Celebrating the Month of All Souls: Book of Remembrance
During this season of the year, the Church celebrates the Commemoration of All Souls. As our bodies and minds resign themselves to the inevitable cessation of life, our Church calendar brings forth a somber feast to fit our temperament these increasingly darkened days.
All Souls comes as a sequel to that of All Saints. Having commemorated all the blessed who enjoy the face of God in their death, we turn our thoughts to the other souls who await the fullness of God’s glory. The sequence of these two days implies a belief that those who have lived lives of holiness enjoy God’s presence and can intercede for us before the throne of God. All Souls implies that others still await that glory. These are the deceased that we remember every November 2nd and at our Mass of Remembrance on November 6th. The members of our families, friends, the lonely and forgotten, and public figures who have touched our lives. On these days, we pray that God will have mercy on them and grant them the vision of blessedness for which they longed.
When our Church gathers for prayer on November 2nd and November 6th we will remember the faithful departed. Those who assisted us in life receive assistance from us in their death. This commemoration celebrates that union with the church in every place and beyond all time.