All Saints/All Souls

All Saints/All Souls

                                        Zack Homrighaus                                    Sofia V. Mendez

You may have read my post from a few days ago about how we celebrate Halloween.  A tradition I've added to that in the last few years is to put up pictures of favorite Saints on that day in honor of All Saints day the next day and also pictures of family and friends who have gone before us in honor of All Souls day the following day.  For me, these two days have become days of reflecting on people who inspired me in who I want to be in this life.

In our family we take these days to honor all of the Saints we look up to and the family and friends we've lost.  The two pictures here are friends of mine from high school.  We found out Zack had cancer after our sophomore year of high school in 2000.  He fought it and lived three more years until December 27, 2003.  Sofia had a sudden issue with her brain fluid and passed away suddenly on October 1, 2011.  It was a real shock.  Both of these people were inspirational in countless ways. They have reminded me of the person I want to be on a daily basis.  Although we can think about our family and friends and honor them any day of the year, All Souls day is a special day we take each year as a community and to make sure we have time dedicated to those people.  In our Catholic tradition, All Souls day is also the day that we pray for people who have died that they go to heaven and pass out of purgatory.  It might be a strange thought for anyone who does not believe in purgatory.  We believe people go there before going to heaven, not as punishment, but to be cleansed of any sins/wrongs made on earth so that we can be in heaven soon after with Jesus in the perfect form.  It's suppose to be a place of hope and so we offer up prayers for those there.