All Souls’ Day
What would typically be the 31st Sunday in Ordinary Time is, this year, All Souls’ Day since November 2nd falls on a Sunday. We celebrate this commemoration of All Souls’ with a special Mass of Remembrance annually, recalling those recently passed, as well as all who have gone before us, lifting them in prayer. This year, in addition to this Mass of Remembrance (at 7pm), we have the opportunity to lift prayers in this way during all of our Sunday Masses!
My prayers typically include many people at the Mass of Remembrance, from parishioners whose pilgrimage stretch here on earth has ended to family members and friends.
I recall parishioner Bob Frank, who between himself and his wife Betty, “adopted” my dad, sister, and me after my mom passed away 26 years ago! Always sitting in the St. Mary transept with us, we had gotten to know them very well, having little conversations after Mass weekly. Betty said that my dad reminded her of her uncle, and between her and Bob, they became “adoptive grandparents” for my son and daughter and my sister’s sons, always chatting with them about what they had going on and giving them hugs and attention. To this day, Betty is still reaching out, now sending cards not only to my daughter Allie but to her three daughters, as well!
I recall, too, Skip Fairchild and how he and Linda led the wedding rehearsal for me and JB over 34 years ago…and how they were an important part of many couples’ special day in this beautiful ministry. Then there are Walt Udzik and Larry Wheeler who I would always see “across the way,” sitting in the front pews on the “St. Joseph side” of our church; I recall the very friendly nature of both of these men…Larry, in his younger years, a kind and friendly usher, and Walt, an obvious man of prayer, filled with the Spirit! Certainly, I don’t recognize nor did I know all of the deceased from our parish in the last year, but with even this handful, I am reminded of the “family feel” created by these parishioners and their Christ-like examples.
Particularly special in my thoughts and prayers today are my mom, dad, and sister. And so I want to briefly honor the ways their examples impacted my faith journey, drawing me closer to the Lord and his Blessed Mother. Even as I continue to pray for them, I can often feel the impact of their prayers for me!
Oh, how my mom loved the Lord! Her example of reading Scripture, love of the Sacraments, and daily praying the rosary persists even today. Beyond these visible ways she loved the Lord, by far the most impactful was the way she loved like the Lord! Her love was constant and unchanging; she was a steady rock that I could rely on. Now I know she is what would be called an “intercessory prayer warrior,” always lifting in prayer the needs of others she knew, her family, and the world. RIP, Joan Virginia!
Dad, I believe, was impacted by mom’s faith. He consistently brought his family to Mass weekly at St. John Church. Though not very demonstrative about faith, except at Mass where he prayed and sang, after mom passed, he picked up her prayer cards and took it upon himself to start praying them as she was no longer here to do so. I had never seen him with a rosary, but without mom, praying it became a steady companion and comfort, and Mother Mary accompanied him in his loss. Whatever the drive, whether it was wanting assurance to be with mom once again some day, Divine Inspiration, or something else, I know my mom’s intercession for his soul, both before and after her own death, had so much to do with it! Even as his health declined and he reached 90, through all the aches and pains, he clung to his faith, continued to pray, and complained less rather than more. He lifted up those in the care home where he resided, saying “that guy’s worse off than me.” RIP, Charles Paul!
My sweet sister Debbie grew closer and closer to the Lord during her many health struggles! Her strength and determination, her ferocious love of family, and her non-complaining spirit were fueled by prayer and the Mass. Her desire to read more and more about the faith and understand it grew through the years. She leaned on the Lord for over 25 years of all that living with a heart transplant entails! RIP, Debbie Joan!
Each of our faith journeys home is different: some are ablaze and full of the Spirit’s fire from an early age; some, a small, steady burn that grows over time; some a flame that is slow to ignite, wavers, and grows or diminishes through the years. No matter what another’s journey looks like to us, we trust in God’s wisdom to know the heart of each soul, and we know that every soul, no matter what their faith journey may have looked like to us, needs our prayer to see the Face of God! Whether you are certain of a loved one’s faith or doubt if they knew the Lord, pray for His mercy that they may be with Him this day.
On this day, we pray for all who have gone before us! We pray that through the Lord’s purifying fire, that they may enter his heavenly gates! And we trust in his Mercy and Goodness!