From the Breviary according to the use of the Roman Curia, 1529, the conclusion of the sermon for the seventh day in the Octave of All Saints.
Into these joys of the heavenly fatherland shall enter all the confessors, and the rest of the company of the faithful of either sex, those who, turning aside from the temptations and enticements of the flesh, have kept the purity of the Faith with unshaken discipline of the heavenly precepts, united to peace; or else, being once sunk by the evils of the vices, have been led by penance through the remedy of the sacraments, and so emerged from the pit of death.
Therefore, with all the strength of our faith let us unite ourselves to the memory of such great heavenly patrons, which we have now examined so often in these holy readings, that we may strive to imitate the holy and praiseworthy conduct of those whose glory we extol with frequent praise. For, whom the merit of the Saints delight, service in the worship of God must also delight in equal measure. … In our lives, let us also, according to our ability and station in life, follow all the Saints whom we accompany in solemn veneration; that we may be lifted up before the merciful Lord by the protection of those in whose praises we delight.
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| The Trinity Adored by All the Saints; Spanish, ca. 1400. Retable from the Royal Monastery of Valldecrist, a Carthusian house founded by King Martin I of Aragon in 1385. The Saints on the left and right sides are arranged in their traditional ranks: from top to bottom, Patriarchs and Prophets, Apostles and Evangelists, Martyrs, Confessors, Virgins and Holy Women. (From the website of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City) |
