Solemnity of All Saints November 1

THE SOLEMNITY OF ALL SAINTS 1 NOVEMBER

(In the times of great persecution of the early Church, there were so many martyrs that it was impossible to commemorate each one on an individual day. Eventually, when
the Church was given an old Roman temple dedicated to “all the gods”, the
Pantheon became a place to honour “All the Saints” and today’s feast was
born.
(The entire collection of Roman gods was called the ‘Pantheon’ and in
ancient times, you could worship any of the gods whose statues were
located in the niches of the building. The Pantheon was converted into a
Catholic Church in 609 A.D. and dedicated to Our Lady and all the Martyrs.
( Normally we apply the word ‘saints’ to people of extraordinary holiness
who have been canonised or beatified by the Church. Bur today’s feast uses
the word in a much wider sense. It refers to all those holy men and women, who
in their day-to-day lives, have been challenged by the Gospel and have lived it generously. It also certainly includes all non-Christians who lived a good life sincerely in accordance with the convictions of their conscience. We simply do not know how many people we are talking about but it must be a very large number.
I conclude by saying BE A SAINT!!!