Feasts of All Saints and All Souls

As a young boy, I remember being taken to the graveyard at the edge of our little town with my best friend Billy, the kid next door, and his mother who drove us.  No one that I knew was there; my family had no relatives buried in that cemetery.  But Billy did.  He had uncles, grandparents, and other relatives I didn’t know, buried in a little family plot, encircled by a small, rickety whitewashed fence.  I remember being excited to go with him because, among other things, we were permitted to sit in the front seat of the car (ordinarily a big no-no).  The only reason we were allowed to sit up front was because the back seat was filled with flowers.

As soon as we drove through the front gate of the cemetery, Billy’s mother began to sing “As the Saints Go Marching In.”  LOUD!  She rolled the windows down so “everyone” could hear and join her in singing.  At the time, I had no idea who “everyone” was, but years later came to understand she was calling out to “everyone” buried in the cemetery.   Their voices were just as important as hers and she was determined not to sing alone.  Billy and I, of course, tried to sing along with her, but she seemed more interested in summoning a choir of voices from their graves.

When we arrived at their family plot, Billy’s mom would open the trunk of the car, take out a bucket of paint and a few brushes.  It was Billy’s and my job to clean up the fence and give it a new coat of paint.  Billy’s mom then carefully emptied the back seat of flowers and carefully laid them on the ground in front of each gravestone, now quietly singing to each one.  When she was finished, she looked over to Billy and me and said: “We can go now; God alone can hear them.”

As we celebrate these two great Feasts this weekend, may we too summon everyone around us to sing a joyful hymn of thanksgiving for the souls of those we trust “shall be greatly blessed because God tried them and found them worthy of himself.”

In Christ the Servant + Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam
Receive + Believe + Teach + Practice