Besides Halloween and trick and treating, All Saints Day is the time we remember the saints that have gone before us into glory. Just before All Saints my dad died Oct 25, 1991, and mom on Oct 21st, 1976. They joined the 'great white host" which we read about in the book of Revelation. And it is a time I am aware of my own future with all the saints in heaven, whatever that will be. Here is a poem/prayer by an indigenous elder and Episcopal Priest, Steven Charleston,
A Passing Prayer
"The hour
will come, the time of my passing,
I do not know when or how, I do not know if I will be surprised or relieved or aware.
I only know that one day I will stand,
With my back to what has been And my face toward what I will discover.
When that moment arrives, I pray a simple passing prayer;
Receive me as I am, O Spirit
As trusting in your kindness as when I first breathed
The breath
you gave me.
Forgive my faults - Reveal my learnings - Bless those I leave behind
Let my love redeem what is past
And Welcome what is to come."
The following is a reposting something I wrote six years ago on All Saints weekend.
Remembering the Saints
I remember when Pastor Schroeder came to call on us to plan mom's funeral and asked dad what hymn he would like, and dad said, "oh, I guess, "Den Store Hvide Flok"., (Who is this host Arrayed in White?) which had been sung at innumerable funerals at Norwegian Lutheran churches over the generations. It is a Norwegian folk tune from the 17th century. Aunt Minda asked that I sing it at her funeral and I also sang it for Uncle Leonard, and brother-in-law Jerrold Lerum's funeral. And others.
Judy's dad also died in October, the 24th '03, and her mom Bina in early November (2018), - I sang at her funeral too, (Come to Me All Who Labor and are Heavy Laden).
In Latin America the 'day of the dead" has great significance when families go to the cemeteries and spend time with the souls of their departed loved ones. If we still lived in Kenyon, we would have gone to tend to the folks' graves at Holden and wandered amongst the resting places of many of my ancestors - from great grandparents Knut and Mari down to the present and where Judy and my ashes will one day be placed.
This always has been a favorite time of the year for me. Growing up on the farm it was a comforting time when all the harvest was complete, and we were prepared for the long cold winter to come. It is a good time to think of our mortality and the coming reunion we will have with all the saints.
Peace, Jerry - October 27, 2020
Some grave makers of ancestors in the cemetery surrounding Holden Lutheran Church – in rural Kenyon, Minnesota. (with one exception)
Great grandmother, Ribor Rolfseng, and husband Lars Jensen Romo , immigrated from Norway in 1866. They were parents of my grandfather, Jens Romo, whom I never knew as he died in 1930. (She is buried in the Emanual church cemetery in Aspelund)
The Aaker gravestone, near which are buried Great-great-grandparents, Knut and Mari Aaker, great-grandparents Nils and Martha Aaker, (Follingstead), grandparents Olaf and Ellen Aaker (Solberg), and numerous other Aaker relatives. All three generations lived and labored on the Aaker “home place” settled in 1857.
