Masses for November 1st (All Saints) and November 2nd (All Souls): 10am in Mary Immaculate Church and 12.15pm and 7pm Masses in SS John and Paul Church.

Ceremony of Remembrance for those who have died since November 2020, will be celebrated on Wednesday November 3rd at 7pm in SS John and Paul Church for their families. Note: There is NO evening Mass on November 3rd.

November is a special time of the year when in a heartfelt and intimate way ‘We Remember’ all our loved ones who passed over to new life with Christ this past year.  Death, loss, and sadness is something we all experience, but in a particular way the death of a family member, relative, neighbour, or friend is all the more difficult to come to terms and comprehend.  We have lived with them, shared our lives with them, and walked the road of life through the joys and challenges with them.  Their passing leaves a huge void and absence in our lives, and we will never forget their presence in our lives.  While they are no longer physically present to us, their spirit lives in our hearts.

In remembering our loved one we are brought back to the moment they breathed their last.  We recall with affection in the midst of the tears, the final words they said to us. We feel the sense of the mystery of the moment where they closed their eyes to this world and opened them to life with the Father in heaven.  In remembering our loved one we are brought back to planning for their funeral ritual and carrying out their final wishes.  Whether it was celebrated in a Church, or the Crematorium Chapel, or in the home, or at the graveside we bid them farewell until we meet again.

This past year the passing of our loved one occurs in the context of the pandemic.  The grieving process was made all the more challenging and upsetting with restrictions and protocols.  Yet within the reality of those experiences, the words of the Saviour Jesus Christ gives us hope;

‘Do not let your hearts be troubled, trust in God…’

In the past year we have perhaps understood there is a part of life that doesn’t belong to us, but to God.  We do not know the day or the hour when God will call us.  But I’d like to think we continue to do our best, to give without counting the cost, to have a sense of compassion and kindness.  I have no doubt the legacy of your loved one is now bestowed on you, and you now take on the baton of their lives.  In that task may you be given the courage and fortitude to live each day with a heart of love.  In so doing you will truly stand at that moment in time, when you will never ever lose them again.

God bless you and may your loved one be enfolded in God’s love forever.

Fr Arnie