Dear Saints,

Though we’re called to pray for the dead with some frequency, the month of November is specially dedicated to the practice. Our school children visit our cemetery on All Souls Day for that purpose, and Catholics around the world spend these weeks undertaking works of charity and sacrifice in honor of the faithful departed.

These are not morbid gestures fueled by a frantic fear of hell, but rather, as Saint Paul intimates in today’s second reading, acts of faith and hope, inspired by love. Saint Paul exhorts the Thessalonians to “not grieve like the rest,” not because we love our dearly departed any less than other people care for their dead relatives and friends, but because we trust in the goodness and power and mercy of a God who raises the dead!

For the remainder of the month and into the new liturgical year, let’s offer renewed friendship to those who have gone before us. Pray for them (the Saint Gertrude prayer for holy souls is particularly efficacious - if you don’t know it, it’s a good one to look up). Request that Masses be said for the repose of their souls. Remember them with gratitude around the Thanksgiving table. Visit the graves of loved ones and even strangers. As Saint John Chrysostom once said, “let us not hesitate to help those who have died.” After all, death does not break the bonds of charity we share with them.

Christ’s Peace,

Father Daniel

δοῦλος Χριστοῦ Ἰησοῦ