I have several books by writer/sculptor/artist Brian Andreas, whose StoryPeople has very short illustrated stories that sound like parts of overheard conversations or observation that stick in one’s mind. One of my favorites is:

            I don’t know if I really believe in all the saints, she said,
            but I pray to them anyhow. It makes every night feel more
            like a slumber party.

Slumber Party, Brian Andreas, http://www.StoryPeople.com

All Saint’s Day celebrations can get pretty triumphal with high-end hymns and florid texts, but that’s not what the readings indicate, not really. Revelation, the Beatitudes—they’re about all the people whom God’s love has made God’s children.

The very useful planning list on the NPM website has a number of music suggestions, including singing a setting of the Litany of the Saints as an opening processional. But I’d suggest using, perhaps after Communion, a simple version with a sung refrain, whose verses can incorporate both named and unnamed saints—the holy people of our day and age, those who inspire us to live as heroically as they. (The official saints tend to be popes and founders of religious orders, whose followers have the time and money to pursue a saint’s cause.)

Just try to choose music with this reminder: the saints are not “up there,” distant and out of reach; they are our spiritual family. And like us, they are rarely perfect; they have quirks and idiosyncrasies. Some, by today’s standards, might not pass a basic psych exam. But they’re ours. And in the same way we have favorite relatives—aunts, uncles, cousins, whatever—we can have favorite saints. And we can invite them to our slumber party every night.