Sunday, November 1, 2026
All Saints
Matthew 5:1-12
Listen to the whole reading — MP3
First reading
Revelation 7:2-4,9-14
I saw another angel ascend from the sunrise, having the seal of the living God. He cried with a loud voice to the four angels to whom it was given to harm the earth and the sea, saying, “Don’t harm the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, until we have sealed the bondservants of our God on their foreheads!” I heard the number of those who were sealed, one hundred forty-four thousand, sealed out of every tribe of the children of Israel: After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude, which no man could count, out of every nation and of all tribes, peoples, and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, dressed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands. They cried with a loud voice, saying, “Salvation be to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” All the angels were standing around the throne, the elders, and the four living creatures; and they fell on their faces before his throne, and worshiped God, saying, “Amen! Blessing, glory, wisdom, thanksgiving, honor, power, and might, be to our God forever and ever! Amen.” One of the elders answered, saying to me, “These who are arrayed in the white robes, who are they, and from where did they come?” I told him, “My lord, you know.” He said to me, “These are those who came out of the great tribulation. They washed their robes, and made them white in the Lamb’s blood.
Responsorial psalm
Psalms 24:1-2,3-4,5-6
The earth is the Lord’s, with its fullness; the world, and those who dwell therein. For he has founded it on the seas, and established it on the floods. Who may ascend to the Lord’s hill? Who may stand in his holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart; who has not lifted up his soul to falsehood, and has not sworn deceitfully. He shall receive a blessing from the Lord, righteousness from the God of his salvation. This is the generation of those who seek Him, who seek your face—even Jacob. Selah.
Second reading
1 John 3:1-3
See how great a love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God! For this cause the world doesn’t know us, because it didn’t know him. Beloved, now we are children of God, and it is not yet revealed what we will be. But we know that, when he is revealed, we will be like him; for we will see him just as he is. Everyone who has this hope set on him purifies himself, even as he is pure.
Gospel
Matthew 5:1-12
Seeing the multitudes, he went up onto the mountain. When he had sat down, his disciples came to him. He opened his mouth and taught them, saying, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the gentle, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God. Blessed are those who have been persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. “Blessed are you when people reproach you, persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven. For that is how they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
Lectio
The great multitude that no one could count — this is what the Church sets before us today. Not the famous saints only, not the ones with feast days and statues, but a crowd beyond counting, from every nation and tribe and language. When the elder asks John who they are, John doesn't know. "My lord, you know." And the answer is tender: these are the ones who came through the great tribulation and washed their robes in the Lamb's blood. In other words, these are ordinary people who suffered and stayed faithful, who let themselves be cleansed. Holiness, it turns out, is not rare. It is simply hidden.
And how did they get there? The Gospel gives us the map, though it hardly looks like one. Blessed are the poor in spirit, the mourning, the gentle, the hungry, the merciful, the persecuted. These are not achievements to be earned but conditions of heart that God calls blessed — often the very conditions we spend our lives trying to escape. The saints are not those who avoided mourning and poverty and persecution. They are those who let God meet them there. The beatitudes describe the texture of a real life handed over to God, not a trophy shelf.
John holds it all together with a single astonished sentence: "See how great a love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God." This is the secret the saints knew in their bones. Before they were anything else, they were beloved children. Everything else — the washed robes, the gentleness, the clean hands of the psalm — grew out of that identity, not into it. We do not become children of God by becoming holy. We become holy because we already are, astonishingly, His.
Where in your life right now are you poor, or mourning, or quietly persecuted — the very place you would never call "blessed" — and what would change if you let God meet you there instead of waiting to fix it first?
When you hear that you are a beloved child of God before you have done anything to deserve it, whose voice inside you argues against it, and what is it saying today?
Ora reads this aloud, every morning, free. Ora