All Souls Day

Last updated on: November 2, 2017 at 9:32 am by Mark Shea

All Souls Day 2017-11-02T09:32:03-07:00 Mark Shea

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

On November 4, 1983, I saw my Dad for the last time. He had slipped into a coma the day before after checking into Providence Hospital with a bleeding ulcer. His liver could not handle the amount of blood protein his digestive tract was digesting. It created ammonia that went into the blood and sent him comatose.

I stood next to his bed. He was breathing rapidly and snoring loudly. Emotions came in waves that evening. Mom, Rick, Mike, Jan and I sat there in the waiting room alternately crying unstoppably and then (as is the Shea way) making jokes or telling stories. Then more tears. Up and down.

Standing by the bed, I held my Dad’s hand and prayed for him. A very tumultuous time that, oddly, I have trouble remembering clearly. I remember my Mom kneeling next to his bed and praying some prayer she’d learned in the Anglican Church when she was a girl. It was odd to hear my Mom pray (I don’t come from a particularly religious family) and even odder to hear her pray in that peculiar sort of sing-song voice that children use when they pray a memorized prayer. Somehow it revealed how small and fragile she was in the face of this.

We left the hospital that night and there was a huge windstorm blowing. I had the sense that huge and powerful forces, beyond my comprehension, were at work for my father’s good. Somehow, the big wind consoled me.

The next morning, shortly before 7:00, the phone rang in the kitchen, next to my bedroom. I heard Mom answer it, a pause, and then her voice say, “Ohhhhhh”. All the grief in the world was in it. My heart was pounding, because I knew what it meant. I was out of bed in a flash and I think my Mom had already hung up. She was crying. He was gone.

It’s funny, but all my life I’ve struggled with the fear of death. Fear of what I’d do in the face of it. My first experience with death was of watching the film of JFK’s assassination and it burned into me a sort of pagan conviction that death just strikes out of the blue and reveals the universe as pointless, meaningless and destructive. It’s a deep fear and a sort of intellectual concupiscence since it’s easy for me to believe, despite the promises of Christ. However, the odd thing is that, when Dad died, I found that when the worst happened, it did not destroy me. I found God was still there, and hope remained.

That was a great grace, and one of the reasons I’ve always had the sense that Dad ended up okay. I pray for Dad, of course. Always have since the day he died.

In the same way, I have had to say goodbye to my mother Phyllis, to our unborn baby Julie Elizabeth, to my sister-in-law Norma, to Jan’s parents Neil and Pat, and to my dear friend, Fr. Shane Tharp. And it is the most certain thing on earth that I–that you–will only be saying goodbye to more people till that day we say goodbye to them all as we ourselves pass through the veil of death. So I am grateful for All Souls because it reminds me first of the brute fact of death and does not sugarcoat it, but it also reminds me of the fact that, as Cardinal Newman pointed out, all who have ever lived live still.

May the souls of all the faithful departed–fathers, mothers, children, sisters, brother, dear friends, bitter enemies, and those with no one to pray for them on this bleak November day–rest in peace through Christ our Lord, and may we meet again, happy forever, in the world to come.

Love you, all my dear dead.

Uncategorized

Exalted Felicitations of the Day

Previous Post

November 2, 2017

Hobbit Drinking Medley

Next Post

November 3, 2017 On Differences in the Gospels

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Uncategorized

Select a Month May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 September 2006 June 2006 July 2005 April 2005 May 2002 April 2002 0000

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz