Candles and flowers decorate graves Nov. 1 at a cemetery in Sauliai, Lithuania. On All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day Nov. 1 and 2, cemeteries across the country are crowded with people paying their respects to departed loved ones. (CNS photo/Toms Kalnins, EPA)
By Father Timothy Gollob
Special to The Texas Catholic
The current month of November brings the joy and the sadness of autumn to us in a vivid way as the trees vest themselves in many colors, but then those same leaves flutter down to the ground in a dance of death.
Good reason, then, for us to celebrate our beloved faithful departed family and friends during this time. We began with the feast of All Saints because we know the goodness of these people. They were blessings to us from the Good Creator God.
The very next day we started our prayers for All Souls in need of any divine assistance. We commend them to the Good Shepherd for guidance into eternal healing in the promised heavenly fellowship.
Do you need to have an idea of how to do good deeds for your special departed ones? Visit a cemetery. It is a holy place where our friends await the day of resurrection. While there, remember the songs that they loved.
Recently, I was at a funeral in St. Joseph’s Cemetery in Ennis. As we gathered to pray for Anna, it was obvious that everyone there was checking out the names on the nearby grave markers. There were embossed the family names of the parents and the siblings and the friends of the past. Everyone remarked on their memories of these people from earlier days.
As we finished the closing of the grave, three musicians stepped forward. One played the guitar, another the accordion and the third was a singer. They sang Amazing Grace and other funeral songs. Then as a finale they sang in Czech Anna’s favorite, “I Love To Dance Polka.” Nearly everyone was singing along with great gusto.
Not knowing the words, I was looking around at the monuments on the grounds of the cemetery. Just about every plot was festooned with colorful, beautiful flowers. There was no sadness. My inner imagination was filled with the vision of Anna and her husband, John, now reunited in glory. They and all their friends in the surrounding graves were bouncing around doing the “I Love To Dance Polka.”
Those holy souls had the whole place rocking!
Father Timothy Gollob is the pastor of Holy Cross Catholic Church in Oak Cliff.
