At almost the close of the year, the 2 special days etched on our mind are, 1st November – All Saints Day; 2nd November – All Souls Day.

All Saints Day : is a feast for all of us because we are called to be Saints. To be a Saint is to be Holy. For this we look for inspiration to the lives of saints. The lives they carved out for themselves in the midst of difficult and daunting circumstances. Veneration of saints is not about their statues or novenas, but about their spirituality.
In the scriptures the word ‘Saint’ is in common usage. It refers to those who are in Christ. Every Christian is called to be a Saint. It means letting Jesus have full possession of our life. It means never to choose sin over Holiness, when tempted. We often hide behind the excuse of “I am not a saint”. But the lives of saints scream out to us “It is possible”. What the saints did was, they carved a path where none existed. They lived the kind of life Jesus wants His Disciples to live. In the midst of persecution, the social set-up, their spiritual set-up, they found a way to live their spiritual life and make it fruitful.
We read the stories of Saints – they did heroic deeds; fasting penance, sacrifice. They lived the Beatitudes. What was common to saints was that they made the time to converse with Jesus, spending hours in His Presence – falling passionately in love with Jesus.
We cannot excuse ourselves saying it is difficult to live a saintly life in this world – that it is an evil world. We have to carve out a spiritual path unique to ourselves in the very difficult circumstances we face, which will produce fruit.
To be a saint, to live our faith, is Necessary and Possible. We should be ready to sacrifice what the world offers us by way of Distractions. Sainthood demands much from us especially to make time each day for Jesus in Personal Prayer. Sainthood promises much as well, as Jesus said, that our names will be written in heaven.

All souls Day: In the situation we are presently going through, Death like a tornado has hit the world without respect for nationality, caste, creed, age or status. Grief has become universal. Death has woken us up to its Uncertainty, its Power and our unpreparedness for it. We know we have to die, yet we are shocked and surprised when it happens. This is so true in our very Parish where the loss has been significant.
When our loved ones depart, we suffer grief. What troubles more is the uncertainty of their final destination. Are they in union with God? Have they been accepted by God in His Beatific Vision?
We have grown up believing that Purgatory is a place of great pain & suffering, so we are anxious about the battles our loved ones are going through. Purgatory is a place of Purification – a process we need to undergo till we find that union with Jesus. It is a battle of all battles, when the soul is thirsting to find its final union with God in Purgatory.
Praying for the dead has been a tradition from very early times. The Church does not let the souls that have passed away fight the battle by themselves. The Church has set aside All Souls Day to remind us that we do not abandon the dead to their fate. Even in death the Church, universally brings us together to pray not just for our loved ones but for All the Souls who are in Purgatory.
One of the greatest act of charity we can do, is pray for the Souls in Purgatory. It is an act of charity for every soul because they cannot pray for themselves. Though this is a practice in most homes may we never let a day go by without praying for the Souls in Purgatory.

P.S. The content of this article is not my original thoughts. These are my notes of the talks by Catholic Priests on Youtube.

-J. Rodrigues.