November - Our Month of Remembrance

During the  month of November, we Catholics hold sacred the practice of honouring the dead, remembering them with love, taking time to think of the impact they have had on our lives, praying that God may see and reward their goodness, and most importantly remembering how blessed we were to have them in our lives, how blessed to have been helped by them,  cheered or guided or just made better for their presence at all.  It is an honourable thing to do but it is a painful thing too, a pain we all wish we were spared and even though the blessings of others in our lives are so many.  In this month of mourning and remembrance the sadness of our hardest farewells always comes back to us again.  The Month starts with the Feasts of All Saints and All souls – the famed saints and the simple unknown saints who were God’s face to us.  Each of their lives are worth remembering, for they are the ones who made our world what it is and made us who we are.  They ware worthy of our prayers and our thanks.  And in this month we pray they are all worthy of God’s reward.  As you pray for your dead this month though, spare a prayer too for those who mourn, recently or for years, that God may help shoulder their cross a little in life, and that we may have the courage to shoulder it too and help them live a little easier for a little while with a little friendship, care and comfort.

You are invited to take a list and envelope to complete with your faithfully departed to form our Parish List of the Dead.  A Novena of Masses will be offered for the repose of their souls beginning on 29^th October and concluding with our annual Mass of Remembrance on Wednesday 5^th November.

With every blessing – Fr O’Neill