Family Corner: Remembrance

Dig out those old photo albums, those shoe boxes filled with cards and letters, those grainy, sepia-toned photos of the ancestors!  

All Saints Day and All Souls Day at the beginning of November encourage us to remember those who have gone before us. This month, we can do that in special ways while we continue to refocus our Sundays toward rest and reconnection.  

This month’s theme in the Reclaiming Sundays guide is Beauty and Prayer, and the guide has excellent suggestions for ways to both create and appreciate beauty. 

Here are some suggestions to connect the November tradition of remembrance to appreciate beauty, to pray together, and to reclaim our Sundays:

• Invite everyone to read or think about a favorite saint. At a Sunday meal, share why we love these saints.  
• On a Sunday afternoon, visit as a family the burial place of a loved one who has died.  Intentionally recall the beautiful things about that person. Say a brief prayer together for his or her soul.
• Join the Memorial Mass for members of our parish and home families who have died in this past year on Sunday, November 2, at 5 PM. Write the names of your own beloved folks who have died in the Book of Remembrance at the front of our church.
• Join the Grandparents’ Rosary any Tuesday after the morning mass.
• Visit the Relic Room in the North East corner of the church to view and venerate the relics of saints who have feast days during the month of November. Pray for their intercession in the needs of our families, communities, and parish.
• Introduce a child to the relics of the saints. Teach how the saints are our friends, always able to help.
• Join the Emmaus Night on November 16 for some fun and prayer time together with other parish families. 
• Take an hour on any Sunday and look at those old photos and read those old letters. Invite members of the family. Share memories and tell stories. Remember that we all –members of the Body of Christ –are both broken AND loved by God.  Talk about the beauty of forgiveness and the beauty of discovering our inheritance.

 
The November video reflection for the Reclaiming Sundays initiative is another place to begin, and past Family Corner pieces might also spur some reflection.

Of course, to reclaim Sunday means to let go of some other activity or commitment. Talking together as a family about how your time is spent outside of work and school obligations is a beautiful way to spend some Sunday time in November. Listen and pray together: How can this family reclaim our Sundays?