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Morning Devotion for the Season after Pentecost
October 31, 2025
Eve of All Saints
Reading: Wisdom 3:1-9
But the souls of the righteous are in the hand of God,
and no torment will ever touch them.
In the eyes of the foolish they seemed to have died,
and their departure was thought to be a disaster,
and their going from us to be their destruction;
but they are at peace.
For though in the sight of others they were punished,
their hope is full of immortality.
Having been disciplined a little, they will receive great good,
because God tested them and found them worthy of himself;
like gold in the furnace he tried them,
and like a sacrificial burnt-offering he accepted them.
In the time of their visitation they will shine forth,
and will run like sparks through the stubble.
They will govern nations and rule over peoples,
and the Lord will reign over them for ever.
Those who trust in him will understand truth,
and the faithful will abide with him in love,
because grace and mercy are upon his holy ones,
and he watches over his elect..
Meditation: Jo Ann B. Jones
I was a shy child and the prospect of ‘trick or treating” was daunting to me. I cringed at each door, waiting for it to be opened, and shyly saying, “Trick or treat!” I was not a great lover of candy as a young child and I believe that my parents ate most of the candy that I brought home on Halloween. Fast forward now to my early years in my home in Germantown. I cannot explain to you how it came to be that I took great delight in greeting those children in my neighborhood who came to my house on Halloween and demanding that they scream “Trick or treat!” before I would distribute candy to them. Recently, however, the family composition in my neighborhood has changed so drastically, that for the past three years no one has ventured out to trick or treat. I have no plans to greet them and expect to spend a quiet evening tonight.
This prospect allows me to enjoy the eve of All Saints’ Day. As with other celebrated eves, I relish the opportunity to rest into the expectation of the feast day to come. Each one arouses different points of contemplation and reflection. Now, having long ago rid myself of the expectation that I might attain sainthood, I can more fully understand and appreciate that those persons who have been canonized, exercised great faith in God that enabled them, with God’s help, to endure and overcome great obstacles in the exercise of their faith. This is, indeed, something to celebrate and to give God thanks for his immeasurable love. And so, it seems, that this passage calls us to remember with gratitude and joy those saints whom we celebrate and to note the mystery into which they have entered.
This passage is a beautiful and moving meditation on time. Events that proceed in an order that God decreed are situated in contrast with man’s situation. God’s purposes are often, if not, usually, unknown to man. Note the importance of the right time. It is recognized in Wisdom literature. God’s rule over time and events is assumed here. Man cannot dispose of such times as planting, much less birth and death. The broad arc of life and the individual fixed times within it are known in general, but man does not know the particular hour, nor is man ever sure of obtaining results from his actions.
This passage from Wisdom offers assurance that the death of the just is in reality only the beginning of a better existence, first a period of chastisement and then they would enter into blissful immortality. The precise timing and location of these events is vague. It is thought that the soul lives on once freed from the body and returns to the place from whence it came. When and where these occurrences take place are left intentionally vague. It is all, indeed, a mystery.
Collect of a Saint
O God, you have brought us near to an innumerable company of angels, and to the spirits of just men made perfect: Grant us during our earthly pilgrimage to abide in their fellowship, and in our heavenly country to become partakers of their joy; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
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