All Souls Day

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Neat rows of 220 white crosses, decorated with bright candles and beautiful flowers and bearing the names of deceased loved ones, are the focal point for the All Souls’ novena at St. John the Evangelist Parish in Vancouver.

In addition to taking away those who, from our perspective, died before their time, said Father James Gardiner, the coronavirus changed the process of mourning and spiritual rituals that help with grief and healing, including for those whose loved ones have died from something other than COVID-19.

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“Thin places are those times when, briefly, you encounter the sacred. All Saints’, its Halloween eve, All Souls’: They invite me to be present to something beyond this world’s reality.”

A plenary indulgence, applicable only to the dead, can be acquired only once on Nov. 1 or Nov. 2.

The pope said that remembering loved ones who have died is a particularly important time to “hold tightly to the rope” of the anchor of hope, which is Christ.

As COVID-19 numbers continue to rise, the feast of All Souls’ Day has a much larger impact this year.