All Souls Day

I read recently that some cultures have the tradition of talking about three deaths that we all undergo.  The first death is when the person dies; stops breathing.  The second death is when they’re buried in the ground.  The third death is when no one on earth remembers them.

That’s not the Catholic tradition, because we have a feast like today that we remember all the dead.  We may not know their names, but we pray for them.  We believe that our prayers are effective in helping them finalize the process in being united with the Lord.

When I was a child, I can recall being encouraged to pray for the most abandoned souls in purgatory.  Maybe that’s what we can do today as well as we gather to commemorate the dead.  We pray not that their death is final, but that their unification with Christ is achieved.

Monsignor Daniel Hoye