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For All the Saints...
Douglas came across this most beautiful Litany...thought it would be nice to share with our community of St. Nicholas as we and the Church celebrate the feast of All Saints'.
Let us pray...
Almighty and everlasting God, we give you most high praise and hearty thanks for the wonderful grace and virtue declared in all your saints, who have been the chosen vessels of your grace, and the lights of the world in their times: for Abraham, the father of believers, and Sarah his wife; for Moses the lawgiver and Aaron the priest; for Miriam and Joshua, Deborah and Gideon, and Samuel and Hannah his mother, and for all the holy patriarchs; for Isaiah and all the prophets; for the Blessed Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus Christ our Lord and God; for Peter and Paul and all the apostles; for Mary and Martha, and Mary Magdalene; for Stephen, the first martyr and for all the martyrs; and for all your other righteous servants, known to us and unknown; and we beseech you that, rejoicing in their fellowship, encouraged by their examples, and aided by their prayers, we also may run with steadfastness the race that is set before us, and finish our course in faith; and that at the day of the general resurrection, we, with all those who are of the mystical body of your Son, may be set on his right hand, and hear his most joyful voice: "Come, you blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world." Grant this, O Father, for the sake of your Son Jesus Christ, our only Mediator and Advocate. "For all the saints, who from their labor rest, who thee by faith before the world confessed, Thy name, O Jesus, be for ever blessed. Alleluia, alleluia!" Holy ones present at our beginnings: STAND HERE BEFORE US! Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebecca, Jacob and Rachel and Leah, makers of the covenant, forebears of our race: STAND HERE BEFORE US! Elizabeth and Simeon, Joseph, Monica and Helen, exemplars in love and care of children: STAND HERE BEFORE US! John the baptizer, map-maker of the Lord's coming: STAND HERE BEFORE US! "Thou wast there rock, their fortress, and their might: Thou Lord, their Captain in the well-fought fight; Thou, in the darkness drear, the one true Light. Alleluia, alleluia!" Holy ones who showed the good news to be the way of life: STAND HERE BEFOR US! Thomas the doubter; Augustine of Canterbury; Francis Xavier; Samuel Joseph Schereschewsky; all travelers who carried the Gospel to distant places: STAND HERE BEFORE US! Bernard and Dominic; Catherine of Siena, the scourge of popes; John and Charles Wesley, preachers in the streets; all whose power of speaking gave life to the written word: STAND HERE BEFORE US! Benedict of Nursia, Teresa of Avila; Nicholas Ferrar; Elizabeth Ann Seton; Richard Meux Benson; Charles de Foucauld: all founders of communities: STAND HERE BEFORE US! "O may thy soldiers, faithful, true and bold, Fight as the saints who nobly fought of old, And win, with them, the victor's crown of gold. Alleluia, alleluia!" Holy ones who gave their lives to the care of others: STAND HERE BEFORE US! Louise, king of France; Margaret, queen of Scotland; Gandhi the mahatma, reproach to the churches; Dag Hammarskjold the bureaucrat; all who made governance an act of faith: STAND HERE BEFORE US! Peter of the keys, denier of the Lord; Ambrose of Milan, who answered the Church's summons; Hilda, abbess at Whitby; Robert Grosseteste, bishop of Lincoln, protector of Jews; Jean-Baptiste, cure d' Ars, Patient hearer of catalogues of sins; All faithful shepherds of the Master's flock: STAND HERE BEFORE US! Mary Magdalen, anointer of the Lord's feet; Luke the physician; Francis who kissed the leper; Florence Nightingale; Albert Schweitzer; all who brought to the sick and suffering the hands of healing: Holy ones who made the proclaiming of God's love a work of art: STAND HERE BEFORE US! Pierluigi da Palestrina; John Merbecke; Johann Sebastian Bach; Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart; Benjamin Britten; Duke Ellington; all who sang the Creator's praises in the language of the soul: STAND HERE BEFORE US! Zaccheus the tree climber; Brother Lawrence; Therese of Lisieux, the little flower; Andrew of Glasshampton; all cultivators of holy simplicity: STAND HERE BEFORE US! "And when the strife is fierce, the warfare long, Steals on the ear of distant triumph song, all hearts are brave again, and arms are strong. Alleluia, alleluia!" Holy ones haunted by the justice and mercy of God: STAND HERE BEFORE US! Amos of Tekoa, who held the plumbline; John Wycliffe, who brought Scripture to the common folk; John Hus and Menno Simons, generals in the Lamb's war; Martin Luther, who could do no other; George Fox, foe of stepple-houses; all who kept the Church ever reforming: STAND HERE BEFORE US! Paul the apostle, transfixed by noonday light; Augustine of Hippo, God's city planner; Thomas Aquinas and John Calvin, architects of the divine; Charles Williams, teacher of coinherence; Karl Barth, knower of the unknown; all who saw God at work and wrote down what they saw: STAND HERE BEFORE US! John the seer of Patmos; Anthony of the desert; Julian, the anchoress of Norwich; Hildegarde, the sybil of the Rhine, Meister Eckartdt; Bernadette of Lourdes; all who were called to see the Master's face: STAND HERE BEFORE US! Joachim of Fiora, prophet of the new age; Johnny Appleseed, mad planter of Eden; Sojourner Truth, pilgrim of justice; Benedict Joseph Labre, priest and panhandler; all whose love of God was beyond containment: STAND HERE BEFORE US! "The golden evening brightness in the west; soon, soon to faithful warriors cometh rest; Sweet is the calm of paradise the blest. Alleluia, alleluia!" Holy ones who died in witness to Christ: STAND HERE BEFORE US! Stephen the Deacon, the first martyr, stoned in Jerusalem: STAND HERE BEFORE US! Justin, Igantius and Polycarp, who refused the incense to Caesar: STAND HERE BEFORE US! Perpetua and Felicity, torn by breasts in the arena of Carthage: STAND HERE BEFORE US! Thomas Cranmer, Hugh Latiner and Nicholas Ridley, burned in Oxford: STAND HERE BEFORE US! Maximilian Koble and Edith Stein, put to death at Auschwitz: STAND HERE BEFORE US! James Reeb, Jonathan Daniels, Michael Schwerner, Medgar Evers, Viola Liuzzo, shot in the South: STAND HERE BEFORE US! Martin Luther King, shot in Memphis: STAND HERE BEFORE US! Janani Luwum, shot in Kampala: STAND HERE BEFORE US! Oscar Romero, shot in San Salvador: STAND HERE BEFORE US! Martyrs of Rome, of Lyons, of Japan, of Eastern Equatorial Africa, of Uganda, of Melanesia, martyrs of everywhere: STAND HERE BEFORE US! "But lo! There breaks a yet more glorious day; the saints' triumphant rise in bright array; The King of Glory passes on his way. Alleluia, alleluia!" Holy ones of every time and place: STAND HERE BEFORE US! Glorious company of heaven: STAND HERE BEFORE US! All climbers of the ladder of Paradise: STAND HERE BEFORE US! All runners of the celestial race: STAND HERE BEFORE US! Great cloud of witnesses: STAND HERE BEFORE US! Mary most holy, chief of the saints: STAND HERE BEFORE US! Mary, most holy, yes-sayer to God: STAND HERE BEFORE US! Mary most holy, unmarried mother: STAND HERE BEFORE US! Mary most holy, gate of heaven and Ark of the Covenant: STAND HERE BEFORE US! "From earth's wide bounds, from ocean's farthest coast, through gates of pearl streams in the countless host, singing to Father, Son and Holy Ghost: Alleluia, alleluia!" Jesus our liberator, creator of all: STAND HERE BEFORE US! Jesus our liberator, redeemer of all: STAND HERE BEFORE US! Jesus our liberator, sanctifier of all: STAND HERE BEFORE US! Jesus our liberator, the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end: STAND HERE BEFORE US! Amen. This beautiful Litany of the Saints is chanted annually at the Church of St. Stephen and the Incarnation in Washington, D.C. at the principle Eucharist celebrating All Saints' Day. It was composed in 1979 largely by William Mackaye, former religion editor of the Washington Post. -Manny manny@stnicholasepiscopal.org | 
News from Nick:
November 5/6, we will celebrate All Saints' Weekend; which is one of the seven (7) Principal Feasts of the Episcopal Church and an opportunity for us to renew our Baptismal Covenant. 
We hope you were as excited about the Welcome Table (our first undertaking) as we were to get it off the ground. Please wear those beautiful badges proudly. It's a great way to get to know one another better! Even our children were anxious to wear theirs' last weekend.
Thanks to: