Reflection: Sunday 30th October - All Saints' Day - and for the week ahead:

Scripture:

‘But I say to you that listen, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those
who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other
also; and from anyone who takes away your coat do not withhold even your shirt. Give to
everyone who begs from you; and if anyone takes away your goods, do not ask for them
again. Do to others as you would have them do to you.  (Luke 6:27-31)

Reflection:

Someone needs ‘the patience of a saint’ we sometimes say, and may be referring to the qualities and actions that Jesus is recommending to us here, and which can seem impossible! Who is that good?

This week the Church celebrates both All Saints Day and All Souls Day. Both in different ways taken up with thoughts of those who have gone before us. Not that they were all saints, of course. Far from it, in some cases. But even the saints were not always so saintly.

Because saints are not all dead, holy people, so much better at being good than us. The saints, the way that word is used in the Bible, are just those who are trying to live God-centred lives, doing what God wants from us, which in its simplest form can be expressed thus: Do to others as you would have them do to you. That simple, and that difficult. 

Revd David