FEAST OF ALL SOULS
Altar Server Prayer: Father in heaven, Your Son Jesus Christ showed his
love for you by serving his brothers and sisters in need. I now
ask you to give me your help I serve you and your people Open my mouth to
praise you in word and song. Open my ears to hear your word. Open my hand to do
your work well. Take from me all evil and distracting thoughts.
Help me to know what I should do and do it well. Help me to serve reverently at your Holy Altar and give you praise and glory now and for ever. Amen
no torment shall ever touch
them.
In the eyes of the unwise,
they did appear to die,their going looked like a
disaster,
their leaving us, like
annihilation;but they are in peace.
If they experienced punishment
as men see it,
their hope was rich with
immortality;
slight was their affliction,
great will their blessings be.
God has put them to the test and proved them
worthy to be
with him;
he has tested them like gold
in a furnace,
and accepted them as a holocaust.
When the time comes for his
visitation they will shine out;
as sparks run through the
stubble, so will they. They shall judge nations, rule
over peoples,and the Lord will be their
king for ever. They who trust in him will
understand the truth, those who are faithful will
live with him in love; for grace and mercy await
those he has chosen.
Hope is not deceptive, because the
love of God has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit which has been
given us. We were still helpless when at his appointed moment Christ died for
sinful men. It is not easy to die even for a good man – though of course
for someone really worthy, a man might be prepared to die – but what
proves that God loves us is that Christ died for us while we were still
sinners. Having died to make us righteous, is it likely that he would now fail
to save us from God’s anger? When we were reconciled to God by the death of his
Son, we were still enemies; now that we have been reconciled, surely we may
count on being saved by the life of his Son? Not merely because we have been
reconciled but because we are filled with joyful trust in God, through our Lord
Jesus Christ, through whom we have already gained our reconciliation.
Jesus exclaimed, ‘I bless you, Father, Lord of heaven and of earth, for hiding these things from the learned and the clever and revealing them to mere children. Yes, Father, for that is what it pleased you to do. Everything has been entrusted to me by my Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father, just as no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.
‘Come to me, all you who labour and are overburdened, and I will give you rest. Shoulder my yoke and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. Yes, my yoke is easy and my burden light.’ Reflection
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