The beautiful duo of holy days came again this past Friday – All Saints Day and All Souls Day! On All Saints Day we celebrate ALL our brothers and sisters in the faith who are in heaven! Many of them have their own feast days – like St. James the Less on May 3rd or St. Francis on October 4th or Pope St. John Paull II on October 22nd or St. Cecilia on November 22 – but the majority of people in heaven do not have dedicated days and they didn’t have their banner on the façade of the Basilica of St. Peter in Rome for their canonization! These are the souls remember today also! We know that our parents, our fellow parishioners, our siblings, our brother priests and religious and our fellow faithful disciples of Jesus Christ who have died and have been prayed for many times over are in heaven. We celebrate their example of Christian virtue and discipleship lived so well in their lives on earth that by now, they are in heaven. Thank you, Jesus, for our brothers and sisters in heaven who give us good examples of the Christian life, who inspire us to be faithful to you, and who intercede for us and encourage us in our own discipleship of You!
The day after – All Souls Day – we remember all who have died and are still in Purgatory needing our prayers. We pray for them so that they will soon enjoy union with God forever in heaven. These are our relatives and friends, our colleagues and fellow Christians who died with still some attachment to sin or vice that needs to be purged away before entering the glory and happiness of heaven. We know many people who are virtuous, holy, and men and women of prayer who die but who are not saints. They still have work to do. They are in Purgatory and need our prayers. We should pray for them often for it is a holy and pious thought to pray and make atonement for the deeds of the dead as it says in the 2nd book of Maccabees 12:45-46 (read the whole context in that chapter).
PS…we human beings do not become angels when we die! We should not say when someone dies that there is another angel in heaven or that so and so is our angel in heaven. Human beings remain human beings in heaven. Our souls are separated from our bodies for a short time until the coming of our Lord at the end of time when they will be reunited.
Kneeling, standing, or sitting
While we are worshiping in the Parish Center on Sundays and in the Mercy Conference Room on weekdays for mass, our posture during the Eucharistic Prayer and, in particular, the Consecration should be as follows. If you can kneel at the normal times, please do so. If you cannot, please stand during the Eucharistic Prayer. Another option would be to stand during the Eucharistic Prayer and kneel for the Consecration (from the epiclesis through the Doxology – a bit of homework for you this week…what parts of the mass are those?). If you cannot stand or kneel because of physical issues please be seated. I don’t want anyone to pass out or hurt themselves!
St. James the Less, pray for us and all our endeavors and plans!
May the Lord Jesus bless you and your families abundantly this week!
~ Fr. Daniel Firmin