All Saints Day with a Common Octave

All Saints Day (Nov 1) is one of the great feasts of the Church and it has a Common Octave.  From Nov 1 - Nov 8, it is a time to rejoice in the saints! 

 

A Common Octave is one where it is commemorated when another feast occurs, but is not commemorated for feasts that are Doubles of the 1st or 2nd class.  Therefore next week, the feast of All Souls (Nov 3) and the feast of St Charles Borromeo (Nov 4), are only Duplex, so it is commemorated both days.  

Take a look at a 1962 calendar for the week of Nov 1 - Nov 8.  After Nov 4, there are only feria days.  When they cancelled the Octave of All Saints, all that was left was feria days!  How does this make the Liturgical calendar richer???  How does this distinguish greater feasts from lesser feasts??  We can reclaim this Octave by celebrating it at home . . . for now.  

 

Ideas to celebrate the Octave at home: 

Display a picture of the heavenly Court for the entire Octave

Read the entry in The Liturgical Year by Dom Gueranger for each day

Pray or chant the Litany of Saints

Read short Lives of the Saints focusing on a certain group of saints each day, ie. Martyrs, Bishops, Holy Women, Popes, Priests, Founders of Religious Orders, etc.

Read the Collect, Secret and Postcommunion of All Saints at Mass every day or privately in your home

(On the ferias, read the propers from All Saints on Nov 1)

Go to a cemetery every day (Nov 1-Nov 8) and pray for the dead to gain a plenary indulgence for the Poor Souls  (under the usual conditions of confession, communion and prayers for the traditional intentions of the Holy Father.)

 

Mary, Queen of All Saints, pray for us!