"In him we live, move and have our being"
All Souls
Cobh
2 November 2025
My friends,
In a recent conversation among a group discussing the small numbers at Sunday Mass observed the increase attendance of families for anniversary masses. A fact which points to our desire to remember our loved ones who have gone before us. Despite the changes in society and family we want to remember and cherish our forebears – those whose lives and love have given us so much we remember with gratitude and mercy. In this context mercy is important as an instrument of healing. For those who have died, we pray for God’s forgiveness for any sins committed through human weakness. That sin and failure which we all share, often leaves deep wounds that never got healed in life. So, our prayer for the faithful departed is both healing and purifying for them and those of us still on life’s journey.
These days of Halloween/Samhain – media turns its attention to death – some in frivolous ways with skeletons and ghosts – others more seriously in drawing on the pre-Christian, often pagan Celtic practices. More and more people question our Christian faith in Christs Resurrection. It is altering the aspirations of how people wish to honour their dead or those who have ‘passed’ – to use that new word for death. Those changing aspirations can regrettably be a point of tension at some funerals in our Churches. As some parishioners increasing disengage from their Christian faith, they can fail to see or understand that the celebrant/priest’s responsibility is to celebrate the Rite of Christian Funeral according to the liturgical norms laid down by the Church, to give expression to our faith in the immortality of the soul, of eternal life in the presence of God in whom we live, move and have our being. (Acts 17:28)
Like what has happened with regard to marriage – fewer couples are choosing to celebrate the Sacrament of Marriage – choosing instead for the “All in one” package in hotels. Likewise, we are likely to have fewer funerals in Churches because of a diminishing faith in a Christian vision of life and death.
That does not diminish our wish to remember our oved ones today and over this month of the Holy Souls.
This very day November 2nd, All Souls marks the anniversary of the publication of the ‘Dream of Gerontius’ by St. John Henry Newman, who was yesterday declared a Doctor of the Church by Pope Leo XIV – the 38th in the history of the Church.
The ‘Dream of Gerontius’, is recognised as Newman’s finest poem, made more famous when set to music by Edward Elgar, the illustrious composer. It tells the story of the old man Gerontius, as he faces death and how he is ministered to by his friends and the angels of God, on his journey to his heavenly home.
The poem eloquently captures the Christian belief in the immortality of the soul and its uniqueness before God its creator and so our belief in the world to come. Later, St. John Henry the theologian developed his reflection on Purgatory as a purification in preparation for the fulness of the experience of the Divine Presence.
Our prayer for the Holy Souls is acknowledging our and their need for purification but of its detail we know little. In faith we pray today,
Eternal Rest on them, Oh Lord.
