All Souls Day

Dear Family:

Old Saint Patrick Cemetery

Every November 2, we celebrate All Souls Day, also known as the Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed and the Day of the Dead. We are aware that it is a day of prayer and remembrance for all the souls that have died throughout the year. Our Catholic belief tells us that the soul of a person who dies can go to one of three places. The first is heaven, where a person who dies in a state of perfect grace and communion with God goes. The second is hell, where those who die in a state of mortal sin are naturally condemned by their choice. The intermediate option is purgatory, which is thought to be where most people, free of mortal sin, but still in a state of lesser (venial) sin, must go. Purgatory is necessary so that souls can be cleansed and perfected before they enter into heaven. There is scriptural basis for this belief. It comes from 2 Maccabees, 12:26 and 12:32. "Turning to supplication, they prayed that the sinful deed might be fully blotted out... Thus made atonement for the dead that they might be free from sin." As your pastor, keeping in mind the extreme importance of prayer and reflection, I would like to offer you a gift of my prayers and remembrances of your deceased loved ones in all of my and Father Raja’s masses during the month of November. I have included the “traditional” envelope for you to fill in the names of your loved ones who have passed as well as an additional lined sheet to also list names. These envelopes and sheets will placed on the altar of the Marsh Drive church and on the altar in the PAC in a special box for the entire month of November – all you need to do is either drop your envelopes and names off at the parish office, collection baskets at mass or place them in the US mail to us. With God’s help and many prayers, my sincere wish is that next year, 2021, all our lives will be mostly, if not completely, back to “normal.” If so, I will be introducing to our family the Hispanic tradition of “Día de los Muertos” – Day of the Dead. It will be a wonderful way to help pray our ancestors into heaven with mass and rosary/chaplet walks in our cemetery. Something that we as a parish have not done before. Hopefully masks and social distancing will be a thing of the past!

Peace,

Rev. Donald H. Bender

Pastor