Today we celebrate All Saints' Day, the feast of all the saints. Every 1st November, the Church honours the countless crowds of those who have been living and luminous witnesses to Christ. Holiness is not a path reserved for the elite: it is for all those who choose to follow in Christ’s footsteps. Begun in the 7th century, this liturgical solemnity is a great celebration for everyone and a call from the Lord to become holy via the holiness that comes from God, thanks to the Holy Spirit received in baptism.

The verse of the Alleluia, Venite ad me shows the teaching of Jesus, reported by St Matthew (11: 28), which reveals to us a divine solicitude in our daily walk, aiming to comfort us, to relieve us, in the way that we come to Him – venite ad me – “come to me”. It is God who freely wants to be loved. He presents Himself as begging for love. A wonder of divine humility in order to approach us without hurting us. He does not remove the burden; He helps us to bear it. That daily burden which, assumed with divine help, gradually transforms our heart of stone into a heart of flesh (Ezekiel 36: 26). How is this possible? This burden that weighs on us makes us accessible to the secrets of the King. Jesus gives the deepest reason for this: “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for hiding these things from the wise and skilful and revealing them to the little ones” (Matthew 11: 25). This Gospel passage perfectly illustrates a comment made by Abbot Paul Labutte in his biography of Mother Yvonne Aimée de Jésus, great mystic and first Superior General of the Augustinian Sisters of Malestroit (1901-1951): he admits to being impressed by the astonishing intimacy that the Lord likes to have with those close to him!

The 7th mode (GROUND – RE – FA) vocalisations are aerial, but in this flight all is sweetness and peace, and one feels the power of the Lord and His protective goodness. One can admire the opulent vocalisation of “laboratis” as well as the final vocalisation.