'DAD, ARE YOU REALLY GONE"? All Soul's Day

             "DAD, ARE YOU REALLY GONE?"
I am writing these words on a Monday. I've just come from delivering the
message at a funeral for an old friend, a member of the local church...Don's service today was a fitting tribute to a great man. In the foyer just outside, his four grown daughters had created a display that did him proud. But one item stole the show...It was a poem written shortly after he died, by one of his daughters, now a mother herself. As people...stopped to read that centerpiece...virtually every one of them struggled to hold back their tears. Many didn't succeed. I didn't. Here is what we read:
Dad, are you really gone?
I'm certain I was there when you took your last breath.
Yet it seems your life is still speaking so loud and clear.

Are you really gone?
I can see you in my childhood days.
Always taking care of us, letting our lives as children
Be as God intended: carefree, happy and adventurous, joyful.

Are you really gone?
I can see your smile and your fatherly wink
As I feel your familiar and vigorous hug.
I can see the joy in your face as your grandchildren
embrace you and you turn to me without hesitation
And say, "You're a good mother, I'm proud of you."

Are you really gone?
I can see you so clear, a man of God, a devoted father,
A loving husband, a church leader, a friend.
I can hear you say, "It's good to be alive,"
As you enjoy the simple pleasures of life.

Are you really gone?
I can see your Christian influence woven into the decisions of
my life and it is only by your confident example that I can say,
You'll never really be gone from us.
And I can now hear our heavenly Father say to you,
"Welcome, good and faithful servant,
Enter into the joy I have prepared for you."

It doesn't get any better than that. No medal, ribbon, or citation
even remotely compares to the deep, abiding love and respect
of a daughter or son.
_______________________________________________________

Today is ALL SOULS DAY. It is a time for remembering our dearly
departed ones. For as long as our fond memories of them dwell in
us they cannot die -- they are not really gone. In our hearts they are
living still as passing years go by.

ALL SAINTS' DAY

The Saints go marching on 

During the Second World War, six million Jews perished in the Nazi death camps. That number would have been greater, but happily, at least 500,000 were rescued or protected by ordinary people. They were quite ordinary people, in fact, for the most part, individualists  -  they did not usually do what society demanded, for example, to share in the almost universal hatred of the Jews. They just got into the habit of doing good, finding themselves responding first to a need and only second to the danger, and believing that the gift of goodness could be passed on. If you perceive sainthood as an undesirable attribute or think of saints as one-dimensional shadows of real human beings, you probably have never met cantankerous Saint Jerome or firebrand Saint John the Baptist, anxious and tormented Padre Pio or wry Saint Teresa, joke-cracking bishop Saint Laurence O’Toole or achingly grateful Saint Mary Magdalene, brainy and poetic Saint Thomas Aquinas or indomitable Saint Catherine of Siena, moody Saint Augustine, playful Saint Therese or mad Saint John of God. When Jesus came upon them, they realised that they had been missing out in life. Other saints gave up lucrative careers to become poor in the Lord, like Francis Xavier who became a great missionary. One can think of the young troubadour Francesco. He is known as “the sweet saint” who discovered what “la dolce vita” meant when lived with the Lord. Other saints simply lived by their convictions and remained steadfast in challenging circumstances. Thus, Thomas More, who had received Catholic education like any other lad, and lived by it even if it meant disagreeing with King Henry VIII. From the ashes of Teresa da Ahumada rose the great Teresa of Jesus (of Avila).Perhaps you did not know that among the saints there are people who, rather than being meek and mild, are rather furious. Among the saints there are also great wits, addle-brained dreamers, foolish oafs, mischievous curmudgeons, radical crusaders, shy artists, and passionate poets. There are housewives and kings, tax agents and lawyers (yes, lawyers!), bakers and erstwhile brigands. But in this diverse bunch of souls for Christ, there are common characteristics. All the saints share certain virtues - a yearning for holiness, an intimacy with God, perseverance in prayer, humility of heart, and love of their fellow men and women, that is, charity of soul. There is a universal hunger for examples of goodness and bravery, and it needs to be nourished and cultivated. Children are spontaneous with goodness and love. God’s kingdom is the place of natural, easy-flowing goodness. That is the stuff of sainthood, or at least the beginning of it. The saints began that way, too, finding out the truth about themselves, the world and God.  For that priceless pearl they marched out of step with the assumptions of their society. They marched to a different drummer, named Jesus Christ. “Blessed are the poor, the meek, and those who suffer for justice sake.” The world considers these mad slogans, because the order of the day is pleasure, excitement, evasion of duty, the race for power, and a refusal to face the truth. Society is sick, not the saints mad!  The saints were human, indeed. Jesus has shown that the divine and the human can run on the same tether, so that body and spirit pull in the same direction, and the human can live perfectly in the presence of the divine. From mere dust the body, energised by the spirit, becomes star dust!  Saints’ lives have taught people to change from being mere receivers to great givers. And the saints cared chiefly for the best kind of giving which is called thanksgiving. They knew that the praise of God stands on the strongest ground when it stands on nothing; and God is too great for anything but gratitude.

ALL SOULS' DAY

                                                      ALL SOULS’ DAY

PENITENTIAL RITE:

Today’s commemoration is an extension of yesterday’s feast, since the faithful departed also belong to the Communion of Saints. The only difference is that our dear departed are shadowed over by our human sense of temporary separation and loss.

So as we prayerfully remember our parents, brothers and sisters, teachers and friends, we pray the Lord to spare us the torture of the memory of our sins at the hour of our death.

All Souls' Day

It is All Souls’ Day. Let us listen to the dear departed’s entreaties for our prayers and Masses on their behalf. Here is one such entreaty:

“It is All Souls’ Day

Have you forgotten me, dear earthly friends?

Have you a prayer to spare for one you once loved well?

Do you still remember the happy hours we spent together in the past?

Have you forgotten the scalding tears you wept when I was dead?

The promises you breathed over my still form?

The Masses you had intended to have offered up for me?

Across the eternal silence I lean forward now to remind you!

Think of me, help me, and when your last hour comes,

you will find your goodness to me has not been in vain.

For the dead forget not; the dead are never untrue;

 they live forever in the changeless love of God,

which permeates all, sanctifies all, immortalises all.

The flowers of his heaven are your fervent prayers!

For your loved and seeming lost, then,

make a wreath of them for me to lay at his holy feet.”

(From “Prayers of an Irish mother”)

            When we who are now on earth have died, we will in our turn need to make that entreaty. During our brief sojourn here we remember the departed. This age-old tradition of praying for the dead is rooted in the early Church’s trust in the mercy of God and faith in a personal resurrection with Jesus Christ. We pray for the faithful who are indeed assured of their eternal salvation; though after death they undergo purification, so as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven. We don’t quite know the nature of this purification, but it certainly has to do with the advent of God’s purifying love.

Today’s commemoration is, in fact, an extension of yesterday’s Feast of All Saints’, since the faithful departed also belong to the Communion of Saints, which is animated and electrified by divine love. It is a truth that is based on the teaching of Scripture, namely, that the Church is Christ’s body. Christ has only one body, not one on earth and another in heaven. Christians are not separated from one another by a death that makes no difference to their love and service of one another. The moment they closed their eyes to this world and opened them to the light of eternity, all was suffused in the love of God and the saints, and in a flash they were rejuvenated forever. Such is the advent of the purifying love of God.

            One day, during a catechism class on All Saint’s Day, the teacher asked, “Who or what are the saints?”  One youngster stood up and happened to look at the stained glass window that had a saint portrayed, with the sunlight streaming through. The little fellow got a bright idea and answered, “The saints are those who let in the sunlight.” Splendid answer, the teacher thought. The saints let the light of Christ into our life by their prayer and example. But what happens when there is no sunlight, when the outside is dark and we are seated in a well lit church? That is when we send our light and prayer to our friends in the semi-darkness as they walk towards the pearly gates. They are grateful for our prayers and sacrifices that serve as so many points of light on their way to the perpetual light of the Heavenly Jerusalem. And as they march in they hear the words of the prophet Jeremiah, Chapter 31: “I have loved you. I will guard you as a shepherd guards his flock. They will come and sing for joy on Mt. Sion. I will turn their mourning into joy.” And from the book of Revelation, Chapter One: I turned round to see who was speaking to me, and when I turned, I saw.....one like a Son of Man, dressed in a long white robe tied at the waist with a belt of gold. His head and hair were white with the whiteness of wool like snow, his eyes like a burning flame, his feet like burnished bronze when it has been refined in a furnace. His face was like the sun shining in full strength. When I saw him I fell at his feet as though dead, but he laid his hand on me and said, “Do not be afraid...I was, and look...I am alive for ever and ever. Look at my hands and feet; it’s me. Touch me and feel secure.”

PRAYER

Lord God, we thank you for your ineffable gift of eternal life in you. We thank you for inviting us to pray for our loved ones who wait to enter there. Grant them a speedy entrance into your joy forever. We beg to intercede also for those who have no one to pray for them. Grant them eternal rest.  Amen.

ALL SOULS’ DAY 2017

Lord, grant that the greater harvest

Which we came on earth to save,

May be golden and ripe for the reaping

‘Ere we go the lonely grave;

That our souls in the last dread autumn

May be clean as the hill and lea,

When we bring life’s grain to the haggard

and offer it all to thee.

O great and merciful God,

We praise and thank you

that you have brought our dearest parents,

 brothers, sisters, and friends,

at their last awakening,

into your house and gate of heaven,

to enter into that gate

and dwell in that house

where shall be no darkness nor dazzling,

but one equal light,

no noise nor silence, but one equal music,

no fears nor hopes, but one equal possession,

no ends nor beginnings, but one equal eternity

in the habitations of your glory and dominion,

where there is continuous happiness

and profounder joy in your presence

wherein they see you as you are,

for ever and ever. Amen.

MISSION SUNDAY MESSAGE 2014

MESSAGE OF POPE FRANCIS
FOR WORLD MISSION DAY 2014

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Today vast numbers of people still do not know Jesus Christ. For this reason, the mission ad gentes continues to be most urgent. All the members of the Church are called to participate in this mission, for the Church is missionary by her very nature: she was born “to go forth”. World Mission Day is a privileged moment when the faithful of various continents engage in prayer and concrete gestures of solidarity in support of the young Churches in mission lands. It is a celebration of grace and joy. A celebration of grace, because the Holy Spirit, sent by the Father, offers wisdom and strength to those who are obedient to his action. A celebration of joy, because Jesus Christ, the Father’s Son, sent to evangelize the world, supports and accompanies our missionary efforts. This joy of Jesus and missionary disciples leads me to propose a biblical icon, which we find in the Gospel of Luke (cf. 10:21-23) .

1. The Evangelist tells us that the Lord sent the seventy-two disciples two by two into cities and villages to proclaim that the Kingdom of God was near, and to prepare people to meet Jesus. After carrying out this mission of preaching, the disciples returned full of joy: joy is a dominant theme of this first and unforgettable missionary experience. Yet the divine Master told them: “Do not rejoice because the demons are subject to you; but rejoice because your names are written in heaven. At that very moment Jesus rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said: ‘I give you praise, Father...’ And, turning to the disciples in private he said, ‘Blessed are the eyes that see what you see’” (Lk 10:20-21, 23).

Luke presents three scenes. Jesus speaks first to his disciples, then to the Father, and then again to the disciples. Jesus wanted to let the disciples share his joy, different and greater than anything they had previously experienced.

2. The disciples were filled with joy, excited about their power to set people free from demons. But Jesus cautioned them to rejoice not so much for the power they had received, but for the love they had received, “because your names are written in heaven” (Lk10:20). The disciples were given an experience of God’s love, but also the possibility of sharing that love. And this experience is a cause for gratitude and joy in the heart of Jesus. Luke saw this jubilation in a perspective of the trinitarian communion: “Jesus rejoiced in the Holy Spirit”, turning to the Father and praising him. This moment of deep joy springs from Jesus’ immense filial love for his Father, Lord of heaven and earth, who hid these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to the childlike (cf. Lk10:21). God has both hidden and revealed, and in this prayer of praise it is his revealing which stands out. What is it that God has revealed and hidden? The mysteries of his Kingdom, the manifestation of divine lordship in Jesus and the victory over Satan.

God has hidden this from those who are all too full of themselves and who claim to know everything already. They are blinded by their presumptuousness and they leave no room for God. One can easily think of some of Jesus’ contemporaries whom he repeatedly admonished, but the danger is one that always exists and concerns us too. The “little ones”, for their part, are the humble, the simple, the poor, the marginalized, those without voice, those weary and burdened, whom Jesus pronounced “blessed”. We readily think of Mary, Joseph, the fishermen of Galilee and the disciples whom Jesus called as he went preaching.

3. “Yes, Father, for such has been your gracious will” (Lk 10:21). These words of Jesus must be understood as referring to his inner exultation. The word “gracious” describes the Father’s saving and benevolent plan for humanity. It was this divine graciousness that made Jesus rejoice, for the Father willed to love people with the same love that he has for his Son. Luke also alludes to the similar exultation of Mary: “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord, and my spirit exults in God my Savior” (Lk 1:47). This is the Good News that leads to salvation. Mary, bearing in her womb Jesus, the evangelizer par excellence, met Elizabeth and rejoiced in the Holy Spirit as she sang her Magnificat. Jesus, seeing the success of his disciples’ mission and their resulting joy, rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and addressed his Father in prayer. In both cases, it is joy for the working of salvation, for the love with which the Father loves his Son comes down to us, and through the Holy Spirit fills us and grants us a share in the trinitarian life.

The Father is the source of joy. The Son is its manifestation, and the Holy Spirit its giver. Immediately after praising the Father, so the evangelist Matthew tells us, Jesus says: “Come to me, all you who labour and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart, and you will find rest for yourselves. For my yoke is easy and my burden light” (Mt 11:28-30). “The joy of the Gospel fills the hearts and lives of all who encounter Jesus. Those who accept his offer of salvation are set free from sin, sorrow, inner emptiness and loneliness. With Christ joy is constantly born anew” (Evangelii Gaudium, 1).

The Virgin Mary had a unique experience of this encounter with Jesus, and thus became “causa nostrae laetitiae”. The disciples, for their part, received the call to follow Jesus and to be sent by him to preach the Gospel (cf. Mk 3:14), and so they were filled with joy. Why shouldn’t we too enter this flood of joy?4.

 “The great danger in today’s world, pervaded as it is by consumerism, is the desolation and anguish born of a complacent yet covetous heart, the feverish pursuit of frivolous pleasures, and a blunted conscience” (Evangelii Gaudium, 2). Humanity greatly needs to lay hold of the salvation brought by Christ. His disciples are those who allow themselves to be seized ever more by the love of Jesus and marked by the fire of passion for the Kingdom of God and the proclamation of the joy of the Gospel. All the Lord’s disciples are called to nurture the joy of evangelization. The Bishops, as those primarily responsible for this proclamation, have the task of promoting the unity of the local Church in her missionary commitment. They are called to acknowledge that the joy of communicating Jesus Christ is expressed in a concern to proclaim him in the most distant places, as well as in a constant outreach to the peripheries of their own territory, where great numbers of the poor are waiting for this message.

Many parts of the world are experiencing a dearth of vocations to the priesthood and the consecrated life. Often this is due to the absence of contagious apostolic fervour in communities which lack enthusiasm and thus fail to attract. The joy of the Gospel is born of the encounter with Christ and from sharing with the poor. For this reason I encourage parish communities, associations and groups to live an intense fraternal life, grounded in love for Jesus and concern for the needs of the most disadvantaged. Wherever there is joy, enthusiasm and a desire to bring Christ to others, genuine vocations arise. Among these vocations, we should not overlook lay vocations to mission. There has been a growing awareness of the identity and mission of the lay faithful in the Church, as well as a recognition that they are called to take an increasingly important role in the spread of the Gospel. Consequently they need to be given a suitable training for the sake of an effective apostolic activity.

5. “God loves a cheerful giver” (2 Cor 9:7). World Mission Day is also an occasion to rekindle the desire and the moral obligation to take joyful part in the mission ad gentes. A monetary contribution on the part of individuals is the sign of a self-offering, first to the Lord and then to others; in this way a material offering can become a means for the evangelization of humanity built on love.

Dear brothers and sisters, on this World Mission Day my thoughts turn to all the local Churches. Let us not be robbed of the joy of evangelization! I invite you to immerse yourself in the joy of the Gospel and nurture a love that can light up your vocation and your mission. I urge each of you to recall, as if you were making an interior pilgrimage, that “first love” with which the Lord Jesus Christ warmed your heart, not for the sake of nostalgia but in order to persevere in joy. The Lord’s disciples persevere in joy when they sense his presence, do his will and share with others their faith, hope and evangelical charity.

Let us pray through the intercession of Mary, the model of humble and joyful evangelization, that the Church may become a welcoming home, a mother for all peoples and the source of rebirth for our world.

From the Vatican, 8 June 2014, the Solemnity of Pentecost

FRANCIS