Dear friends in Christ

November begins with the two days on which we look into eternity: All Saints this Sunday, All Souls on Monday. The first celebrates the Saints who live with God in Heaven, the second, those who are on their way and who are undergoing the process called Purgatory. Every person who is created by God has an eternal destiny and everything we do in this life has a bearing on our eternal life. We can never live our lives as though this was the only reality, that my eternal life is a matter of indifference. In the Gospel - the Beatitudes - Jesus gives us the map which, if we follow it, will bring us to eternal happiness. It will also bring joy in this life. The response in the Psalm for All Saints proclaims: Such are the men who seek your face, O Lord. They - the Saints - are the ones who have followed the Lamb of God and lived in the light of the Beatitudes. The Saints are the most diverse set of people, they are from every conceivable form of life, but the one thing they had in common was that they were madly in love with God. God has given us all a free will by which we can accept or reject Him, love or despise Him, live in His Body or remain outside of it. The Church IS His Body and our desire to remain in Him is so that we can have life: life to the full now and in the age to come.

On Monday we can attend Holy Mass and/or pray for the the Holy Souls - the Faithful Departed - which is the help we give them in aiding their final pilgrimage to Heaven. We can try to live in such a manner now, that after death we may be worthy to enter Heaven immediately. As we progress on our pilgrimage of faith, we do so confident of the help of that great army of witnesses - Mary, the Angels and Saints - who are cheering us on homewards.

May God bless you!

Msgr Kevin Hale