Our journey through November

 Next week we begin a month to remember the Holy Souls. November can be a bleak month with dark misty days and cooler challenging weather.  But the first day of the month begins with All Saints Day. It sets a positive tone to the month.  The Church is saying to us as we remember our beloved dead; we are all included in the feast of All Saints. The Holy Souls are in God’s Presence, already in the embrace of God.

It is nice to have a month to remember the un-named saints. The little saints rather than the well known bigger Saints. We all know people we have lived with, people who did not consider themselves saints but were good, compassionate and always ready to listen to others.  And there are saints we would be surprised to learn that they are included! They may not have belonged to any particular Church or Religion but they were compassionate, honest, searchers of the Truth.

Take some time over the next few weeks and during the month to remember these people. If we have unresolved issues with people who have already passed into Eternal Life, it is never too late to be reconciled.

In the Church we talk about the mystical body of Christ and it is a beautiful image. The Good News is we all have a place at the table.

As we remember our saints and the holy souls we not only pray for them but with them and ask them to help us until we meet again.

Come to think of it November has its own natural beauty and softness as we journey into winter and onward toward new life.

The following may seem relevant.

It is the conclusion of a poem Aos Óg by Padraig Daly. In it he is reflects on city life as he gazes out from his window in Dublin city. He sees the young people full of life and love but perhaps unaware of where it all comes from.

‘They are happy as we ever were

They do not ask the why of the stars:

This world and its circumstances suffices them.

They do not think of death or sin,

They harm no one knowingly.

Little they know,

Walking in light down city promenades,

Answering phones, distracted by gadgets,

Smothering out transcendence.

That they and all their artefacts

And all the earth and all the fiery stars

Are plunged in God.”


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