All Saints Day & Thankfulness

Today in Chapel at RC I introduced our Chapel theme for this month, which is "BE Thankful." 

This year we are going through different "BE" themes every month, and so today we kicked off our season of Thanksgiving with this theme. 

Today is also All Saints Day, so with the help of one of our student leaders she and I came up with an introduction to Be Thankful that also included an introduction and focus on All Saints and giving thanks with that in mind. 

I figured I'd share what I said in Chapel today for those who maybe don't know what All Saints Day is (because I didn't until very recently), or just want to read on what we're up to in Chapel. 

So, here it is....

Intro to All Saints

All Saints’ Day – November 1 – is a Christian holiday to celebrate the saints, both known and unknown, especially martyrs. The celebration is based on the belief that there is some connection between all of God’s people, both dead and alive, in heaven and on earth. Whether official saints or community and family members who have died, saints are the cloud of witnesses that went before us, our role models, those who imparted wisdom to us, who taught us, encouraged us, prayed for us, and so on. So, All Saints’ Day is a day to remember, to mourn, and to look forward to the day when all will be united and whole in the kingdom of God. (borrowed from Naomi Walters)

A prayer with stories of thankfulness

We found it fitting to incorporate All Saints with our introduction to our next Chapel series. For the next month we will be exploring the theme of “Be thankful.” With Thanksgiving only 3 weeks away this is the time of year where we work to intentionally acknowledge and express thankfulness for the good things in our lives. This can be people, experiences, coffee, a family member, a pet, a book, ….. The list can go on….

So today as we enter into this season of giving thanks we are going to begin by expressing and listening to thankfulness for people in our lives, past and/or present who have impacted us - the great cloud of witnesses who have gone before us, the ones who have imparted wisdom to us, those who have encouraged us, and more.

In a minute we will sing Great Are You Lord, which we have sang before this semester, but this time I want you to sing or reflect on the words as an offering of thanksgiving for God’s goodness in our lives. In between each verse we will hear from a student or faculty or staff member about a person they are thankful for and why. We will then sing the next verse of the song as a response and recognition of their thankfulness and a prayer of praise and thanksgiving to God for that gift.  

When we express thankfulness and when we sing praises to our God we join the many before us who have done the same. I think that is a beautiful image - to think of all the people before us, those now, and in the future who all give praise to God for the blessings in our lives.

At this point we sang Great Are You Lord, and in between each verse we heard from someone about a person they are thankful for. The people that were given thanks for included family members, the RC community, a social club, and a theologian/pastor. I think it was a really beautiful moment to hear from those in our community about people they are thankful for that have influenced them. 

I then invited everyone to continue to practice thankfulness by stopping by our office and writing something they're thankful for on a giant piece of butcher paper we have hanging on the wall. This is one of my favorite things we do every year. It is so encouraging to see so many people share what they are thankful for with our community. 

Thinking of things to be thankful for isn't always easy. If you're having a hard time thinking of things to be thankful for I encourage you to start with this simple phrase:

"I am thankful for __________ because ____________." 

Fill it in with a person, or anything else you can think of that you are thankful for, and spend a moment reflecting on that person or thing and give thanks to God for it. 

When we give thanks in word or song we join the many before us who have done the same, we join the many alongside us who are doing the same, and we look forward to the many in the future who will do the same. 

Happy All Saints Day - may we enter this season of thanksgiving acknowledging the great cloud of witnesses that surrounds us, may we give thanks for those who are near us now, and intentionally reflect on all we have to be thankful for.