I went to Duncan Cemetery to bless the gravesite for those of your loved one(s) who laid rest there and to pray also for all those of our loved one(s) who were not laid rest there. I came home and collected a lot of stickers on my stole, not too much on my shoes since I bought a pair of boots just to use to go to the cemetery. I tugged my paint into the boosts to avoid getting stickers.

However, there are still some stickers get stuck on my Alb and my stole. Those stickers stuck on my vestments remind me those laid at rest need our prayers for them since they couldn’t do anything for themselves. A short prayer or a kind word or kind deed offered it up to the Lord to pray for our loved one(s) who have gone before we are highly encouraged to do during November. When we remember to pray for them, we don’t lose anything but rather gain. When they get to heaven, which is a perfect place without any stains or stickers, they will look over us to protect us and to pray for us, and that is our gain.

Heaven, according to the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC), is described as the communion of life and love with the Holy Trinity, the Blessed Virgin Mary, and all the angels and saints. Heaven is our spiritual home and home is where the family lives, in this case, the family of God. Jesus said, “In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And when I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also” (John 14:2-3). It is a perfect place where there is no need to marry or remarry. It’s just having one another in front of God face to face (called the beatific vision), we are all filled with joy and happiness that there is no need to marry nor to remarry again. This is exactly what Jesus responded to some Sadducees asking him for life at the resurrection saying, “The children of this age marry and remarry; but those who are deemed worthy to attain to the coming age and the resurrection of the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage. They can no longer die, for they are like angels; and they are the children of God because they are the ones who will rise.” How would we be received into heaven after we depart from this earthly life? Let us spend time during this month to pray for all those who have gone before us, especially our loved ones. The decision is yours.