RBWords - Volume 25 - Number 10: October 2012
Something to Think About
Halloween, All Saints Day, All Souls Day and Election Day are all coming soon. Which one frightens you the most? Never mind....I think I know the answer, but I'm not going to talk about the election – scarey as that seems to be if each party's prediction about the other is any indication. I'm in a reflective mood about All Saints Day and All Souls Day and want to say something briefly about both. In doing so I remind everyone of our profession in the Nicene Creed of faith in “the communion of saints” and “the forgiveness of sins.”
All Saints Day is not about all the “canonized” saints! It is about the “communion of saints” to which we all belong by virtue of our baptism. We celebrate holiness and the importance of taking faith seriously in terms of living it intentionally. (I don't want to exclude humor from sanctity like some over-sober folks do.) In doing so, we can celebrate our particular spiritual “heroes and heroines” - “canonized” or not. I have in mind the wonderful tapestries in the new cathedral in Los Angeles, CA, which include known “saints” and anonymous ones, all in pilgrimage toward the altar!
All Souls Day is a reminder that saints are also sinners. The doctrine of “purgatory” is a reminder that we may still need some “purification” after death before we can fully enjoy eternal life. (cf. Catechism, ##1030-1032). We Dominicans pray for our deceased every day by saying the “De Profundis” Psalm (130) and we have our own special days of prayer during the year for deceased members, parents and benefactors of the Order. I take great comfort in knowing that a number of the brethren will say someday after that psalm, “Oh I remember him alright! He was, etc. etc.” Yes – comfort! So, both All Saints Day and All Souls Day are celebrations of a kind of solidarity that all pilgrims have. Holiness and mercy are matters of grace! IT'S SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT!
It Has Been Said
“Sometimes when I bow before the glory of God, singing the doxology at the end of a psalm, I see from the corner of my eye, as mirrors reflect into other mirrors, an infinite line of shimmering figures bowing with me. Sometimes I see them en masse, as crowds are painted in early Byzantine art. Or sometimes I see a lone shepherd or hermit, voice roughened by years of singing against wind and sun, wandering in solitude. There is a reality to the communion of saints that becomes transparently apparent through psalmody, a reality that has force and power, a there-ness that seems more fully manifest in this way than any other. The music of the long-vanished psalm-singers lingers in the silence. You can feel it in churches; you can feel it in ruins; you can feel it in wandering through mountains where holy ones have lived. “
from: THE FIRE OF YOUR LIFE – A Solitude Shared by Maggie Ross
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