Sunday 1st November 2026
ALL SAINTS DAY A
1st November 2026
A short act of worship and daily devotions
Opening Prayers
What does ‘peace’ look like for you? Take a few moments at the start of this time of worship to find a space, or listen to a piece of music, or light a particular candle, or look at a particular image, which helps to conjure feelings of peace for you.
Sit in the stillness of that peace for as long as you dare, or time allows.
When you are ready, say these words, you may wish to read them aloud if appropriate:
Holy God, Prince of Peace, Spirit of stillness,
I come to you now in prayer and worship.
Bless this time, that I may come to know more of your grace at work in the world, more of your love for me, more of your desire for peace for all people.
Bless the time that follows this one, as I take this aspect of worship with me into my daily life.
Help me to see opportunities to share your love with those around me, this and every day,
Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
You may now wish to say the Lord’s Prayer in a version or translation with which you are familiar
Reading: Matthew 5:1-12 – Click for reading
Responding to the reading
On All Saints’ Day, we remember the saints. Perhaps that word immediately brings particular images to mind: people in stained-glass windows, famous Christians from centuries ago, people whose faith seems extraordinary, courageous and perhaps slightly beyond anything we could imagine for ourselves.
But then we hear Jesus' words in Matthew 5:
“Blessed are the poor in spirit.”
“Blessed are those who mourn.”
“Blessed are the meek.”
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.”
“Blessed are the merciful.”
Does this reframe how we think about sainthood? Jesus doesn't seem to be blessing the successful, he doesn't say: blessed are those who have everything figured out, or blessed are those who always get it right.
Instead, he looks at ordinary, vulnerable, struggling human beings and says: ‘Blessed are you.’ As Dallas Willard has put it in his book ‘The Divine Conspiracy’, it is the Beatitudes that fundamentally rethink how our world works because there is no ‘meritocracy’ in the Kingdom of God. You can’t gain any more of God’s grace or love by your hard work, you can’t earn it, there is no reward system based on ‘merit’ or ‘what you deserve’. That’s what ‘blessed are the poor in spirit’ means: those whose faith is a challenge, is riddled with doubt, is ‘poor’ – they are truly blessed.
Perhaps that is a good place to begin on All Saints’ Day: remembering that saints are not people who escaped being human, they are people who discovered something of God within the messiness of being human. Saints have doubts, struggles, tiredness, they make mistakes, grieve, get things badly wrong.
And yet, through their lives, something of God's love became visible.
Does that change the way you think about the saints you have known personally? You’ve probably encountered some people whose names will never appear in a history book but whose lives quietly shaped yours. Those people who showed us kindness when we needed it, who listened without judging, who stood alongside someone others had abandoned, whose generosity was never announced.
Perhaps these are saints as well: ordinary people through whom extraordinary grace occasionally shines.
The Beatitudes tell us something about the kind of holiness Jesus values: “Blessed are those who mourn.”
On All Saints’ Day, that may feel particularly important. For some of us, remembering saints means remembering people we miss, people whose voices we can still hear, people whose absence remains painfully present. Jesus doesn't tell those who mourn to hurry up and feel better. He reminds us: if that is you, you are blessed. God is making God’s self known even amongst grief, tears and pain.
Our grief is not evidence that our faith has failed.
Then Jesus says: “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.” The saints do not simply comfort the world, they disturb it. They notice injustice and refuse to accept that suffering is simply “the way things are.” They ask awkward questions and stand alongside people whose voices are ignored. They challenge racism, poverty, violence, prejudice and exclusion. They imagine that the world could be different.
The Beatitudes remind us that holiness is not simply about personal goodness, it is also about longing for justice, about refusing to make peace with a world in which some people are denied dignity, safety or belonging.
Perhaps the most surprising thing about All Saints’ Day is that it isn't only about remembering saints who have gone before us. It is also about asking: ‘What kind of saint am I becoming?’
Because the Beatitudes are not qualifications for an elite group of Christians, they are an invitation to all of us.
You don't need to perform miracles. You don't need perfect theology. You don't need unwavering faith. You don't need your life completely sorted out. You simply need to keep allowing God's love to shape you, to guide you, to invite you to discover what is yours to do in the mission of God.
This All Saints Day, may you know that you stand amongst the saints of today and of years gone by: the famous ones and the ones known only to those who they lived alongside. You, like them, are unfinished, imperfect, still learning what it means to follow Jesus.
Here are some questions for reflection this week. You might like to spend some time taking notes or talking with a friend about your responses.
1. Who are the ordinary saints whose love has shaped my life?
2. Which of Jesus’ Beatitudes do I most need to hear today?
3. Where am I being invited to hunger for justice, practice mercy or make peace?
4. What small act of love might allow somebody else to glimpse something of God through me this week?
Blessed are the saints who have gone before us. Blessed are the saints quietly walking beside us. And blessed are we, as we continue becoming the people God calls us to be. Amen.
Hymn or Song: 407 STF – Hear the call of the kingdom – YouTube
Blessing
Christ before, and Christ beside, God all around me, and the Spirit at work in and through me, May you take the relationship that is God with you, God with each of us, into the relationships and situations in which you will find yourself in this week. May you find ways to love with the divine love of God, Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. ____________________________________________________________________
Prayers and Prayer Pointers For This Week
Monday 2nd November
In light of it being All Saints Day yesterday, and the response to the readings, today you might like to make a list of the ‘saints’ in your own life: those ordinary, but extraordinary, people of faith who have guided, blessed or encouraged your journey.
As you write the names down, you might like to picture their faces and pray for each one in turn.
If it’s appropriate, you might like to let them know you have prayed for them today.
Tuesday 3rd November
Continuing our theme around All Saints Day, today is marked in some traditions as the feast day of Martin de Porres, a Peruvian lay brother of the Dominican Order who is today recognised as (amongst other things), the patron saint of Black people, mixed-race people and all those seeking racial harmony.
He died on 3rd November 1639, but his legacy is at least as important today as it was then, nearly 400 years ago. We still live in a world divided by racism and prejudice.
Today, your prayers might be for the spirit of Martin de Porres to continue to inspire our policies, our behaviour, our media, and our own relationships that we can move towards a world where there is no more racism.
Wednesday 4th November
God of all grace, Today I come to you with a simple prayer of gratitude. Thank you for this day, thank you for all that I have received. Help me to live this day as the gift I know it to be. Thank you, Lord. Amen.
Thursday 5th November
Today is celebrated as Guy Fawkes Night or Bonfire Night in many countries.
As fireworks sound and perhaps there is a community bonfire in your community, you might like to think of the line from Graham Kendrick’s hymn ‘Beauty for Brokenness’ and use it as a mantra and prayer-prompt throughout the day: ‘Come change our love from a spark to a flame’.
Friday 6th November
Be still, for the presence of the Lord is in this place.
Do you know that to be true, of where you are right now? Can you quieten the distractions of your mind, of the world outside, of the television, radio, podcasts, notifications, phone calls…and be still?
Make some time today when you can be still, and use the time to pray or simply meditate in silence.
As you open yourself out, are you aware of the presence of God?
Saturday 7th November
Take some time today to look out of a window near you. What do you see? Are there people whose lives pass by outside of your window, perhaps in their cars, on foot or on public transport? Are there glimpses of creation you can see?
As you watch these lives go by, you might like to pray for them, and the people who they will engage with today.
May your grace be known to them, O God. Amen.