All Saints and All Souls

 

During the month of November Holy Mother Church celebrates two important feasts: All Saints Day on November 1^st, and All Souls Day on November 2^nd.

All Saints Day commemorates those who have gone before us that are saints in heaven, both known and unknown. This includes the saints we all know and love, such as St. Francis of Assisi, St. Anthony of Padua, St. Therese Lisieux, and so forth. But it also acknowledges those saints that we don’t commemorate on the church calendar but are saints none the less. This includes those relatives of ours that have long since passed, went through purgatory, and are now in full vision of the face of God. These relatives of ours that have made it to heaven are also commemorated on All Saints Day.

All Souls Day is the day we pray for our relatives and friends that have passed before us but are still in purgatory. In the Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 1030 it says, “All who die in God's grace and friendship, but still imperfectly purified, are indeed assured of their eternal salvation; but after death they undergo purification, so as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven.”  It’s important that we pray for those who are in purgatory to help them during their journey in heaven.

Pope Benedict XVI says of purgatory, “…we need a final cleansing, a cleansing by fire, to be exact, in which the gaze of Christ, so to say, burns us free from everything, and only under this purifying gaze are we, as it were, fit to be with God and able, then, to make our home with him…” Pope Benedict goes on to say, “Purgatory basically means that God can put the pieces back together again. That he can cleanse us in such a way that we are able to be with him and can stand there in the fullness of life.”

So, lets pray for all our relatives that have gone before us during this month of the Holy Souls. Have masses said for them, pray for them in your private prayers, and ask God to look on them with mercy and love in order to bring them to the glory of heaven.

In addition to praying for our diseased relatives during the month of November, arrange to have masses said for them during the year. A mass said for a deceased relative is a great gift for those who have passed before us. Then, once they’re in heaven, they’ll be praying for us to the Lord our God.

Love Begets Love

Every year on October 15th Holy Mother Church commemorates the feast of St. Teresa of Avila, the great reformer of the Carmelite Order. St. Teresa was born in Avila, Spain in the year 1515. She entered the Carmelites and made great progress in the way of perfection.

She wrote such classics as the Interior Castle, and her Autobiography. In her autobiography she talks about living in the Presence of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ was at the heart and center of her entire life. She says of the person who has Christ at the center of his life, "... can endure all things." She goes on to say that "Christ helps us and strengthens us and never fails; he is a true friend."

As a result of this close relationship with Christ, she was able to grow and mature in her relationship with God, and to help others to do so. It was through her help that St. John of the Cross to reform the male branch of the Carmelite Order.

It is through love of Christ that gave her the strength to grow deeper in love with Christ and to endure the hardship of reforming the Carmelite Order. Further talking on the love of Christ, she says, "As often as we think of Christ we should recall the love with which he bestowed on so many favors, and the great things God showed in giving us a pledge like this of his love; for love begets love."

It was through these writing of St. Theresa of Avila that St. Theresa of the Child Jesus, the Little Flower, realized that God is the source of all love.

Let us, like St. Teresa of Avila look towards the love of God and be open to that love in our lives, and that we are to bring that love of God to all those in our lives.

My Vocation is Love

On October 1^st the Church celebrates the feast of Saint Therese of the Child Jesus, also know as the Little Flower, or St. Therese of Lisieux. St. Therese is probably one of the most loved saints of all time. Her autobiography, Story of a Soul, is a favorite of many people who find her way of living out her faith in Jesus Christ attractive. St. Therese is someone we all can emulate in the practice of our faith in Jesus Christ.

Her given name was Therese Martin, and she was born in Alencon in France in 1873. She entered the Carmelite Monastery at an early age, and her life there in the Monastery was that of humility, evangelical simplicity and confidence and trust in God. Through her example, she was able to teach the Novices at the Monastery the ways that lead to true relationship and love of God.

In her autobiography she shares of her struggle about trying to understand God’s Will in her life. She read and meditated upon the scriptures and studied St. Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians. In her writings she indicates that St. Paul taught that not all are called to lofty callings, such as apostles, doctors, or prophets. St. Paul taught that all members of the Church of Christ are important, no matter how high or low you may be in the Church. But what makes all vocations important is doing that vocation out of love of God.

St. Therese writes, “I understood that love comprised all vocations, that love was everything, that it embraced all times and places … in a word it was eternal!” Then St. Therese goes on to say, “Then in the excess of my delirious joy, I cried out: ‘O Jesus, my Love … my vocation, at last I have found it … my vocation is Love!’”

We are called live out our vocations in the same way as St. Therese. In whatever situation or vocation we may find ourselves, whether that of a husband, wife, child, we are called to live out that vocation with love of God and those in our lives. This even includes loving those that we work with in the secular world, no matter how difficult that may be. We are called to live out our time in the world with Love of God, and love of those who surround us in our daily routines. That is our challenge and vocation. Our vocation, like that of St. Therese, is Love.