The Best Eve of All-Hallow-Mas

"Isti sunt... These are they who while yet they lived in the flesh,
planted the Church in their own blood;
they drank of the Lord's cup,
and became the friends of God... et amici Dei facti sunt."

[Responsory from Matins]

What a privilege it is to live in the House of God,
where, on the
eve of All-Hallow-Mas,
the Feast of All Saints,
we have time to spend a few moments before the holy relics
put forth for veneration in the chapel for the feast-day.

In the darkness of the night and the howling of the wind,
far away from the world and all that one finds there on such a night as this,
how wonderful to spend a few moments in the company of these
our ancestors in the faith
who have chosen to guide their relics to our island home...
the martyrs who died so brutally centuries ago,
the confessors, the doctors
who enlightened the Church in every province of the ancient world,
the virgins and widows,
the monks and nuns, who loved God and left the world
before we were even thought of, before we were even born.
Relics from every clime and every land.

Our Lord the King of Glory, crowns one of His martyr saints.

As the Feast of Our Lord Jesus Christ the King wanes
and that of all the Saints dawns
we remember you and pray for you and your intentions.
The holy Divine Office tells us that
Our Lord crowned His saints with glory and honour
and madest them to have dominion over the works of His hands.

Whatever your intentions, your sufferings, your pains and hurts,
may the holy ones of God
who repose on our island
help you,
comfort you
with that dominion given to them
and lead you to that Heavenly Crown
which Our Lord has promised to them that love Him.

The Crown Above

"Venite, exultamus...
O come let us worship the Lord, the King of kings,
for He is Himself the Crown of all the Saints...
corona Sanctorum omnium."