I want to take a break talking about the Papal Visit to chat
with you about the feasts of All Saints and All Soul’s. These are two days set apart by the Church to
honor those who have gone before us.
When I think about All Saint’s Day, I can’t help but reflect
on all of the people who are every day Saints in my life, especially after
listening to Father’s homily today. My
life has been so richly blessed with people who are faithful to God and spread
the Gospel message by the way they live and care for others.
St. Francis of Assisi is quoted as saying “Teach the Gospel
at all times, if necessary, use words.”
Some of the Saints in my life are gifted with “word” and some are gifted
in “deed” and God also put along my journey friends who are gifted in both word
and deed. Through all of these Saints, I
have learned to know, love and serve God.
Through their example I have come to learn that the best way to see God
here on earth is to see him in others. I
feel like this is the very reason that the church decided to begin to canonize
holy men and women, so that we could have shining examples to look toward in
our quest to fulfill the purpose for which we were made; to know, love and
serve God. In our human weakness, we
often fall short of this goal, however, when we look to the lives of the
Saints, we learn that despite their human weakness, they gave all of their
heart and soul to following the will of God. Perhaps this is the call to sainthood, to
live every day remembering that we should love God before all else.
I love when we hear the names of the parishioners who have
passed from this earthly existence spoken during Mass. I cherish this ritual, and as each candle is
lit, I picture their face and remember them.
When I was young, I would get confused about the day of All Soul’s. I used to think that it was a day we prayed
for all people. If Sister Thomas Marie
were reading this, I am sure that she would shake her finger at me again and
say, now Christine, you know we have learned about this already! The feast is actually called “The
Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed.”
I suppose if I remembered that instead of the more commonly used name
“All Soul’s Day” it would have been easier for me to remember that this was a
day set apart to pray for our dead. As I
prepare my heart to attend a prayer service this evening to hear the name of my
mother spoken, I got to thinking about all those souls who have no one to pray
for them. I thought of the homeless and
children who die of hunger. I thought of
the disappeared and the prisoners of war.
Who will read their names this day to commemorate their life? Who will speak for those souls who were never
given the opportunity to be named?
Thinking of these souls make the prayer for the dead even more important
to me. “May their souls and all the
souls of the faithful departed through the mercy of God, rest in peace” takes
on a deeper meaning for me when I think of “all the souls.”
I pray that each one of us remembers that every decision we
make; every act of anger and every little act of kindness effects the life of
another. This afternoon we watched the
movie “The Five People You Meet in Heaven.”
At the end of the movie, the narrator reminds us that “Each affects the other, and the other
affects the next, and the world is full of stories, but the stories are all
one.” (Mitch Albom, The Five People You Meet
in Heaven) May we
share what makes our stories one ~ the love that God has for us! May we strive to be saints!
Shalom,
Tina
