by Carol Dixon
The hymn that best describes All Saints’ Day hymn and invites us to remember the Saints who have gone before us is one I first learned at school. Originally it had 11 verses but now we mainly sing five.
HYMN For all the saints who from their labours rest https://youtu.be/hCx-8G3rUS8?feature=shared (words below)
For all the saints, who from their labours rest,
who thee by faith before the world confessed,
thy Name, O Jesus, be forever blessed.
Alleluia, Alleluia!
Thou wast their Rock, their Fortress and their Might;
thou, Lord, their Captain in the well fought fight;
thou, in the darkness drear, their one true Light.
Alleluia, Alleluia!
O may thy servants, faithful, true and bold,
Strive as the saints who nobly fought of old
And win with them the victor’s crown of gold.
Alleluia, Alleluia!
O blest communion, fellowship divine!
we feebly struggle, they in glory shine;
all are one in thee, for all are thine.1
Alleluia, Alleluia!
From earth’s wide bounds, from ocean’s farthest coast,
through gates of pearl streams in the countless host,
and singing to Father, Son and Holy Ghost:2
Alleluia, Alleluia!
POEM – ALL SAINTS by Margot Krebs Neale
Poem and Image by Margot Krebs Neale from ‘Sounding the Seasons’ Used with permission
Though Satan breaks our dark glass into shards
Each shard still shines with Christ’s reflected light,
It glances from the eyes, kindles the words
Of all his unknown saints. The dark is bright
With quiet lives and steady lights undimmed,
The witness of the ones we shunned and shamed.
Plain in our sight and far beyond our seeing
He weaves them with us in the web of being
They stand beside us even as we grieve,
The lone and left behind whom no one claimed,
Unnumbered multitudes, he lifts above
The shadow of the gibbet and the grave,
To triumph where all saints are known and named;
The gathered glories of His wounded love.