November 9.  Adrian chose the popular reading about the “souls of the just” for his Dad’s Requiem Mass but privately at home he found the loss very hard to accept.   He and Rosemarie cried many bitter tears, even though they kept saying to one another, “he is at peace.”   She recognized that his intense grieving had elements of guilt at unfinished business between them and she tried to help him to deal with it, to the point of mutual forgiveness.  “That is part of the healing process,” she encouraged him.

The souls of the righteous are in the hand of God and no torment will ever touch them.  In the eyes of the foolish they seemed to have died and their departure was thought to be an affliction and their going from us to be their destruction, but they are at peace.  Wisdom  2:23 – 3:9.  Pope Francis: It is not the best expression of love to dwell on our loved ones and keep bringing up their name, because this is to be dependent on the past instead of continuing to love them now that they are elsewhere. It consoles us to know that those who die do not completely pass away, and faith assures us that the risen Lord will never abandon us. Thus we can prevent death from poisoning life, from rendering vain our love, from pushing us into the darkest chasm.”  AL 255-6.  Reflect, share, act and pray