Being Alive in God:

         

The Thirty-Second Sunday of Ordinary Time 2026 

November 8, 2026

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Wisdom 6:12-16; Psalm 63; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18; Matthew 25:1-13

 

 

While the Gospel passage on the five wise virgins models for us the attentiveness needed for discipleship, the first reading focuses on the value of wisdom who likewise keeps vigil. It is wisdom special love for the Lord that makes her always watchful and filled with hope. This is the hope that comes through in the reading from Paul to the Thessalonians. A believer filled with wisdom always has hope.

 

We are in the month of All Souls when we commemorate our deceased loved ones, and we reflect upon our lives as we know that each of us will experience death. Death asks the question: In what do we hope? For a Christian, we know that while we are alive to God today, we will be alive to God after our death. What does that mean? Because of the death and resurrection of Christ, death no longer has the final word. Our relationship with God is not destroyed by death, and those who die in Christ are always remembered. 

 

When a loved one dies, we might wonder about these types of questions. Will I see my parents, spouse, children, or friends once again? What happens to my body? Will I still be myself after death? What happens to a person after a lifetime of suffering, disability, or illness? How does God treat the person who was hurtful to me? What happens to those people whose faith was uncertain? These are natural questions to ask. Jesus revealed to us that God seeks us, forgives us, loves us, and has altered the state of death when God raised Jesus to new life. The resurrection reveals God’s intention for humanity – not abandonment, but communion, not destruction, but transformation, not the finality of death, but the fulfillment of life in God. We trust that this God will be faithful to us beyond the limits of our earthly lives.

 

During times of death, we ask, “What will happen to our loved ones,” and maybe we can ask, “What does it mean to be alive to God today?” Our destiny is to live in the fulness of God’s love, and we are called to start living this way right now. We are called to become more loving, more compassionate, more forgiving, and more generous. God’s life becomes visible in our own. Our earthly lives are the beginning of a life that is meant to grow in love, and we learn to live in a way that reflects God’s values. We live in God’s grace, and we must respond to that grace. When we do so, our lives become increasingly receptive to God’s love. The love we have given during this lifetime matters. Death does not wipe out or make the goodness of our lives meaningless. The lives we have touched matters. The goodness we received and passed on matters. We trust that God who has been drawing us deeper into divine life will bring to fulfillment what God has begun. 

 

Naturally, we do not want to encounter death, and death of a loved one brings much loss and pain. For a believer, death cannot separate us from the God who loves us or from our loved ones. Love is an unknown power whose strength is greater than death. Our hope is based on the God that was revealed in Jesus Christ. Our loved ones are held within God’s love as we will be – warmly, tenderly, gently cherished. God, who is at work in us now calling us to a fulness of life, will bring the promise of the resurrection to fulfillment. 

 

We do not know everything about what happens when we die, but we trust that the God who has given us life and drawn us into love will remember us and give us an even fuller life. We have comfort in the assurance that our final destiny rests in the hands of our God who is faithful, loving, and the source of all life. We are alive to God now, and we place our hope in being fully alive to God forever.

A Prayer for Veterans

 

God of peace,

We pray that you bless all those who have served their country through service in the armed forces. Grant healing to those veterans who have been wounded, be it in body, mind or soul.

We pray especially for those young men and women who come home to lives of suffering and loneliness. Offer them the solace that only You can, and may we pray for them often, especially when they feel they cannot pray.  As a way to honor all the veterans of past wars, we ask for an end to wars and the dawning of a new era of peace.

Lord, have mercy. Bring peace to our hearts, the hearts of all veterans and to the regions in which they fought. Grant, we pray, the creative vision to see a world that, weary with fighting, affirms the life of every human being and so moves beyond war.

Prince of peace, hear our prayer,

Becoming Fully Alive: All Saints Day . . .

        

The Thirty-First Sunday of Ordinary Time 2026 

November 1, 2026

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Revelation7:2-14; Psalm 24; 1 John 3:1-3; Matthew 5:1-12

 

 

This feast of All Saints Day is a celebration of what God can accomplish in human beings when they allow divine grace to transform their lives. When we think of the saints, we often think of people who accomplished remarkable things, who gave great sacrifice for others, or who possessed a holiness that seems far beyond our own reach. We admire them and often hold them on a high pedestal. Saints have never been perfect or otherworldly; they are witnesses to God's generosity. Their holiness reveals what happens when God's grace is welcomed and allowed to transform a human life.

 

The Beatitudes reveal the type of people God calls us to become. It is not a recitation of who the saints were; it is a map for future life and a promise for those whose lives have begun to embody the Beatitudes as a way of being. We were created for communion with God and with one another. It is God’s way of calling us to a higher state of being. Heaven is the fulfillment of that calling: the blessedness of sharing God's life, where the love that we struggle to practice now is brought to its perfection.

 

We are invited to become fully alive in the generosity of God. We are called to become more human. Obeying rules and fulfilling religious obligation is expected, but holiness reaches deeper than outward behavior because it necessarily involves the transformation of our hearts, the deepening of relationships, the pursuit of our desires, and renewing the way we see other people. Jesus, through the Beatitudes, reveals what humanity looks like when it is open to God’s love. Jesus allows his way of loving to reshape our own humanity. Therefore, we do as Jesus did – welcome the excluded, forgive sins, heal the wounded, confront injustice, and put the needs of others before one’s own. Holiness does not separate us from our humanity but fulfills it. Saints did not reject the world; they immersed themselves in the struggles of the day. 

 

Our holiness demands that we allow a diminished humanity to be transformed by grace. How do we do that? Here are some examples. Instead of seeing others as competitors, we recognize the other as a person of dignity who is in communion with us. Instead of protecting ourselves at all costs and putting up barriers, we discover the freedom of generosity. Instead of grasping our grudges and resentments tightly, we become open to the idea of forgiveness. Instead of seeking recognition and superiority, we find meaning in humble service. Instead of turning a blind eye to someone’s suffering and allowing ourselves to become indifferent, we enter the chaos of another person and allow that person’s suffering to change us. Instead of treating differences as threats, we discover the delight of being in communion. Instead of living primarily for our own satisfaction, we recognize our responsibility to and for one another. Our holiness is the transformation of our humanity through full participation in the life and love of God. We are unfinished in our “becoming.” God is continually inviting us into a deeper, more generous, more loving way of life. Our lives become transformed because we become more deeply alive in the presence of God. 

 

We often begin to think about heaven because this month is for the remembrance of All Souls. Heaven is not simply the reward for having lived a good life. Heaven is not about a place or being in a better location. Heaven is the fulfillment of our relationship with God. It is the happy contentment of sharing in God’s life, knowing God as fully as we can, and loving without the limitations that we have in our life today. The Beatitudes is God’s way of preparing us for the fulness of heaven by transforming our lives here and now. 

 

All Saints reflection . . .

 https://uscatholic.org/articles/202610/a-sunday-reflection-for-november-1-2026/

Feast of All Saints, November lst

We interrupt this war

We interrupt this war for doctors to heal,

teachers to teach, and students to learn.

We interrupt this war to marvel at sunsets,
listen to music, and to laugh.

We interrupt this war for poets to rhyme, sculptors to
chisel, and writers to paint pictures with words.

We interrupt this war to plant tomatoes, mow
the grass, and to smell the roses.

We interrupt this war to feed the hungry, build
new schools, and to stamp out ignorance.

We interrupt this war to clean up the air, save
the whales and to find a cure for cancer.

We interrupt this war to rebuild New Orleans,
tickle babies and for world peace.

We interrupt this war for PTA meetings, band
concerts, and high school graduations.

We interrupt this war for Girl Scout Cookies,
church bake sales, and the Special Olympics.

We interrupt this war for Disneyland, the
World Series, and the Super Bowl.

We interrupt this war for Halloween candy,
Thanksgiving Turkey, and 4th of July fireworks.

We interrupt this war for Hanukkah,
Christmas and Kwanza.

We interrupt this war to bring sons,
daughters, sisters and brothers home.

We interrupt this war to hear a message from
Our Sponsor: THOU SHALT NOT KILL.
 - cappy hall rearick - 2001

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Prayer for world peace

 

Great God, who has told us
"Vengeance is mine,"
save us from ourselves,
save us from the vengeance in our hearts
and the acid in our souls.

Save us from our desire to hurt as we have been hurt,
to punish as we have been punished,
to terrorize as we have been terrorized.

Give us the strength it takes
to listen rather than to judge,
to trust rather than to fear,
to try again and again
to make peace even when peace eludes us.

We ask, O God, for the grace
to be our best selves.
We ask for the vision
to be builders of the human community
rather than its destroyers.
We ask for the humility as a people
to understand the fears and hopes of other peoples.

We ask for the love it takes
to bequeath to the children of the world to come
more than the failures of our own making.
We ask for the heart it takes
to care for all the peoples
as well as for ourselves.

Give us the depth of soul, O God,
to constrain our might,
to resist the temptations of power
to refuse to attack the attackable,
to understand
that vengeance begets violence,
and to bring peace--not war--wherever we go.

For You, O God, have been merciful to us.
For You, O God, have been patient with us.
For You, O God, have been gracious to us.

And so may we be merciful
and patient
and gracious
and trusting
with these others whom you also love.

This we ask through Jesus,
the one without vengeance in his heart.
This we ask forever and ever. Amen
 - Sister Joan Chittister - Benedictine Sisters of Erie

 

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God is my enough!

 

When there is
nothing left
but God –
you become aware
that God is
enough!