Our Sunday Supplication

Sunday, November 1, 2020

Solemnity of All Saints

Holy Mass is at the very core of our worship as a Catholic community. Nothing can ever be substituted for the celebration of the Eucharist. But in this exceptional time of difficulty for our communities, our nation, and the whole world, this order of prayer can be offered by individuals and families and engages us in our Sunday celebration of the Word of God. We can pray this prayer in our homes—the “domestic churches” which help build up the Body of Christ on earth—and thus be connected to the entire Church at prayer.

During this time of prayer, we include the opportunity to make a Spiritual Communion. Making a Spiritual Communion is a worthy practice, recommended by innumerable saints throughout the ages, which unites our whole selves to God and his Church.

Order of Prayer

Taken from the Mass and the Liturgy of the Hours

Introduction

Leader: God, ✠ come to my assistance.
Response: Lord, make haste to help me.

Leader: Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit:
Response: as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

Hymn

As stars adorn the night-veiled sky,
Arrayed like jewels rare and bright,
So shine God’s saints in ev’ry age
To give the world new hope, new light.

The light saints bear is not their own
But shines through them as gift and sign:
To show how God can use and bless
Frail human means for ends divine.

Through saints we glimpse the light of Christ,
The Morning Star that crowns the night,
Whose rising heralds God’s new day,
The promised dawn of life and light.

That light is ours to claim and share,
Not merely praise or gaze upon:
For all who are baptized become
Light-bearers through the Risen One.

The saints inspire and challenge us
Our holy calling to embrace:
To bear Christ’s light in our own day,
To be the vessels of God’s grace.

Act of Contrition

Leader: Let us acknowledge our sins, and seek the Lord’s pardon and peace.

Together: I confess to almighty God
and to you, my brothers and sisters,
that I have greatly sinned,
in my thoughts and in my words,
in what I have done and in what I have failed to do,
through my fault, through my fault,
through my most grievous fault;
therefore I ask blessed Mary ever-Virgin,
all the Angels and Saints,
and you, my brothers and sisters,
to pray for me to the Lord our God.

Leader: Almighty ever-living God,
by whose gift we venerate in one celebration the merits of all the Saints,
bestow on us, we pray,
through the prayers of so many intercessors,
an abundance of the reconciliation with you
for which we earnestly long.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.
Together: Amen.

The Sunday Readings

A reading from the Book of Revelation (Revelation 7:2–4, 9–14)

I, John, saw another angel come up from the East, holding the seal of the living God. He cried out in a loud voice to the four angels who were given power to damage the land and the sea, “Do not damage the land or the sea or the trees until we put the seal on the foreheads of the servants of our God.” I heard the number of those who had been marked with the seal, one hundred and forty-four thousand marked from every tribe of the children of Israel.

After this I had a vision of a great multitude, which no one could count, from every nation, race, people, and tongue. They stood before the throne and before the Lamb, wearing white robes and holding palm branches in their hands. They cried out in a loud voice: “Salvation comes from our God, who is seated on the throne, and from the Lamb.”

All the angels stood around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures. They prostrated themselves before the throne, worshiped God, and exclaimed: “Amen. Blessing and glory, wisdom and thanksgiving, honor, power, and might be to our God forever and ever. Amen."

Then one of the elders spoke up and said to me, “Who are these wearing white robes, and where did they come from?” I said to him, “My lord, you are the one who knows.” He said to me, “These are the ones who have survived the time of great distress; they have washed their robes and made them white in the Blood of the Lamb.”

The Word of the Lord.
―Thanks be to God.

Responsorial Psalm (Psalms 24:1bc–2, 3–4ab, 5–6)

Reader: Lord, this is the people that longs to see your face.
Together: Lord, this is the people that longs to see your face.

Reader: The LORD’s are the earth and its fullness; the world and those who dwell in it. For he founded it upon the seas and established it upon the rivers.
Together: Lord, this is the people that longs to see your face.

Reader: Who can ascend the mountain of the LORD? or who may stand in his holy place? One whose hands are sinless, whose heart is clean, who desires not what is vain.
Together: Lord, this is the people that longs to see your face.

Reader: He shall receive a blessing from the LORD, a reward from God his savior. Such is the race that seeks him, that seeks the face of the God of Jacob.
Together: Lord, this is the people that longs to see your face.

A Reading from the First Letter of Saint John (1 John 3:1–3)

Beloved: See what love the Father has bestowed on us that we may be called the children of God. Yet so we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we shall be has not yet been revealed. We do know that when it is revealed we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. Everyone who has this hope based on him makes himself pure, as he is pure.

The word of the Lord.
―Thanks be to God.

Gospel Verse (Matthew 11:28)

Reader: Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened,
Together: and I will give you rest, says the Lord.

A reading from the holy Gospel according to Matthew (Matthew 5:1-12A)

When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain, and after he had sat down, his disciples came to him. He began to teach them, saying: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they who mourn, for they will be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the land. Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied. Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. Blessed are the clean of heart, for they will see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. Blessed are they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when they insult you and persecute you and utter every kind of evil against you falsely because of me. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward will be great in heaven.”

The Gospel of the Lord.
―Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ

For Reflection:

1. Today we celebrate the Solemnity of All Saints. The First Reading, Responsorial Psalm and the Second Reading all tell us something about the qualities of a saint. What qualities are described in each passage?
2. In the Gospel, Jesus gives us the Beatitudes as a description of the fullness of Christian life. Which of the Beatitudes strikes you as most strange or challenging? How can you live this Beatitude more fully in your own life?
3. Who are some of your favorite saints? How did they exemplify the qualities that we hear about in today’s readings?

Response to the Word

Leader: Let the just rejoice and sing for joy in the Lord.
Response: Let the just rejoice and sing for joy in the Lord.

Leader: Delight in his love, you pure of heart,
Response: and sing for joy in the Lord.

Leader: Glory to the Father, and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit.
Response: Let the just rejoice and sing for joy in the Lord.

Prayer of the Faithful

Leader: God is the reward of all the saints. Let us joyfully call upon him:
Response: Lord, save your people.

Leader: O God, source of all that is holy, you have let your holiness shine in many marvelous ways through the lives of your saints, help us to celebrate your greatness in them.
Response: Lord, save your people.

Leader: The lives of your saints have given testimony to your Son, Jesus Christ, through their example may we draw closer to him.
Response: Lord, save your people.

Leader: King of heaven, through your saints you have given us the courage to follow after your Son, help us to imitate the example of the saints who show us the way to Christ.
Response: Lord, save your people.

Leader: Father, in the eucharistic sacrifice you unite us more fully with those who now live in your kingdom, by our frequent sharing in the body and blood of your Son bring us to the company of the eternal banquet.
Response: Lord, save your people.

Leader: In your mercy, continue to sanctify all who are afflicted from the present pandemic, and draw us all closer to you, and to one another, in this time of suffering.
Response: Lord, save your people.

The Lord's Prayer

Leader: Let us pray together as Jesus taught us:
Together: Our Father, who art in heaven …

Spiritual Communion

Leader: You have given us bread from heaven, alleluia, alleluia.
Response: Containing in itself all delight, alleluia, alleluia.
Together: My Jesus,
I believe that you are present
in the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar.
I love you above all things,
and I desire to receive you into my soul.
Since I cannot at this moment receive you sacramentally,
come at least spiritually into my heart.
I embrace you as if you were already there
and unite myself wholly to you.
Never permit me to be separated from you,
my Lord and my God!
Amen.

Canticle of Praise

Canticle of Zechariah (Luke 1:68-79)
Together: ✠ Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel;
he has come to his people and set them free.
He has raised up for us a mighty savior,
born of the house of his servant David.
Through his holy prophets he promised of old
that he would save us from our enemies,
from the hands of all who hate us.
He promised to show mercy to our fathers
and to remember his holy covenant.
This was the oath he swore to our father Abraham:
to set us free from the hands of our enemies,
free to worship him without fear,
holy and righteous in his sight
all the days of our life.
You, my child, shall be called the prophet of the Most High;
for you will go before the Lord to prepare his way,
to give his people knowledge of salvation
by the forgiveness of their sins.
In the tender compassion of our God
the dawn from on high shall break upon us,
to shine on those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death,
and to guide our feet into the way of peace.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son,
and to the Holy Spirit:
as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen.

Conclusion

Leader: ✠ May the Lord bless us, protect us from all evil, and bring us to everlasting life.
Together: Amen.