At the start of October, while many in other parts of the world prepare for Halloween, we prepare for the observance of All Saints’ Day on November 1.
Catholic churches begin issuing prayer lists for our departed relatives and loved ones. This is a practice that evolved from offering masses or prayers for our departed loved ones. This was done verbally to the priest who used to go around the cemetery in our town when I was a child.
Those in the list are included in the daily masses for November.
I used to fill this out with my mother dictating the names of our dead relatives. Aside from my father and grandparents on both my father’s and mother’s side, she made sure my auntie, her sister who died unmarried and my uncle, my father’s brother who died a bachelor, were included. She said they were both single and didn’t have families/children of their own so we must make sure that they were remembered.
Now that my mother has passed away, I’m continuing the mass offering. The firs time I wrote her name, I was teary eyed. Memories flooded my mind. I was pensive. I thought about mortality, how fragile life is, and the inevitability of death and change. And I said a prayer:
Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them.
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