October 28, 2022

Remember this Sunday to bring to the service a photo or memento of one who has died but who you still carry in your heart.

All Saints’ Day and the Day of All Souls. Diá de los Muertos. Halloween. Samhain.

We arrive again at that time of year when there is a confluence of holidays from various traditions which urge us to consider how our lives and our living is intertwined with those who have died. Inspired by all of those holidays and traditions and more, this Sunday we will make time to remember and to reaffirm our connection to those we love who have died and returned to the common sacred ground of being.

I went to a Catholic college and on the evening of All Saints’ Day there would be a service not in the new sanctuary but in the old one, and the monks and priests of St. John’s Abbey would bring out all of the reliquaries–memorials of and to different saints–and display them around the hall (the sanctuary) where the service was held. If you are Catholic, you may know that the altar in a Catholic church is also, traditionally, a reliquary, holding in it somewhere some remnant of a saint. One of the practices of Diá de los Muertos is to create an altar to those who have died that includes photographs and offerings.

What we’ll do this Sunday is make an altar together. If you bring a photograph or other memento of someone, you will be able to add them to the altar space. You’ll also have the opportunity to write names on colorful paper in the shape of autumn leaves. There will also be stones and water. It will be a sacred time of making a sacred space to acknowledge the love we have for those who have died. It will also be a sacred time of reconnection: to feel in our hearts the love that our beloved dead had for us — to feel how their love lives on in us.

Most of those we will be remembering are likely to have been humans, but if there is a non-human member of your family you want to honor and remember, all species of critter and grief and love are welcome here.

May our remembering reconnect us to our present vitality and inspire us to carry our love into a new tomorrow.