“For all the Saints” begins the familiar and beloved hymn that many Masses will use today, Nov. 1, the Feast of All Saints.

On this Holy Day of Obligation (yes, don’t forget to go to Mass!), we praise God for all the saints, that is for all of His gifts of grace that have made so many of us saints.

Of course, in celebrating all the saints, we are not just celebrating those already recognized and canonized by the Church.

Certainly we are inspired in our Catholic faith by the stories and examples of Peter, Mary Magdalene, Mother Teresa of Calcutta and soon Pope John Paul II. (My own personal favorites are St. Jean de Brebeuf, SJ, and St. Joan of Arc).

But the Solemnity of All Saints means that we raise our minds and hearts to honor and thank God for all of those, as well as for all the secret or unknown saints.

By definition, a saint is anyone who has completed life on earth and was found worthy of eternal life in the presence of God.

I am confidently hoping and praying that that group includes my grandparents, my father and uncles and aunts, as well as some of those wonderful neighbors, teachers and coaches that I have known while growing up.

With the eyes of faith, how comforted and rewarded we are by their prayerful intercession for us and for our needs during our own earthly struggle.

And, in the lives of the saints, how many similarities do we find to our own lives or our own struggles, including those to repent from sin.

Sometimes we can even take different elements from different saints to find a complete roadmap of holiness for our special circumstances.

But in the richness of our Catholic faith and spiritual experience, we do not celebrate the final victory of sainthood in isolation. That’s why we have the beauty of celebrating on Saturday, Nov. 2, the Feast of All Souls. We might call this the Feast of the Future Saints.

This celebration is some of the best news in our faith for those of us who are not perfect.

The Feast of All Souls is the day when the faithful, in a special way, pray for all of our loved ones, and others (perhaps even some who are forgotten to the world) who, after death, experience the state of purgatory.

It means that in our weakness, as we strive to live for Jesus but occasionally come up short in our sins, if we die in the state of grace but still marked by sins or faults, the final cleansing and preparation for eternal life is granted by God after death.

The Feast of All Souls also recalls that God has given us, during our earthly pilgrimage, the honor and the duty to offer our prayers for those undergoing their final purification and preparation for eternal joy.

This is why our Catholic funeral Mass is not just a remembrance nor a ceremony of eulogy for the recently departed. It is a solemn moment to pray for their souls and to commend them to God through the merits of Jesus and the offering of the Mass.

Taken together, the Feasts of All Saints and of All Souls remind us of the deep reality of life and death, and of the magnificence of God’s love.

For all the pain that any of us have experienced in burying a loved one, we live in the hope of their final victory, taking up one of the mansions promised in the Father’s house.

But as we look at the imperfections of our own souls or in the lives of loved ones, we need not grow discouraged.

All Saints. All Souls. It is the story of redemption and God’s mercy at work.

Don’t forget to be at Mass today to honor the saints.

And why not attend another Mass on Saturday to pray for the souls in purgatory? One day, we hope others will do the same for us!