November is a month when our Catholic faith focuses on souls. Of course we have celebrated the Solemnity of All Saints on Nov. 1. But a particular emphasis this month is associated with Nov. 2 when we pray for the souls in purgatory.

Throughout the month we recall our beloved deceased and give a thought to the end of our own earthly journey.

For us in this part of the world it is fitting that November helps us to deepen our faith in truths related to death. The yearly cycle brings about that dying sense of nature. What is left of the corn crop is now dry and brown, awaiting its final harvest. The daylight is rapidly approaching its shortest time and the weather forecast is full of the “s” word and talk of the dreaded polar vortex. The leaves are gone and everywhere there is a sense that the green and warmth of summer is truly wrapping up and dying away.

Still, we remain hopeful. We know that the Christmas holidays are coming and then we will have to endure the rest of winter be it harsh or less so. But we know even now that those first warm breaths of March will come, eventually but for sure.

Spiritually, November makes us confront questions about the death of loved ones, our individual end and the end of the world. But here is where our renewal of faith, like our yearly certain hope for the coming spring, make us the joyful and optimistic people that we must be as faithful followers of Christ.

Our faith begins, both learning from nature and from God’s own revelation, by believing that God does exist. There is a reality, the presence of God, that awaits souls at the end of our earthly time. Death is not a passage from life to nothing.

But while we believe God exists, we further believe that He is a loving God. We are not simply created playthings or His cruel experiment. Rather, we are comforted by the assurances of faith and the love that we have known in prayer and in life that God wants us to be happy. Our faith in Christ leads us to seek one of the many dwelling places in His Father’s house.

If a November reflection serves to give us hope and consolation, thoughts of last things remind us also of the challenge to use our free will as God wants. Jesus came to teach us about His Father and about how to live. He gave us the road map to eternal life that we would not otherwise have known. Still, for all of the hope of eternal life, we are responsible to love Him now and to make moral choices, not of our own choosing but, according to God’s will. That won’t be easy. The door is narrow. Many are called but few are chosen. We will stand before Jesus in judgment. But God’s love and grace are with us to grow in His love.

Our November prayers to the saints and our prayers for souls take all of this into consideration. They are not simply left-over myths of an unenlightened time as the secular world tries to tell us. They are the logical consequences of a deep faith that joins our human journey with the calling and responsibilities entrusted to us by God’s love.

In some ways, these truths are basic. For centuries they have been shared by virtually all Christians, even in the context of the divisions following the Reformation. But as we look around today, how badly we need to remind ourselves of them and teach them to our children.

There is a growing atheism and a creeping pessimism in our world. Pope Francis often speaks against the “throw away” culture of our day that discards the unborn, the elderly and those whose lives are judged somehow inadequate. Our media glorifies sexuality without responsibility and the right to take our own lives. As St. Paul told us, “If the dead are not raised: let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.” (I Cor 15:32).

Thoughts of saints and souls, of death and eternal life, of November leading to spring remind us that all of us are part of a great plan. Our every thought, prayer and decision stands before the door leading to eternal life or eternal loss. Our prayer for the dead is our great expression of hope. They, like we, are part of God’s great plan of love. To embrace that plan, in faith and in life, is part of our great worth and dignity, preparing us for life with Christ who loves us.