Dear Folks,

Thanks for your generous response to the Capital Campaign as we are trying to bring it to a close. As the bulletin
goes to press mid-week, the volunteers and staff are still working to sort the pledge envelopes. Thank you, Thank
you, Thank you!
This Wednesday we also have the great Feast of All Saints which is a holy day of obligation, and Thursday is the
Feast of All Souls. There are lots of Masses for these, but sometimes folks are confused as to which feast is which.
All Saints: Imagine that your grandmother were to be canonized a saint by Pope Francis. Your friends would all
congratulate you, and you would joyfully make arrangements to go to Rome for the Mass and party. This feast
is for celebrating all the uncanonized saints in heaven. This is the Church celebrating your friends and relatives
who have gone to God forever and entered into eternal bliss beyond our imagining. We don’t have to go to Rome
for the canonization, but can all gather in our parishes to celebrate our loved ones’ union with God.
All Souls: Here we get to mercifully pray for our loved ones because the Lord doesn’t tell us which of our loved
ones are in heaven or which are in purgatory. True friends are always there to help each other. Souls who are in
purgatory can no longer merit for themselves, as their souls are set in their eternal destiny. However, what they
can’t do, we do for them when we pray to the Lord to have mercy on their souls! Every prayer, every Hail Mary,
every loving thought, is like a glass of water given to a thirsty soul, helping them get to heaven more quickly!
Don’t worry, no soul in purgatory would ever trade places with you…. because their presence in purgatory
assures them of eternal bliss in heaven, just as soon as their soul is freed from disordered attachments. But what
gratitude they have for even the smallest of our prayers.
You can do one thing to keep alive and even strengthen those bonds of love: pray for your loved ones. This is a
sign of our gratitude to those we love, and our hope for reunion with them one day. It is our love that compels us
to attend Mass and worship God for His great work in our families.

Pax,

Father John Mosimann