Today was All Saints Sunday….celebrated on Sunday although the day was actually November 1st. All Saints is a day of remembrance. Remembrance of all the saints who have gone before both those with a capital “S” as well as a small “s.”
In the Episcopal Liturgy we use the words from the Bible where Jesus asked the disciples to take the bread and the wine in “remembrance of me.” The earlier term for the is from much further back: Anamnesis
From Ancient Greek ἀνάμνησις (anámnēsis, “remembrance”), “call to mind”).
anamnesis
- The ability to recall past events; recollection.
- (medicine) The medical history of a patient.
- (rhetoric) The mention of the past; quotation of exemplary authors from memory to establish one’s authority.
I have always felt that those who have gone before us are still with us. They are present in memories, in places that we visit, and other ways. I have been in churches where a strong sense of those who were there in the past is present.
We take this moment to think about all those whose lives have shaped ours.
Hear God in Other Voices 