Reflection for the Thirty-first Sunday of Ordinary Time

Most people wish to be remembered in some way after they die. Some are content to live. On through future generations of their family; while many rely on an epithet etched into a tombstone in a cemetery. For the Baptized , our greatest memorial will be in the celebration of the Mass, when we are included in the prayers for the dead.
Saint Monica, the mother of Saint Augustine, was known as a holy and playful women . Before Monica breathed her last, she expressed this hope to her son: lay this body anywhere, and take no trouble over it. One thing only do I ask of you, that you remember me at the altar of the Lord where you may be. Through a holy. Woman by anyone’ s standards, Monica believed her soul benefit from the prayers her son might offer on her behalf after she died. Monica believed that her soul would be cleansed in death and prepared to enter, without blemish, into God’s Kingdom in heave. We through our Baptism, have also been give new life in Christ and become part of Christ’s body, the Church. The Church is also referred to as the Communion of Saints. Within the Communion of Saints there are three grid tin the divisions: the Church militant – the Church on earth; the Church suffering – the suffering souls in purgatory; and the Church triumphant – the Saints in heaven. Today, actually tomorrow we honor all Saints I. Heave, celebrate their lives, and pray for their intercession. As we do this we can realize that what they were, we now are. What they are now, we one day hope to become. This will happen when the promise of Christ, the promise of newness of life first give to us in Baptism, is kept.
Jesus promises true and lasting peace to those who have nothing in this life except their faith in him.
Also , on November 2 – the Commemoration of all the faithful departed or All Souls Day. Through our Bap, we become citizens of Heaven and are I. The hands of God, not only in life but in death, as well. We were also baptized into Christ’s death so that, just as Christ was raised from the death by the glory of God, we too might love in newness of life .
As we pray for the departed, we recall that in the Gospel Jesus promised to never reject those who come to Him. Our salvation depends not only on our human feelings or failings, but o the fact that grace has brought us to belong to God. We believe in the promises of Christ and his Resurrection, which gives us hope in coming to share in eternal life. We pray for our departed that our faith may be renewed and strengthened. Let us pray for the all souls this month , that with the help of our prayers and the assistance of God’s graces , they may be cleansed of their sins and anger into God’s heavenly Kingdom.
May God bless you
Fr. Dominic
Your brother in Christ