10/30/2026
AN (abridged) WORD FROM THE RECTOR:
The Feast of All Saints is the older of the two principal observances in , stretching back to the early cult of the martyrs; as the number of martyrs began to grow, communities started to celebrate groups of them collectively. Praying for the Christian dead far precedes All Souls’ Day and reaches back to very early Christianity. By the High Middle Ages, the Kalendar had acquired a coherent sequence over three consecutive days: the Vigil of All Saints, to , to , each with its own distinctive character and grace.
On All Saints, the Militant on earth joins the Church Triumphant in heaven, in our corporate worship of God. On All Souls, the Church Militant exercises its communion with the faithful departed through intercession. It is our conviction that the living can assist the departed through prayer, almsgiving, and the Eucharistic Sacrifice. We are convinced that the communion between the living and the dead in Christ is real, and that our prayer is efficacious.
Interestingly, in recent years All Souls seems to be undergoing a revival in the , as more and more parishes come to embrace the Commemoration in some sense, led largely by the increasing popularity of various requiem settings. However, to be clear: All Saints and All Souls stand in the Church’s liturgical year on two consecutive days to reveal two connected yet distinct mysteries: the Saints in glory one day, and praying for the dead in charity and hope the next. All Souls *cannot* be transferred to the evening of All Saints or any other day (unless it fall on a Sunday, in which case it moves to Monday), and Masses can *never* be offered on Sundays, at least in the Traditional form. Nor is All Souls a day for concerts or performances: beautiful black sets and mass settings exist only to further our task of interceding, for that is the point of the day: we do not remember the departed; we *pray for* them.
So now we prepare to do our work: to rejoice, and to pray. The priests of this Parish take seriously our duty of praying for the souls of the faithful departed.
