Collect for Trinity 21 and All Saints Day
Blessed Lord, who caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning: Help us to hear them, to read, mark, learn and inwardly digest them that, through patience, and the comfort of your holy word, we may embrace and for ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life, which you have given us in our Saviour Jesus Christ.
Holy God, you have called witnesses from every nation and revealed your glory in their lives. Grant to us the same faith and love that, following their example, we may be sustained by their fellowship and rejoice in their triumph; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Thessalonians 2: 1-8
John 1: 1-14
What Hallowtide, or ‘Hallowmas’ is: A ‘Triduum’, or ‘Three days.’
Beginning on All Hallow’s Eve: the evening before All Hallows day – a vigil of prayer, fasting and preparation for the feast.
All Hallows, or ‘All Saints’: a time of feasting and celebration of the victory and life won through Christ and those Saints and Martyrs who have kept the faith and through whom His church has been built.
All Souls: A day to remember all who have gone before, especially friends and family, with gifts of apples and ‘soulcakes’ (usually filled with sweet spices and fruit, decorated with the sign of the cross before baking) being given as alms.
Hallowtide celebrates the light of Christ that will support and shine through the dark days of Winter.
What Hallowmas is not:
Samhain: a Pagan religious festival and in many Celtic traditions, New Year’s day. While not sharing their belief, we respect those who are sincere.
As opposed to:
Halloween: An American import during which people make shedloads of money by selling tat, normally made of unrecyclable and indestructible plastic, and during which children are encouraged to beg for money with menaces to buy tooth-rotting sweets made of 100% artificial ingredients.
And worse, it has increasingly become an excuse for an insidious excuse for darkness and propagation of evil. Violent and horrific media encourages naïve people to believe that ‘it’s only a bit of fun’ when it plainly isn’t.
Experience shows, however, that addressing the above directly isn’t all that effective – if people have no appreciation from a Christian perspective, they dismiss our opinion without understanding what we say. Instead, the way to defeat the darkness is to be the light that darkness can never overcome. And love is the vehicle to shine that light.
Hallowmas is a season we should not ignore, but instead celebrate as a festival of light, in the beauty of Autumn colours and enjoying a time for creation to rest in peace. Halloween, in modern times, has become the embodiment of darkness. As Christians, we must have no part of it.
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Praying Together 2nd June 2024
You may remember the song: ‘It ain’t what you do it’s the way that you do it, that’s what gets results.’ Catchy tune, catchy title. But wrong. Actually, it’s the other way round – ‘It ain’t the way that you do it, it’s what you do…’
Praying Together 19th May 2024
By the power of the same Spirit strengthen us to witness to your truth and to draw everyone to the fire of your love; through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Praying Together 12th May 2024
But in Christ, a much more reliable ‘Truth’ can be found. Truth in the ‘Logos’ – the Word. The Word made flesh.
Praying Together 5th May 2024
Collect for Easter 6 God our redeemer, you have delivered us from the power of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of your Son: Grant, that as by his death he has recalled us to life, so by his continual presence in us he may raise us to eternal joy; through...
Praying Together 28th April 2024
‘If you love God, then you love your brothers and sisters’. You cannot have one without the other. If you do not love your brother and your sister, you cannot claim that you love God. No exclusions.
Praying Together 21st April 2024
There is only one leader who invites us to follow of whom we can be sure – the one who is prepared to lay down His life.
Praying Together 14th April 2024
It is easy, with hindsight, to criticise the disciples for their incredulity. But we have to ask ourselves what we would do in their place.
Praying Together 7th April 2024
We are challenged to decide what we need to ‘see’ to believe – and then to seek it in the power of the Holy Spirit.
Praying Together 31st March 2024 Easter Day
“I have seen the Lord”. It is difficult to imagine her emotions. She has seen the Lord! She doesn’t yet understand fully – but her eyes have seen Him. Her life is changed for ever, and she doesn’t care who knows it.
Praying Together 24th March 2024
But Jesus is aware of what He will have to endure in order to fulfil His mission of salvation – and He sets the necessary elements in motion.
Praying Together 17th March 2024
The Anglican Church of Ireland has produced an excellent example of the way in which St Patrick’s life embodies the Five marks of Mission – a real cause for celebration and a model for us to follow (And by the way, St. Patrick’s flag colour is blue, not green.)