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[Wisdom 3:1-9; Romans 5:5-11 or 6:3-9; John 6:37-40.  Other scriptures may be chosen from the lectionary selections for Masses for the Deceased.]

     The souls of the just are in the hand of God,and no torment shall touch them.  They seemed, in the view of the foolish, to be dead; and their passing away was thought an affliction and their going forth from us, utter destruction.  But they are in peace.  For if before men, indeed, they be punished, yet is their hope full of immortality; chastised a little, they shall be greatly blessed, because God tried them and found them worthy of himself.  [Wisdom]

     Part of every visit to my hometown of Natchitoches, LA, in northwestern Louisiana, is a visit to the graves of my parents and my sister.  Whenever I am in the area just north of New Orleans, I try to get over to the cemetery where many of my Dominican brethren are buried.  On my last visit there last February, I realized that I knew the majority of them at one time or another.  We Dominicans have three special days each year when we pray for our deceased parents, Dominican brethren and our benefactors.  In most Dominican houses, there is a moment in the day when the deceased members are remembered by reading the list of the deceased from the province and saying the De profundis psalm (Ps. 130) for them.  Someday I will be on that list and when my name is read out, at least in my province, there will be someone who will say, "Oh yeah!  I remember HIM!"  At the end of each celebration of the Liturgy of the Hours, we say, "May the souls of the faithful departed rest in peace."

     These are not just moments of memory (sometimes great and sometimes not) but also moments of faith.  It is a reminder to us not just of our human mortality but our membership in the communion of saints.  When I was an altar boy in the 1950's and 60's, the emphasis on this feast was on purgatory and praying for our loved ones who might be there on their way eventually to heaven.  That emphasis, along with black vestments of mourning, has been replaced with the one from the Book of Wisdom, quoted above.  We can join our hearts to those whom we remember today and seek their own intercession just as we intercede for them.  It is a special day of remembrance for all souls - those who have gone before us and on whose shoulders we stand..  May they rest in peace!  AMEN