By Fr. Bernard Holzer, aa
Today, Saint Paul, in his letter to the Romans (13:8), calls us to mutual love, “for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law”.
To love concretely, the Church recommends that we practice the Seven Corporal Works of Mercy: Feed the Hungry, Give Drink to the Thirsty; Clothe the Naked; Shelter the Homeless; Visit the Sick; Visit the Imprisoned; and Bury the Dead.
This November, we are called to pray for not only our loved ones but all the deceased:
In your hands, O Lord,
we humbly entrust our brothers and sisters.
In this life you embraced them with your tender love;
deliver them now from every evil
and bid them eternal rest.
The old order has passed away:
welcome them into paradise,
where there will be no sorrow, no weeping or pain,
but fullness of peace and joy
with your Son and the Holy Spirit
forever and ever.
R/. Amen.
Let us also meditate on Pope Leo XIV’s exhortation during the Angelus on Sunday November 2:
“As we say in the Creed: “I look forward to the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come.” Let us commemorate, therefore, the future, for we are not enclosed in the past or in sentimental tears of nostalgia. Neither are we sealed within the present, as in a tomb. May the familiar voice of Jesus reach us, and reach everyone, because it is the only one that comes from the future. May he call us by name, prepare a place for us, free us from that sense of helplessness that tempts us to give up on life. May Mary, the woman of Holy Saturday, teach us once again to hope.”
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