Saints Day coming on a Monday this year, it is not a day of Obligation. Given the state of so many parochial liturgies, I am not prepared to say that the concerns of our Most Reverend Fathers-in-God are not warranted. But it is still sad to see the old holy days ignored.

A selection from Fr. Pius Parsch's "The Church's Year of Grace" (vol. V, pg. 321):

No Vespers during the whole year makes so deep an impression upon me as Vespers of All Saints. Artistic reliquaries decorate the altar; in the relics the saints themselves are present, and Christ their leader is the altar. The latter is adorned in feast-day robes, golden antependium, glistening snow-white linens. Upon six golden candlesticks burn six huge candles. Behind them resplendent is the Lamb of the Apocalypse. Upon the throne as representative of the eternal Father sits the abbot in a golden-threaded cope. About him are the "seniors" of the monastery in white robes, while below four chanters, clothed in flowing pluvials, lead the monastic choir in the heavenly melodies. Out in the nave stand or sit the 'multitude of faithful which no man can number, from all peoples.' And throughout the edifice resound the jubilantly sonorous harmonies from the organ. It is an hour in heaven." (from a description by Fr. Kutzer of Mindelzell).