Dear Friends,

As we celebrate the feast of All Souls this Sunday, we are blessed with a liturgical opportunity to re-member our loved ones who have died. Whether the death of our loved one occurred recently, or long ago, undoubtedly we find them coming into our mind in unexpected ways and often at unexpected times. These memories tend to be bittersweet. There is joy in remembering, as we savor even a momentary sense of connection, but that sweetness is intermingled with the awareness of sorrow that loss brings. It has been said that "grief is the price we pay for loving." But, who among us would not willingly pay that price? Unlike those flashes of memory that can catch us off guard, however, this liturgical feast is a time of purpose-full re-membering.

This re-membering is full of purpose! It is an intentional bringing of our deceased loved ones into our liturgical celebration, and celebrating our belief in the eternal life which Jesus promises in Sunday's gospel. In this Gospel from John, Jesus tells us that it is God's will that he "should not lose anything of what he gave me" and that "everyone who sees the Son and believes will have eternal life". No one is to be lost. Part of the purpose of this feast is to remind us that we, too, participate in eternal life. True, our loved ones are "in" this reality in a way which is beyond our present understanding, but as followers of Christ, we too, enjoy eternal life. By re-membering our loved ones in this way, we are not simply looking back to our past relationship with them. We are bringing them into our present and joining them with our present reality. Another common saying is that "love never dies". A further extension of this understanding, is that love continues to grow and deepen, even after death. If heaven is a place or state of relationship with our God, it seems reasonable that as we connect to our God, we are also connecting to those we loved who have died. Loving into eternity, provides an opportunity for those relationships to deepen and change. Perhaps we had a difficult relationship with a loved one, or perhaps it just "left something to be desired". We can continue to desire that healing, and this Sunday as we "re-member" and bring our deceased loved ones into our prayer and presence at liturgy, let us pray for one another and for peace in our re-membering, for courage to live our present relationships fully, and for hope as we intentionally re-member.

We invite you to bring a photo of your loved one to grace our Table of Remembrance on Sunday!

If you are looking for support as you deepen your relationship with your God, we invite you to join us at the Spirit of Life. As a community, we try wholeheartedly to "be Christ" to one another, to tend to the needs of one another and to those in need in our world. Together, we celebrate our belief that we are being transformed by God's grace as we gather together in prayer. We warmly invite you to come and gather with us at our Table and join in our experience of the 'kin-dom' of God. We are an inclusive, open, affirming and interactive community, deeply committed to being a people of 'justice and joy'.

Loving blessings to you as you re-member your loved ones who have died,

Find more about past weekly reflections and podcasts in our ARCHIVE PAGE.