All Saints and Souls
This Wednesday we celebrate the wonderful feast of All Saints – that marvellous celebration of the communion of Saints who are both present every time we celebrate Mass, and who intercede for us to the Father.
Do you have a favourite Saint whom you’ll be praying to particularly on that day?
Often, particular Saints become a person’s favourite because they’ve invested time in getting to know them by learning about their life, imitating their faith, and asking for their prayers. My favourite Saint is St. Therese of Lisieux, the Little Flower, who died when she was only 24 years old, but who lived her life in small heroic ways every day of her short existence. If you are not sure about how to pray to a particular saint, the following may give some helpful structure:
- Call your saint and ask your petition, saying something like: For the intercession of (your saint here), I ask (your petition here).
- Finish your prayer with the Our Father, the Hail Mary, and the Glory Be.
We will celebrate an extra Mass at OLR 5.30pm on Wednesday for All Saints Day. The annual Feast of All Souls takes place on Thursday this week; hot on the heels of All Saints – this is not an accident. We pray for the souls of those whom we’ve loved and lost because our prayers are efficacious – they are helpful in gaining the favour of God’s gift of eternal salvation for our loved ones.
Another reason we pray for those we have lost is because when they died, they ceased to exist according to our linear concept of time. Instead, they entered God’s time, where in God’s eyes, a thousand years are like yesterday, come and gone, no more than a watch in the night (Ps 90:4). It matters not, when they enter heaven according to our time and so we continue to pray for the gift of God’s unconditional mercy and the purifying of their souls so as to enter into the eternal embrace of God’s pure love.
All you heavenly saints, pray for us, as we continue to pray for the souls of the faithful departed.
Peace and blessings to you on the occasion of these two great celebrations,
Fr Josh