2 November 2022
The Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed
(All Souls)
When we remember the lives of those who came before us, there can be a variety of emotions: pain, sadness, longing, love, gratitude, joy, anger, regret, guilt, fear, and confusion, only to name a few. Their earthly lives having come to an end, we remain with our own lives yet to be lived, indelibly marked by theirs, with our emotions, with our memories, with a future yet to be created. What will we make of it?
Today, for the departed—and for ourselves—we pray that healing may come where there is pain and woundedness, that forgiveness may abound where there is sin and brokenness, and that love may liberate all that is tied down. In one phrase, we pray that our faithful departed see the face of God. Until the day we meet again, in their memory, with their memory, may we strive to see it too.