All Saints Day is a universal Christian feast honoring all Christian saints -known and unknown--and celebrated by the Catholic, Orthodox, Lutheran and Anglican churches. It was Pope Gregory IV who in 835 ordered the Feast of All Saints to be universally observed on Nov. 1.
It is a day on which we thank God for giving ordinary men and women a share in His holiness and heavenly glory as a reward for their faith. The feast is observed to honor them by imitating their lives and to seek their intercession for us before Christ, the only mediator between God and man (I Tim. 2/5). Today the Church reminds us that God's call for holiness is universal and all are called to live in His love and make His love real in the lives of those around them. Holiness is related to the word wholesomeness. It means living whole lives, lives of integrity and truth, wholesome and integrated lives in which we are close to others while being close to God.

Reasons why we honor saints

1- They put their trust in Christ and lived heroic lives of faith. St. Paul asks us to serve and honor such noble souls. In his epistles to the Corinthians, to Philip and to Timothy, he advises Christians to welcome, serve and honor those who have put their trust in Jesus. The saints enjoy heavenly bliss as a reward for their faith in Jesus. Hence they deserve our veneration.
2- They are our models. They teach us by their lives that Christ’s holy life of love, mercy and unconditional forgiveness can be lived by ordinary people, of all walks of life and at all times.
3- They are our heavenly mediators who intercede for us before Jesus, the only mediator between God and us (James: 5/16-18, Exodus: 32/13), Jer. 15:1, Revel. 8:3-4,).
4- They are the instruments that God uses to work miracles at present, just as He used the rod of Moses (Exodus), the bones of the dead (II Kings 13/21), the towel of Paul (Acts: 19/12) and the shadow of Peter (Acts 5/15) to work miracles.

All Saints Day” is a day, not only to remember and thank God, but also to pray for the help of the saints in heaven. It is a day to glorify Jesus Christ, who by his holy life and death has made the saints holy. This feast offers a challenge to each one of us: anybody can become a saint, irrespective of his or her age, life-style or living conditions. St. Augustine accepted this challenge when he asked the question: "If others can become saints, why can't I?"
Why there is a special day for all saints? There are countless saints and martyrs, men, women and children united with God in the heavenly glory whose feasts we do not celebrate. Many of these would be our own parents and grand-parents, brothers and sisters who were heroic women and men of faith. “All Saints Day” is intended to keep their honorable memory. Hence today's feast can be called the feast of the Unknown Saint, in line with the tradition of the “Unknown Soldier.” As Christians we know that a person's life story is not limited to what happens to him or her between birth and death. Our story starts before we are born, at our conception, and goes beyond the day we die, to all eternity. That is why we do not simply forget people after they die and the Church sets apart two days to remember them, honor them and pray for their special intercession on our behalf: All Souls Day and All Saints Day.

Today’s readings: The first reading from the Book of Revelation speaks of John’s vision of saints in their heavenly glory: “a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, robed in white, with palm branches in their hands" (Rev 7:9). All Saints Day reminds us that we are called to be a part of that vast multitude of holy ones whose numbers are so great they cannot be counted. Bringing the “Beatitudes” to our mind in today’s gospel, the Church reminds us that all the saints whose feasts we celebrate today walked the hard and narrow path of the Beatitudes to arrive at their heavenly bliss. On the feast of All Saints the church invites us and challenges us to walk the walk of the saints and not just talk the talk: "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven" (Matthew 7:21). Let the reflection on the heroic lives of the saints and the imitation of their life style enable us to hear from our Lord the words of grand welcome to eternal bliss: "Well done, good and faithful servant, enter into the joys of your master" (Matthew 25:21).