All Saints: Cultivating a Resilient Spirit

In the words of St. Paul: To all the saints at Como Lake United Church, Grace and Peace!I miss you! I miss your in-person presence in worship...especially preparing for this coming Sunday -All Saints -when we remember and recall the Great Cloud of Witnesses...the saints who have gone before us and are cheering us on in our faith and faithfulness.

I find it tempting to mentally and emotionally check-out when I hear the word “saint” but let’s clarify how personal and powerful that term can be. A saint is someone through whom God’s light shines...someone who helps us connect to our best self, who helps us experience God’s love lived out. A saint might be someone whose life-influence is broad and well-known but is, more likely, an ordinary person who helps us to know God, to see God’s love expressed in the world, someone around whom we feel hopeful and valued. Saints are ordinary people (like you!).

Today I am thinking of you and of the Como Lake saints who have preceded us, on whose shoulders I/we gratefully stand, and whom we will remember on Sunday. So, in preparation for All Saints worship, please take time to recall some of the people who have touched your life in this way.

Here are some of the words of remembering and gratitude we will be sharing in the service this week. You may want to have one or more candles handy to light at this time in the service.

We remember our forbearers in faith, who, through times of both joy and of challenge, learned to know and trust God.

We remember God’s faithfulness to meet them where they were and to call them into love and purpose.

We give thanks for those who lovingly challenged our actions and our attitudes; those who helped us hear the story of God and God’s people and the power that story has to touch our lives.

We give thanks for those who kept the faith in dark times...

We remember in God’s presence this morning, this great company of generations past, joined with us today –the Communion of Saints, present in spirit now... most of whom lived their faith in small, everyday, often unseen acts of faithfulness to God and love of others....and in so doing, made a difference in their world.

Thank-you for the difference you make!

Rev. Jan