The month of November is a time of sort of “closing up shop.”

On the radio in the mornings, I hear the percentage of the harvest — the work of the earlier part of the year — that is now completed. Final yard work gets done before the dreaded first snowfall.

By the end of the month, we will have finished this liturgical year and begin another with the First Sunday of Advent.

One of the great themes of this month, however, is the fate of those who have died. That’s of great interest and importance because each of us knows that one day it will be our own end, when we close up shop.

But in the meantime, what happens to our loved ones or friends who have already passed either gives us consolation or a sense of hopelessness. There really is no middle ground.

While we honor and pray to the saints throughout the year, we are mindful of them in a special way in November, beginning with the Feast of All Saints.

Of course we often pray to, or celebrate Mass in honor of, those holy men, women and young people formally designated as saints by the Church. But those saints are really just the tip of the iceberg. And that is wonderfully important.

To be a saint is simply to be in heaven with God for all eternity. Some of the saints are known and declared to us by the Church. Others are simply those who lived the quiet and faithful life throughout the centuries, faithful to the calling of grace that they received.

The Church’s formal judgment of holiness that finishes with the canonization of a saint typically begins on that singular and personal level of veneration. Individuals are drawn to pray to someone they sense to have been a holy person.

Over time, those individuals are drawn together and the prayers continue. The verification of miracles needed for the Church’s study of the saints is taken as an authentication granted by God of the holiness of the saint.

This month, we are particularly mindful of that whole cloud of witnesses of all ages who, in heaven, honor God and pray for us. In a special way we should think of those whom we have personally known and who demonstrated true holiness that inspired us. We need to be prayerful and discerning in such reflections.

In a moment and place where holiness is often confused with simply being nice or pleasant, our discernment of holiness must be directly centered on Christ. We should find in the holiness of those who have gone before us the three theological virtues of faith, hope and charity.

In essence, we should be asking, did they believe? Did they keep their eyes always on Christ, even in the difficulties of life? Were they mindful of those around them who were poor or in need in any way?

Our belief in and veneration of the saints is a direct consequence of a wider act of faith. It is to acknowledge the story of the world, broken by sin and in need of redemption.

To love and honor the saints is to acknowledge that Jesus lived among us and broke the power of sin and death by His life, His death and His resurrection. It is to acknowledge that there is life after death and that we and our loved ones do not die into nothingness.

Far from being merely comforting tales, only Jesus explains the world we live in. And only Jesus gives the grace that turns each of us from a lost sinner to one of those saints, known or unknown.

To be a saint at the end of life is not a given. Grace must be freely accepted. Jesus must be given our love and our obedience.

The existence and reality of hell for those who choose otherwise is a part of the freedom that God has given us, even to reject His love. That is why the world needs our witness.

Our families and friends and we ourselves need the encouragement of our own lives of holiness, as well as the prayers of the saints.

Do you pass a cemetery on a regular basis? Are your parents, relatives or friends interred nearby?

When was the last time you visited a gravesite to pray for the dead or to ask for their prayers?

Why not take advantage of the month of November and make such a visit before the snow flies.

Pray for the dead. Honor the saints. And ask for their prayers so that when we “close up shop,” we will have the privilege to join them.