Article
- Date:
- Wednesday 30th October 2024
- Place:
- Holy Trinity, Hurstpierpoint
- Service:
- Morning Prayer
- Readings:
- Leviticus 23.23-44
Titus 1
Listening to the litany of Jewish Festivals which are observed to this day, reminds us how impoverished over the years our liturgy has become. This Sunday we will celebrate the twin Feasts of All Saints and All Souls but i wonder what we think about either. Are we any longer conscious of Sains in our lives when we fail to remember their special days other than, I suspect, paying a little patriotic homage to Saint George. And what is our mental idea of souls? When we pray for those who have died are we praying so that God will 'do something' or are we praying to console ourselves.
Saints apart what do we think of Festivals for the Blessed Virgin Mary, or are we satisfied to confine her to the Fourth Sunday of Advent?
I am asking these questions not out of nostalgia, although I do miss the great variety of celebrations, but I am asking whether our observance has become too flat and even robotic. When we attend Sunday worship, how much are we thinking about the different occasions for worship, and how much is it simply a matter of doing the same thing with Scriptural variations?
The more I consider these issues, the more convinced I am that in pursuit of theoretic theological purity we have lost liturgical richness, that we have backed ourselves into an arid corner, that the whole sphere of the Church Triumphant with its angels and saints has receded out of our consciousness, that we regard such matters as aberrations from a bygone age.
When we say our daily prayers it would do us good to look up each day whether there is any special remembrance and, if we can, we might find out a little about the person we are remembering. In this way we might add just a little context when we affirm our credal belief in the communion of Saints.