Spiritual Touchstone:
“On All Saints' Day, it is not just the saints of the church that we should remember in our prayers, but all the foolish ones and wise ones, the shy ones and overbearing ones, the broken ones and whole ones, the despots and tosspots and crackpots of our lives who, one way or another, have been our particular fathers and mothers and saints, and whom we loved without knowing we loved them and by whom we were helped to whatever little we may have, or ever hope to have, of some kind of seedy sainthood of our own.”
– Frederick Buechner
Growing up Presbyterian, I wasn't very familiar with the concept of All Saints Day, even though I did love the Ralph Vaugh Williams hymn "For All the Saints", I mostly remember singing it at funerals, not on a particular Sunday. So, All Saints Day was something that was celebrated by Catholics, but not us. Fortunately, my horizons were broadened over the years and now it is one of my favorite church feast days because I now understand that we are all saints-in-the-making who can be inspired by the stories of saints from the past.
As some of you know, I am an oblate at the Monastery of Christ in the Desert and when you take vows as a Benedictine oblate, you also choose a saint name. I chose to become Sister Hildegard in honor of Hildegard of Bingen, the early medieval abbess, herbalist, and musician who is not only a saint, but has been named a Doctor of the Roman Catholic Church.
Ironically, or perhaps providentially, the day that I took my vows at Christ in the Desert was the feast day of St. Gregory of Nyssa, the patron of St. Gregory of Nyssa Episcopal Church in San Francisco, one of my favorite churches. St. Gregory’s is also the location for the most magnificent depiction of the community of saints you can imagine.
From their website, The Dancing Saints icon is a monumental, surprising and powerful statement of faith for the ages, created by artist Mark Dukes with the people of St. Gregory’s. Completed in 2009, it wraps around the entire church rotunda, showing ninety larger-than life saints, four animals, stars, moons, suns and a twelve-foot tall dancing Christ. The saints—ranging from traditional figures like King David, Teresa of Avila and Frances of Assisi to unorthodox and non-Christian people like Malcolm X and Anne Frank —represent musicians, artists, mathematicians, martyrs, scholars, mystics, lovers, prophets and sinners from all times, from many faiths and backgrounds.
May all the saints pray - and dance - with us. Amen.
