Lord, be mindful of our brother and sisters
who have fallen asleep in the peace of Christ,
and all the dead whose faith only you can know.
Lead them to the fullness of the resurrection
and gladden them with the light of your face.
Amen
–Christian Funeral Rite
Today we observed All Soul’s Day. We remembered those “who have gone before us, marked with the sign of faith,” allowing ourselves to feel the loss, rejoice in the hope of the resurrection and pray for the souls of the faithful departed. We broke out the black and set up our pictures. We attended Mass and prepped for yet ANOTHER party.
Aside from my minor meltdown right before dinner, it was a good day.
Really, I don’t know what tops the list for best part of the day. Contenders include:
– Ellie whispering to me throughout the homily that she needed to poop. I put her off because 1. She had just gone and 2. These days you never can tell when she’s just needing a change of scenery. She stayed still until, in the first breath of silence post homily, she said full voice, “NOW can I go poo poo, Mama?” Oh, then how she DID finally do her deal in her chones at the Chinese restaurant Grandma took us to for lunch. That was awesome.
– Max was finally invested in the Confraternity of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. He was so excited to make his brown scapular legit and to have Fr. Sparks be the one to bring him in, man to man. “Now I’m TWICE protected from evil!” he kept repeating. His zeal is contagious.
– Philip receiving his library card with Jac today. He’s been asking every day for the last week and is now so excited he has the key chain card strung around his neck. It’s like he has arrived and the books he checked out kept him up through nap.
– This moment, right now, when I can finally put my feet up and relax with Jac. It’s topping the list, actually.
The beautiful part of it all is that as good as these days are, the best are still yet to come.
