We are children of this world trying to find our place under the sun, relishing what is afforded to us by Father Time and cherishing what is accorded to us by Mother Earth. It is a humbling thought that nothing lasts forever, that our passage is ever-changing, that we can only become a memory sooner or later. As we remember them who have already hitched their wagon to the great beyond ahead of us, we are consoled with the truth that there is a heavenly Father not bounded by time whom we can go to as motherly earth claims back our mortal bodies.

In this twin feast of the Solemnity of the Saints and the Commemoration of the Faithful Departed, we lift up to the Father Almighty our brethren sinners and saintly who had gone before us – that God look not on their sins but on to their faith, while He also cast upon us His mercy as a reminder that life is precious but temporary, and time is gold but fleeting. So help us, God!