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Friday, November 02, 2012

Eternal Rest...

Zaduszki
Zaduszki (Photo credit: Klearchos Kapoutsis)

Yesterday we celebrated All Saints’ and today we remember All Souls. There is something about the opening days of November that tends to bring these two celebration neatly together. Even the weather (cool and rainy) somehow have conspired towards bringing about this awareness of the mystical and haunting feeling associated with All Saints and today, All Souls.
To celebrate All Souls is not something we do lightly. Neither is it to be taken in a superstitious manner which would negate totally the understanding of our Christian faith. Instead, the celebration of All Souls’ is an affirmation of our capacity to a relationship with God – One whom we can know and love. It is also about our acknowledgement that in us we have something that links us to a power that transcends this world. That something is our soul.

The other aspect of today’s celebration is the hope that it brings that points to the resurrection. The Gospel reading today offers us the scene of the death of Jesus on the cross and followed by the news of the resurrection. We certainly would have links to those that have gone before us. They were members of our families, our relatives, friends and colleagues. They may be gone from this world but they have not disappeared into oblivion. They are connected to God and to everything God loves. “… life is changed not ended”, so goes Preface 1 for the Dead. These faithful exist now in a different dimensional system, not bound by time and space, where there is no more mourning, no more death, no more tears – a scene poetically rendered by the prophet Isaiah, in the first reading.

Finally, we remember the faithful dead in the prayers that we offered up for them, for as we know ourselves, like us, none are perfect and our prayers will help in their journey of purification towards their union with God, in whom they will exult and rejoice. It also offers us that same hope, which is not deceptive, that as we remain connected to those who have gone before us marked with the sign of faith, we might one day live in communion with them with the rest of the saints in heaven.

On this day of All Souls, let us remember the importance of the soul, of eternal life, of those who have gone before us marked with the sign of faith, those to whom in God we are still connected and those whom we should still pray.

"Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them. May their souls and the souls of all the faithful departed, through Your mercy, rest in peace. Amen."
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3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Happy Birthday Fr Aloy.. ! God Bless!!!

IHM parishioner

Laura said...


Dearest Fr Aloy,

Happy Blessed Birthday. Wishing you an enjoyable day with the Lord. ;)
Take care Fr.


Best Wishes,
Laura

Anonymous said...

Dear Fr. Aloy,

A Blessed Birthday to you.

Please take good care Fr. and keep in touch!

Holy Fam. Parishioners ,
Fiona & Dominic

 

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