This week, as most of our neighborhoods prepare to entertain the annual gathering of witches, ghosts, goblins and Daenerys Targaryens, the Church is preparing to enter a special time; in fact, the source of Halloween (or “All Hallows Eve”, as it was called): All Saints Day and All Souls Day.

These two days – All Saints to celebrate those canonized and unknown saints in Heaven (the Church Triumphant) and All Souls to pray for those in Purgatory (the Church Suffering) – remind us (the Church Militant) that we and our faith do not exist in a vacuum. Not only for the 2000 years that Christianity has existed but even before its roots in Judaism, going back to our original parents, we have been united in the family of humanity and are interconnected: what others have done before affects us and what we do today affects those who will follow us.  November 1^st (All Saints Day) and November 2^nd (All Souls Day) start a month dedicated, as the last month of the Church year, to reflecting on how we got here and our responsibility to the future as God’s children.

These days are not only important to the Church but also to many of us personally. With very little thought, we can bring up memories of loved ones whom we have had to commend to God’s mercy – often with tear-filled eyes and broken hearts. But our faith tells us that they continue to live on in God’s care and that, as they pray for us in our ongoing journey, we are also to pray for them: either for the completion of their purification in God’s Kingdom or in thanksgiving that they are fully in God’s presence and united with His will.

In this month, we are invited and encouraged to pray for all the dead. There is an indulgence granted to those who visit a cemetery during the Octave of All Saints (November 1-8), although the Holy See in 2020 and 2021 extended it to the entire month of November and may do so again this year (see https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/249426/catholics-can-get-an-indulgence-for-the-dead-by-praying-at-a-cemetery-any-day-this-november for more information). In doing so, I recall the words found in Rome’s Santa Maria della Concezione dei Cappuccini, a cemetery for Franciscan Capuchin monks:

A little chilling, perhaps – but definitely something that helps put things in perspective and maybe something that can give us a better insight into the mind of God, who sees things far better than we do!