November

October 30, 2005

Tuesday of the coming week we begin the sombre month of November,
the ninth month of the old Roman year until Augustus made it the eleventh month.  Like its fellows, September, October and December it is not connected with any person, either mythical, like March or historical, like August. Christmas is still quite away. With the departure of summer time, the days seem to get progressively shorter. Fall back !!

Traditionally it has been associated in the church with the dead, above all with the faithful departed, for whose reception into the presence of God we pray, knowing that we ourselves shall certainly follow in their footsteps. Since the end of the tenth century November 2nd has been All Souls day and falling as it does straight after All Saints day, both feasts serve to remind us of the transhistorical dimension of the church.

The church is far larger than the actual present membership of believing Christians would suggest. It stretches beyond the grave. We are connected with those who have gone before and they with us, but in differing ways. We ask for and depend on the prayers of the saints in heaven. Those who have not yet 'made it' depend on our prayers in order to speed and facilitate their entrance into the home prepared for them, which at present they are not in a position to enter.

The practice of praying for the departed seems to have been well established long before the founding of the feast of All Souls. At the end of book IX of his Confessions after narrating the death of his mother Monica, Augustine writes as follows: 'My Lord and God inspire your servants that all who read this book may remember at your altar Monica your servant and Patrick her late husband'. His care for the eternal well -being of his parents was not terminated by their departure from this planet.

It is perhaps this thought as much as any other that should stay with us and inspire us. The life we live here, however long or brief, is in both cases a prelude to an infinitely longer period. This life is indeed vital, but it is a preparation for something more wonderful than is our normal life here. Our entry there and our ultimate reception into the life or presence and praise is not easy to imagine. But preparation is vital and we are ourselves helped on our way by our fellow pilgrims and can do the same for them here and hereafter

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