Vigils Reading – All Benedictine Saints

THE COMMUNION OF THE SAINTS

By Baldwin of Ford

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I believe, O Lord, in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic Church, the

communion of saints. Here is my hope, here is my trust, here is my confidence,

here is my security -however small it may be- which I have in the confession of

my faith, in the generosity of the Holy Spirit, in the unity of the catholic Church,

in the communion of the saints. If it be granted me from above to love you and to

love my neighbour, then even though my own merits are poor and meager, I

have a hope which is above and beyond all my merits: I am sure that through the

communion of charity the merits of the saints will profit me and that the

communion of the saints can make good my own imperfection and

insufficiency. The prophet comforts me when he says, “I have seen an end of all

perfection, but your commandment is exceeding broad.”

O charity, so broad and so extensive, how great is the house of God, how

vast is the place of his possession! We need not be distressed in our heart; we

need not be confined by the boundaries and limits of our insignificant

righteousness. Charity extends our hope to the communion of the saints, and we

can therefore share with them their merits and their rewards. But the sharing of

their rewards is [reserved] for the time to come, for it is the sharing of the glory

which shall be revealed in us.

Thus there are three sorts of sharing, [three forms of communion, three

ways in which we have things in common]: the sharing of nature, which is

associated with the sharing of sin and the sharing of wrath; then the sharing of

grace; and thirdly, the sharing of glory. By the sharing of grace, the sharing of

nature begins to be restored and the sharing of sin is removed, but by the

sharing of glory, the sharing of nature will be fully and perfectly restored and the

sharing of wrath wholly removed. It is then that God shall wipe away all the

tears from the eyes of the saints. It is then that all the saints will be as one heart

and one soul, and they will have all things in common when God will be all in all.

[Our hope is] that we, too, may come in common to this communion and

come together as one [and therefore we pray that] the grace of our Lord Jesus

Christ and the charity of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit may be with

us all always.