All Saint's Day & All Soul's Day--A Time of Peace & Comfort for the Living

By Larry Peterson

 The annual arrival of All Saint's Day and All Soul's Day always sends me into a bit of melancholia about what was and what might have been. Then the wonder of my faith erupts and shakes off the fleeting dispiritedness morphing it into an inner peace and comfort. Faith is a beautiful thing and a most wonderful gift for sure. But, most importantly, what the great gift of Faith does is to inspire Hope within us, Hope for tomorrow, Hope for eternal salvation.

 We have all experienced the death(s) of those close to us. All Saint's Day and All Soul's Day help us to understand and believe that those we loved are not "gone" but have just moved on to a better place. We comfort in the belief that one day we will once again join them in a joyous reunion.

 My list of those I remember on these two days includes ten primary people. They are all immediate family and five of them, according to my Catholic faith, must be counted among the millions of unknown and unheralded saints that found their way to their eternal reward. Then there are five that have me fully embracing the Hope of their ultimate reward. (Did I mention "inner peace and comfort")?

 My first wife, Loretta, died twenty years ago, taken by melanoma. Loretta had been ill for a long time. Before the cancer struck she was in and out of hospitals with Chronic Pancreatitis, Cirrhosis, (she never drank) Lupus, Vasculitis, Angina, and Diabetes and had numerous surgeries.

 Through it all she always remained true to her faith, kept a smile on her face and, no matter how poorly she was feeling, always managed to make someone who had come to see her happy that they had visited. Loretta did receive the Sacrament of Anointing of the Sick and Holy Viaticum before she died.

 My mom died of leukemia when she had just turned 40. She also was a woman of great faith. She also received Last Rites (that is when it was called Extreme Unction) and Holy Viaticum in the hospital before she died. My memories of her are almost non-existent even though I was 15 years-old at the time. But, I do remember her receiving the sacraments.

 Grandma, (maternal) lived with us. Tormented over her daughter's death she went into a strange place mentally, blaming our dad for killing her daughter. Her Faith had seemingly crumbled and she lost Hope.

 It was a cold and rainy Saturday evening when Grandma had a massive stroke. Our parish priest, Father Philip Quirk, arrived and administered Extreme Unction to her. She was holding my hand so tightly I thought it might break. Grandma then lapsed into a coma and died shortly thereafter. Once again a faithful servant was awarded with God's loving mercy.

 Dad died two years later. After mom died and Grandma began the "Big Hate" against him, he stayed away from home and spent time in the local pubs. He drank too much and had an acute attack of pancreatitis. The attack killed him in two days. The upside was that he, too, received the sacraments and the Lord's mercy before he died.

 Loretta gave birth to our fourth child, Theresa Mary, when she was only six months pregnant. Bleeding profusely, she was rushed to the hospital. Theresa was born and died within moments.  I had called ahead to Holy Trinity Parish and Father Murray was there. He baptized Theresa and she is buried with my parents.

 My brother Bobby passed away in 2007. He was 53 and, although seemingly in good health, had a heart attack and died. He did not receive Last Rites and was, if anything, a "lukewarm" Catholic.

 My youngest brother, Johnny, died in July of 2016. His death was unexpected to say the least. That was because it was self-inflicted. Johnny was 56. I have no explanation for his actions nor does anyone else. He was a caring, Christian man, who helped others and "loved his neighbor". He was not a practicing Catholic but had found Jesus and solace in a Baptist church near his home.

 I remarried in 2006). Marty had never been sick when, in 2010, cancer (lymphoma) struck. By 2014 late stage Alzheimer’s disease had her memory pretty much erased. She even forgot who I was. In March of 2017 she passed away after receiving Anointing of the Sick including the Apostolic Pardon..

 I shall finish this litany of immediate family deaths with the year of 2022.

·         On July 6 of that year, I hung up the phone after spending thirty minutes talking to my son, Billy. We had just talked about the Tampa Bay Rays and morphed over to the Tampa Bay Bucs.  Everything was fine. And then, as it sometimes happens, a half-hour later, I received a phone call from Mae, Billy’s neighbor, She, in a voice a few decibels higher than normal, informed me Billy had died. He was 50 years old and had suffered a heart attack. Just like that he was gone.

·         On October 16, my last living brother, Danny, passed on to his final reward.

When I tally up the passings of immediate family (mother, father grandmother, wives (2) children (2) brothers (3), the total is 10. Guess what? It is all Okay. Peace reigns within me.

 I began this essay stating that "the great gift of Faith inspires Hope within us, Hope for tomorrow, Hope for eternal salvation”. The Faith and Hope connection are inseparable yet subject to the free will of each of us. In the secular world “faith & reason” are opposites. If you cannot tangibly prove something it cannot be.

 But God’s gift of Faith gives us the desire to Hope for what God has offered us. Therefore, I believe my Faith has allowed me to believe that my immediate family members have attained their eternal reward. My Faith also allows me to consciously look forward to one day, being reunited with them once again.

 On All Saints Day as we honor all the Saints and all the Soul's waiting to be saints, let’s all pray that we experience the peace and comfort about our departed loved ones. Believing without reservation that death is not the end of life but the beginning of a new one is truly a wonderful thing.

 Copyright©Larry Peterson 2023 (2nd edition)