November: The Month of Remembering Those Who Have Died

To remember: to bring back into consciousness what has been known, and has been fully or partially lost from consciousness, or “forgotten.” To remember: to allow something or someone to live in one’s mind again, consciously, willingly, deliberately. When we forget, we no longer attend to a part of reality of which we had been more or less conscious.   Grace builds on nature. The Catholic faith is rooted in nature, for “grace does not destroy nature, but perfects it,” in the famous formula of St. Thomas Aquinas. In the northern hemisphere, for centuries the only home of the Catholic faith, we know what to expect in November: a seeming dying of nature, a shutting down of earth’s visible life, a withering away of what was so evidently full of life. As nature appears to die in this month, we are asked to remember our dear ones who have died in their bodies, and are now at home in God alone. During November, following ancient pagan and Catholic traditions, we are encouraged actively to remember our beloved deceased, entrusting them to the LORD. Our loved ones, and many generations of human beings, have died; they are not “dead and gone,” but they live in God. And they live in our minds and hearts if we lovingly remember them. Our dear ones who have died have given us many life-enriching experiences, many blessed and precious memories. Now we bring these experiences back into consciousness, not letting them just slip away into the land of oblivion, and we thank God for these memories, and especially for our beloved friends and family members who gave us these experiences, before slipping behind the mask of death. Within a span of 5-6 days, three of our parishioners died this week: Randy Mundt, Ora Kleffner, Mary Lou Streifel. We ask our parishioners to remember these good and precious human beings, and entrust them lovingly to our merciful, life-giving God. We also keep in mind and heart their family members who just experienced the shock of death and painful loss. Families of Ora, Mary Lou, and Randy need and deserve our kindness, thoughtfulness, prayers. We offer them our quiet support and friendship. Above all, in prayer and especially at the Eucharist we offer Randy, Ora, and Mary Lou lovingly to God, to whom they have returned. During November, we choose to remember and to thank God, entrusting those whom we love to the LORD, in whom alone “we live, and move, and have our being.”