All Saints · Year A · Matthew 5:1-12a
The Beatitudes
For Sunday, November 1, 2026
Sunday is All Saints, and the Gospel is the Beatitudes. Jesus goes up the mountain, sits down, and teaches. Blessed are the poor in spirit. Blessed are they who mourn, the meek, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, the merciful, the clean of heart, the peacemakers, the persecuted. Eight of them, and a ninth for the disciples in front of Him: blessed are you when they insult you because of me.
Look at who is on the list. The poor in spirit. The ones who mourn. The meek, the merciful, the persecuted. Every one of them is someone with their guard down. Teenagers are not ready to talk about vulnerability, at least not in our Wednesday night sessions. Jesus starts there, and sometimes I feel like He is talking right to me. The blessing goes to the people who aren't pretending they have life figured out.
On All Saints the first reading sees a crowd no one could count, from every nation, in white robes. Those are the saints, and only a few have a feast day on our calendar. They are the people who took Jesus at His word on this list and lived it. The second reading says the rest: we are God's children now. The list is for us.
Five minutes at the table
- Isn't it freeing to know that Jesus loves you and wants you to feel it? No need to be anyone else, or to work out who your people are. What is hard today that you're trying to figure out on your own? Which Beatitude comes close?
- Every saint was a kid once. Some ordinary, some on the wrong path, some truly special. What does a saint in the making look like at thirteen?
- Who have we lost that we could pray for right now, together? Which saint would you ask to pray for them with us, and why?
Class discussion topics
Oct 28 — Sponsor Night. A sponsor or a parent comes with each student.
“Who would you pick as a sponsor, and why?”
Sponsor Night. Each kid comes with a sponsor or a parent. It is the night the sponsor stops being a name on a form and sits down next to your child.
The Church asks for a sponsor for a reason. A kid can learn the faith from a book. Living it is learned from a person. The sponsor is the one your child picked to watch, and to call.
Sunday's Gospel is a description of a life, eight lines long. All Saints is the Church saying those lives were real, a crowd no one could count. A sponsor is a smaller version of the same thing. Someone your child can point to and say, that is what it looks like.
The Sponsor Information Form is due November 4, with the testimony from the sponsor's parish and the sponsor's letter of promise.
For the ride home: tell them about someone whose faith you admire, and why. Then talk about how it is going with their sponsor. If the pick has not been made yet, it is time to decide. If there is anything to talk through, reach out to me.