The month of November begins with two special feasts: All Saints (Nov. 1) and All Souls (Nov. 2). These make us stop and consider our lives, and the lives we want to live. They help us to consider our mortality, our limited time here on earth. These make us consider the blessing that is our faith. It is so easy to get caught up in the ever demanding aspects of our daily life, to become so focused on living, surviving, maybe even thriving, that we can lose our life and miss the beauty to which we are called. We need wake up calls, and hopefully ones that are not too damaging or serious (like a grave illness…), but just enough to keep us focused on that which is most important. Without our proper focus we will lose on both fronts: we’ll miss out on the beauty of this life, and we’ll miss out on heaven. During the month of November we are asked to show love to the Holy Souls in Purgatory, this is our Christian tradition. We do this by praying for them, by visiting cemeteries and taking proper care of them, etc. This helps us to stop and consider our own path in life, our own call in life, and our own gift that life is. During this month of November I recommend that you find many moments to stop, to pray, to give thanks, and to live.
Fr. Wojtek Kuzma