The souls of those who pray for me

Earlier this week, I was in our shared Latina/Latino Studies and Asian American Studies seminar room and learned that I had missed the Day of the Dead festivities which they had a bit early. Today, I saw a Jesuit in our Kyivan Church post his school’s commemoration of all souls. Today, Archimandrite Robert Taft SJ entered his eternal rest, and a few days ago, Jin Yong also went to be with the ancestors.

If I ever needed an excuse to remember the people who are before the face of the One Who Is praying for me, it is today. Here is the section of my icon corner, structured around the icons of the Dormition, the Harrowing of Hell, and the Ascension, where I keep pictures of those in heaven I pray for and that I ask to pray for me. They are my grandparents who have departed, with all their colorful stories. There is my godfather who died of cancer when I was seven. There is Auntie Irene, a woman so dear to our family that she might as well have been an extended relative. And there is a friend of mine from first-year university, Janine Lieu, who I discovered shortly after I finished my undergraduate studies had reposed in an accident.

Every morning and every night I have invoked their prayers. The ways that they are answered have often led to consolations that I contemplate in the secret of my heart. Perhaps one day, after having sat with them long enough, I will write about them. But talking about this section of the beautiful corner is enough revelation today. Through their prayers, let me someday become holy.