The month of November is traditionally a time in which the Catholic community remembers those who have died. It is related to the fact that the end of November is the end of the Liturgical Year with a new year starting the First Sunday of Advent – the four-week period of preparation before Christmas. The Church then uses this end of the year period as a time to think of the end of life and the end of all things and the great hope that our earthly end is transition into a new life in God’s heavenly reality. We give thanks for those who have gone before us and we look with prayer and hope to their new life in heaven and our desire to join them there one day.
At UP, we have a special practice as a part of this month of remembrance. A stack of cards and a basket are placed in the entrance to the Chapel of Christ the Teacher and on front desks across campus beginning the week after fall break. Members of the campus community are invited to write a name of a family member or friend who has died and then place that card in the basket. Cards are collected over the first weeks of November and are placed at the foot of the altar throughout the month. Those whose names are placed there at the altar are prayed for daily at Mass and at Evening Prayer.
“Did You Know?” is a mostly weekly feature in upbeat that pokes around among the many interesting features of UP as a Catholic and Holy Cross university. If you have a question or topic of interest that you would like covered in this feature, please send it to Fr. Jim Gallagher, C.S.C., Campus Ministry, or Karen Eifler, Garaventa Center.