Saints And Feasts

Festivitatem hodiernam Sanctorum omnium cum omni devotione dignum est celebrari. Nimirum si magna videtur, et est, beati Petri solemnitas, seu beati Stephani, aut cujuslibet caeterorum; quanta ista est, quae non unius tantum est, sed universorum? Verum non ignoratis, fratres, saecularibus id moris esse, ut diebus festis festiva sibi convivia parent: et quanto fuerit solemnitas clarior, tanto splendidius epulentur. Quid ergo? nonne et his qui convertuntur ad cor, cordis deliciae sunt quaerendae, et spiritualibus spiritualia comparanda? Propterea jam paratum est convivium nostrum, fratres, jam cocta sunt omnia, et epulandi tempus advenit. Dignum est enim ut prius anima satietur, quod haec portio sine dubitatione, et sine comparatione sit potior: praesertim cum Sanctorum solemnitates manifestum sit ad animas magis, quam ad corpora pertinere; et quae animarum sunt, animae plus acceptent, quippe naturali quadam eis cognatione conjunctae. Quibus propterea quoque sancti isti compatiuntur amplius, propterea magis desiderant animarum bona, et plus earum refectionibus delectantur, quoniam et ipsi similes nobis fuere passibiles; et ipsi peregrinationis hujus et exsilii miserabilis deploravere molestias; et ipsi grave hujus corporis onus, et tumultus saeculi, et tentationes experti sunt inimici. Nihil itaque dubium, quin gratior eis sit et multo acceptabilior illa festivitas, qua intenditur epulis animarum, quam sit ea, quae celebratur a saecularibus, curam carnis perficientibus in desideriis voluptatum. Sanctus Bernardus Clarae Vallensis, Sermones De Sanctis, In Festo Omnium Sanctorum, Qui Habitat, Sermo I Source: Migne PL 183.453b-d

Today's feast of all the saints is worthy to be celebrated with complete devotion. Certainly if the feast of Saint Peter, and Saint Stephen, and all the others seem great, as they are, how great is this one, which is not only of one saint but of all of them? Truly, brothers, you are not ignorant that according to worldly custom banquets are prepared on feast days, and as much more great this brighter solemnity, so more great should the feasting be. What then? Is it not to those who are converted in their hearts that the delights of the heart should be sought and that the spiritual should prepare spiritual things? Therefore a feast has been prepared for us, brothers, now everything has been cooked and the time of the banquet has come. Without doubt and without comparison it is right that before the soul is sated that its portion should be greater, certainly when the solemnity of the saints has been revealed to pertain more to the soul than to the body and the things of the soul should be accepted by souls, since there is a natural joining of understanding between them. Because of this these saints are also more compassionate, since they more desire the goods of the soul and delight in their refreshment, for like us they were passible, and they deplored the troubles of this journey and wretched exile, and the grave weight of the body, and the tumults of the times, and the testing trials of the enemy. Thus there is no doubt that those festivals are more welcome and acceptable to them which are intended for the feasting of souls than those which are celebrated in the world, where the care of the flesh is perfected in the desires of the will. Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, Sermons For The Saints, On The Feast Of All Saints, from Sermon 1