INBOX INSPIRATIONS

November 17, 2021

November – All Souls

Dear Friends,

Some years ago, I read about a grave marker in a cemetery in Maine.

The inscription on this marker, for a man who had died, is simple, but it makes us think.

It says:

“We seem to give him back to thee,

Dear Lord who gave him to us,

Yet as thou who didst not lose him in giving,

So too, we have not lost him by his return to you.”

They are consoling and even insightful words.

In this month of November, in our Catholic tradition, we remember in a special way all of our loved ones who have died.

We recognize that we have given them back to God, much as God had given them to us.

The loss, the giving back to God has been painful.

It has left a void, a vacuum in our lives.

And yet, as persons of faith, we know that God did not lose us in giving us to our loved ones.

God has remained with us, and we have remained close to God while here on earth.

In a similar way, we have given some of our loved ones back to God.

But, our faith tells us that we also have not lost them.

They remain our loved ones and our relationship with them continues.

This is part of what we mean by our belief in the Communion of Saints.

So, we pray for our loved ones who have died.

We pray for their peace and happiness with God.

We ask the Lord to wrap them in his love.

And, besides that, we also pray to our loved ones.

They are with the Lord as all saints are with the Lord.

Because of that, we ask their intercession for us.

We ask their help in whatever special need we may now have in our earthly journey.

So, yes, we have given these loved ones back to God.

But, in this way, just as God did not lose our loved ones in giving them to us, we have not lost them in giving them back to God.

Father Michael Schleupner

Father Mike Inbox Blog