Saints + Scripture: All the Faithful Departed

The Popish Plot
"All Souls' Day 2020"

'Tis the Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed (All Souls' Day): All Souls-link ūnus, All Souls-link duo, All Souls-link trēs, All Souls-link Array of Hope, Wikipedia-link All Souls, & Wikipedia-link Día de Muertos; Wikipedia-link Allhallowtide.

Commentary: Wayback Machine. Quoth Minute Meditations from the Popes:

O Lord, on this All Souls' Day, I pray for all my departed family members, relatives, & benefactors. Eternal rest grant to them, & let perpetual light shine upon them.

Scripture of the Day
Mass Readings—Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed
The Book of Wisdom, chapter three, verses one thru nine;
Psalm Twenty-three (R/. one; or, cf. four[a]), verses one, two, & three(a); three(b) & four; five; & six;
The Letter to the Romans, chapter six, verses three thru nine;
The Gospel according to John, chapter six, verses thirty-seven thru forty.

Commentary: Gospel reflection by Bishop Robert Barron (Word on Fire):

Friends, in today’s Gospel, Jesus says that the Father promises eternal life for everyone who believes in the Son. Every human being is a subject of inestimable value, because he or she has been created by God and destined by God for eternal life.

When Jesus speaks to the Samaritan woman at the well and promises her “water welling up to eternal life,” it is evocative of what Aquinas means by creation: the presence of God always at work at the very roots of our being. Creation is not a once and for all act of the essentially transcendent God but rather the ever-present and ever-new gift of being poured out from the divine source. What Aquinas implies is that the creature is a relationship to the energy of God, which is continually drawing it from nonbeing to being, making it new.

Once the soul has been transfigured, the only path that seems appealing is the one walked by Christ—that is to say, the path of radical self-offering, self-surrender. Fired by the God-consciousness, in touch with the divine source within us, drinking from the well of eternal life, we are inspired simply to pour ourselves out in love.

Video reflection by Curtis Mitch (St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology): Daily Reflection.

Papal Quote o' the Day

"No vocation is born of itself or lives for itself. A vocation flows from the heart of God & blossoms in the good soil of faithful people. Did not Jesus say: ‘By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another."
—Pope Francis (b. 1936, r. 2013-present)

Bonus! Papal Quote o' the Day

"We have inherited from the most ancient Christian communities the following certainty. There is an intense participation in life between us & the sisters & brothers who are in heavenly glory or who are still being purified after death."
—Pope St. John Paul II the Great (1920-2005, r. 1978-2005; feast: 22 October)

Mother Teresa Quote o' the Day

"Silence of the heart. This is what will allow you to hear God everywhere: in the closing of a door, in the person who needs you, in the birds that sing, in the flowers."
—St. Teresa of Calcutta, M.C. (1910-1997, feast: 5 September)

Saint Quote o' the Day

"I know that your spirit is always wrapped in the darkness of trials, but it is enough for you to know that Jesus is with you & in you."
—St. Pius of Pietelcina, O.F.M. Cap. (1887-1968, feast: 23 September)