This coming week we will celebrate all the saints, on Nov. 1, and all the future saints on Nov. 2. Those consecutive celebrations are, of course, All Saints Day and All Souls Day.

 

As we celebrate all the saints on Nov. 1, our attention is drawn to the list of figures formally venerated by the Church through all the ages. And in those saints, we find much to inspire us.

 

Some are saints in whom we hope to see something of ourselves. Something in the story of their lives, their faith, their conversions from sin or indifference might resonate with some aspect of our own lives to this moment. In that sense we feel like we are walking with them on the same path in following Christ.

 

Others might arouse in us an attraction based in wonder or appreciation. For example, none of us shall have lived in a circumstance directly similar to St. Joan of Arc. Yet her story has fascinated and encouraged many over the centuries. Still, the mystery of her leading her soldiers into battle and her subsequent wisdom in responding to religious interrogation during trial and her faithful witness even as a martyr show God’s grace at work in unexpected and seemingly impossible ways.

 

Yet a further group of saints witness to the mercy of God, a lesson that the faithful need in every generation. St. Paul was famously called by Jesus even as he persecuted the members of the early Church and even took part in the martyrdom of St. Stephen. St. Augustine was given the grace to abandon his sexually immoral life to become a great teacher and bishop.

 

We must not forget that in honoring all saints we should recall those whose saintliness we encountered in our own lives. Our holy grandparents. Or perhaps a friend or classmate from years gone by who helped us by their witness to living out the Catholic faith.

 

There are many lessons to be learned from all the saints. And they continue to pray for us to join them. That is the joy and grace of All Saints Day.

 

On All Souls Day, we pray for those who have preceded us in death. Faith tells us that to be in the presence of God who is all holy, nothing of evil can be a part of us. Since most of us will not die in such a state of total perfection, we have the assurance of faith that God grants us, short of mortal sin, a final time of preparation and purification. That is purgatory.

 

In praying for the souls in purgatory, we are praying for the final preparation of those already assured of heaven itself. In praying for them, we strengthen our own desire for the moment when God calls us home, and our fears are dispelled by this final example of God’s love for us.

 

As part of the on-going Eucharistic Revival, we should be reminded that All Saints Day is a holy day of obligation. We are required to attend Mass on that day or on the vigil the evening before. Of course, the deepening and renewal of our faith in the Eucharist, the True Presence of Jesus and the Mass making present before us the sacrifice of Calvary all call us to develop a longing to be at Mass frequently. 

 

Seen that way, every holy day of obligation should move our hearts to recognition of the privilege and grace that is that extra Mass. We should see such days as a joy, not as a burden. And in that same light, even though All Souls Day is not a day of obligation to attend Mass, it would be fitting to attend Mass on that day also as an opportunity to pray for the souls undergoing their final and complete purification.

 

The feasts of All Saints and All Souls are linked not just by the calendar but in faith. What a great way to begin the month of November.