When the Saints Go Marching In

The readings for the Mass can be found here

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Catechesis At Home – Solemnity of All Saints [All Saints Day] – Year B

When the Saints Go Marching In

REFLECTION – When the Saints Go Marching In, I Want to Be in That Number!

Remember that 100-year-old Christian hymn that has become a wonderful Black spiritual, “When the Saints Go Marching In”? If you are not familiar with it, here is Louis Armstrong’s 1939 version that made it famous, and since that one does not have any verses except the chorus, here is one with a few. Here are the lyrics of the chorus that we are using this week to focus our reflection:

O when the saints go marching in,
O when the saints go marching in;
O Lord, I want to be in that number
When the saints go marching in!

And the Scripture from Revelation 7:9-10, 14

After this I had a vision of a great multitude,
which no one could count,
from every nation, race, people, and tongue.
They stood before the throne and before the Lamb,
wearing white robes and holding palm branches in their hands.
They cried out in a loud voice:

    “Salvation comes from our God, who is seated on the throne,
and from the Lamb.”

Our hope is in the Lord, who sacrificed Himself for us as the Lamb, once and for all. When we are baptized, we are given the grace of His salvation: We become saints! Yet, in our life, we stumble, we fall to temptation, we sin, which tarnishes our soul (the white garment) and we must return to God’s grace through Reconciliation and His mercy. The promise is that we WILL be washed clean again and again, as long as we repent when we fall to sin, desire to be washed clean and to live in accord with God’s Law and His will for us. It seems impossible that we can enter into the heavenly Presence – we who are weak, prone to temptation, and stubborn in our acceptance of God’s love and grace. It is only through the Blood of the Lamb that we are washed clean and become saints. It is through His love and mercy that we are brought back into His Perfection.

DISCUSSION – Jesus Gives Us Direction So When the Saints Go Marching In We ARE In That number!

 Our Baptismal call is to be holy: “To be perfect, as our heavenly Father is perfect” (Mt. 5:48). The Magisterium through the direction of the Holy Spirit says, “In order to reach this perfection the faithful should use the strength dealt out to them by Christ’s gift, so that…doing the will of the Father in everything, they may wholeheartedly devote themselves to the glory of God and to the service of their neighbor. Thus the holiness of the People of God will grow in fruitful abundance, as is clearly shown in the history of the Church through the lives of so many saints” CCC 2013 quoting Lumen Gentium, 40.

Jesus gives us the directions to serve God through our neighbor in this week’s Gospel – The Beatitudes. This week, talk with your family and friends about how you already DO these things and how you can be more intentional about doing these things for God’s GLORY.

ACTIVITY – Sing When the Saints Go Marching In; Pray And Live Like We Will Be In That Number​

Sing together “When the Saints Go Marching In”. The lyrics and a link to an instrumental version are below in the downloadable PDF.

Pray together a Litany of Saints that includes the names of your family and friends’ patron saints, baptismal and confirmation saints. The litany is also in the PDF.

Live together in God’s will by practicing the Beatitudes with one another and the wider community – at school, work, play, and church. The Beatitudes are the last page of the PDF, and can be printed and placed on the refrigerator.

LISTEN – We Talk About When The Saints Go Marching In in This Episode of Our Podcast, On The Road to Perfection

What Are You Doing to Make Sure You Are in That Number When The Saints Go Marching In?