All Saints and All Souls

Yesterday was the Solemnity of All Saints while today is All Souls Day, the Commemoration of all the Faithful Departed. As the calendar (both civil and liturgical) slowly comes to a close, we are also reminded of what awaits us at the twilight of life.

The promise of the Communion of Saints, which we profess in the Creed, is something we enjoy already but not yet. Even now, the saints in heaven intercede for us with Almighty God even as we too pray for our departed as we continue to struggle here on earth. Nevertheless, we look forward with hope to that final reunion, when we shall all be changed and shine together as the one Body of Christ, in the glory of the Father.

The Assumption of Our Lady was declared by Pius XII in 1950 on the Solemnity of All Saints. How appriopriate indeed! For Mary, Mother of all the faithful, precedes us in that glory where we all yearn to be, sinners indeed yet saints too redeemed by Christ her Son.

And so let us pray to Our Lady, Mother of the Church and Queen of all the saints, that she may intercede for us with her Son, so that we too may arrive to the fullness of that communion where we shall join her with all the saints in their song of joy before God's throne.

All holy men and women, saints of God, pray for us!


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