Today, or maybe some time along the week, we will make it a point to go to the cemetery or the columbarium to pay a visit to our departed relatives and loved ones.
Paying a visit to the departed in the cemetery or at the columbarium is a solemn occasion.
We will say a prayer and if possible light some candles at the tomb.
I will be bringing my parents to visit my grandparents' niche later on in the day.
My parents will do what they did every year when they visit my grandparents' niche.
They will say a prayer and then they will take turns to stand before my grandparents niche to say something personal.
It is amazing and edifying just to see my parents talking to my grandparents just like as if they were alive and present before them.
That was profound for me because even in death, the bond of relationship is not broken or forgotten.
In death there is a separation but in faith there is a connection.
Because we believe that God is God not of the dead but of the living.
So the departed are alive in God and if they are still in a state of purification in Purgatory then the Church teaches us that we can help them with our prayers and Mass offerings and other works of faith.
Indeed praying for the departed is a profound act of faith because it expresses our faith in eternal life and in the saving love of God.