A Day of Prayer and Hope

On November 2nd, the Church pauses to remember all the faithful departed. It is a day of prayer, of hope, and of trust in God’s promise of eternal life.

The Book of Wisdom reminds us: “The souls of the just are in the hand of God, and no torment shall touch them” (Wis 3:1). What looks to us like loss and sorrow is seen by God as a homecoming. Psalm 23 speaks the same comfort: “Though I walk in the valley of darkness, I fear no evil; for you are with me.”

St. Paul writes to the Romans that “hope does not disappoint” (Rom 5:5). In Christ’s death and resurrection we are reconciled, made whole, and given the assurance that love is stronger than death.

In the Gospel, Jesus promises: “Everyone that sees the Son and believes in him may have eternal life, and I shall raise him on the last day” (John 6:40). This is the heart of our faith: no one who entrusts themselves to Christ is ever forgotten.

On this day we pray for our loved ones who have gone before us, and for all the departed who may have no one to remember them. We commend them to the mercy of God, trusting that in Christ they have life without end.

Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord,
and let perpetual light shine upon them.
May they rest in peace. Amen.