I always listen to classic radio when I am driving. It is something I have done for many years. As certain tracks are played again which I have heard before I try and remember where I was driving the last time I heard it played. Sometimes it is easier to remember than others. November is a time of remembering in the church year.
The period from All Saints to Advent is a time when we are reminded of the fact that ‘no Christian is solitary’. All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day are days when we reflect on this sense of belonging and remembering. On All Saints’ we celebrate men and women in whose lives the Church as a whole has seen God at work. God’s work of grace can be seen in the ordinary and extraordinary, as any flick through a dictionary of saints will demonstrate. The services where we commemorate the faithful departed are a more local and personal way of remembering those whom we have loved and are no longer with us. They allow us to remember those whom we have known more directly, those saints in our lives, who have nurtured us, who gave us life, and made us who we are.
Then we move to Remembrance Sunday, where we explore further the theme of memory, both corporate and individual, as we confront issues of war and peace, loss and self-giving, memory and forgetting. So November – a time of remembering, of reflecting, of moving towards a renewed hope as we prepare to celebrate the birth of God’s son sent to save us.
That’s worth remembering.
Canon Andrew