To view 'The Thought' click on video above | | On this week of Remembrance... | | |
by John C. Odean
This week in some Masses at St. Ignatius, and through this edition of Parish: 'the thought' our focus is both on the brevity of life ("You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away." - James 4:14) and conversely, the eternity that we will step into at the end of our brief lives in order to be forever with Christ. This is what All Saints Day, All Souls Day, and the Remembering Our Beloved Dead Mass does for me.
Since my earliest remembrances I have been fascinated by cemeteries. To this day, as I travel the world I will often stop in a city's cemetery to see the finality of the 'circle of life.' By that, I mean I will find myself in a section of a graveyard where an entire family has been buried. I will stand before the graves of a mother or father - and next to them is a small child of theirs that died at a very young age. I imagine the procession of family and friends who, a hundred or two hundred years before, came to the very spot at which I now stand. I imagine them wild with grief - not knowing how they would make it through the rest of their lives - the pain seemed just too much to bear. And looking up a row and over a couple of graves, I see a brother - he predeceased his parents too - and I imagine his procession a couple years following the younger child. There has been a lot of pain in this spot. I look at the dates on the tombstones and see that a few years later Mama passed - and several years later, Daddy died. And as I look around me, I identify all of the children...and how they grew...and how their spouses are here now...and their children as well. All of them finally showed up to this earthly final family gathering. Every person lived, got up, went to school - then worked - likely got married - had children - with no regard to one day spilling into another until they ran out of days. For the most part none knew the amount of days that were given them to live before it was over. Of course these are the musings of philosophers, poets and playwrights like Thornton Wilder. They've pondered life and eternity for centuries. And from my earliest years, so have I. That is why I visit cemeteries around the world.
There is a certain peace and knowledge I take away from those monuments to earth's long forgotten citizens. For all their rushing through life, enjoying the moments of joy, loathing the mundane, and staggering under the seasons of grief... after a brief run, the ending is the same for all. Life on earth will end for everyone - witnessed by the years of silence as wind whispers its loneliness over the very spot where people brought their anguish and suffering so long ago. There no longer is wild grief here – it passed as those who suffered its pain themselves passed from these earthly portals. Time is the great equalizer of things deemed unfair, or premature.
As Wilder writes: "We all know that something is eternal...all the greatest people who ever lived have been telling us that for five thousand years and yet you'd be surprised how people are always losing hold of it. There's something way down deep that's eternal about every human being."
And so for me, that's what visiting cemeteries is all about - and that is what this Week of Remembrance points me towards (All Saints, All Souls, All Saints of the Society, and our Mass for Our Beloved Death). Eternity. These experiences point me toward the reality that the Apostle Paul hearkened us towards:
"In the future there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day; and not only to me, but also to all who have loved His appearing." - 2 TIm. 4:8.
Indeed I do love the fact that He will one day appear for me. I also love the life that He has granted me to live right now. But as deep calls to deep - there is something eternal within me that calls out for fulfillment - to be forever with Him. This longing and aching has been with me all of my life - I liken it to the feeling of 'homesickness', which makes sense as the Bible tells us we are strangers and foreigners in this world, citizens of another Kingdom. Paul spoke of that kind of longing when he wrote of wanting to be with Christ forever, as did many other Bible writers. Believers down through the ages opine this 'ache' for face-to-face fellowship with Christ. And to you, in this Week of Remembrance, I acknowledge to you this longing I have carried for as long as I can remember.
"To see His face, this is my goal;
The deepest longing of my soul;
Through storm and stress my path I'll trace
Till, satisfied, I see His face!"
As we continue through this week, I wanted to leave you with a favorite hymn of mine. Some of you have asked me to share some more of the work of the incomparable acapella-ist, Sam Robson. Singing on the themes of A Week of Remembrance, the brevity of life, and who/what we tether ourselves to - I present to you - I Believe In A Hill Called Mount Calvary.
| | Director of Media & Communications | | Above: Same Robson singing:
I Believe In A Hill Called Mount Calvary | | The Journey form All Saints to All Souls | |
by Leonard DeLorenzo
I had just seen my grandfather a few weeks before his death. He was in the hospital; and in accordance with the directives of his living will, the feeding tubes had been removed. He was unable to speak and mostly unable to move, but it was clear he knew when my brother and I walked into the room. I was the last one to leave his hospital room that night, staying behind to say goodbye and to whisper a prayer over him, tracing the sign of the cross on his forehead. It was the first time I had ever prayed with Louis DeLorenzo.
I had looked upon death with my grandfather once before, five years earlier. On a characteristically warm and wet Florida afternoon, I stood with my arm around my uncharacteristically vulnerable grandfather. The proudest and most stubborn man I have ever known was crying like a child in the rain. The woman who had been his wife for more than 50 years was lying in a cardboard coffin in the building behind us, awaiting cremation, and he had just kissed her forehead for the last time. Even at the end of a long and loving life, he felt her loss as an unmitigated tragedy. Dorothy DeLorenzo was gone.
The month of November opens with two feast days that have shaped my experience of celebrating and mourning the lives and deaths of my paternal grandmother and grandfather. On the solemnity of All Saints the church observes the treasury of blessings of the great number of holy ones. The next day, on the feast of All Souls, the church observes the mystery of reaching for departed loved ones, in prayer or simply in longing, whether or not we have rationally or emotionally accepted their deaths. Read More
| Editor's Note: I thought you might enjoy this playful meeting of opera, comedy, and extraordinary young voices. The Asian tour footage of Regis Mengus and Hyacinthe de Moulins, members of Les Petits Chanteurs de Paris, captures the charm of “Duetto buffo di due gatti,” accompanied on piano by Rodolphe Pierrepont. This famous comic duet turns the simple sound of a cat's meow into a theatrical musical exchange. Enjoy! –JCO | Time for the Viva House Thanksgiving Drive | Justice & Peace Ministry Reinvigorate | |
Saints of the Month and Feast Days
Discover the saints honored each month in the Catholic liturgical calendar. We list the feast days and saints commemorated throughout that month.
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Wednesday, November 4
7:00 PM - 8:30 PM
Environmental Justice Committee
Complete Information
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Sunday, November 8
Mass of the Beloved Dead
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On Sunday, November 8, we will celebrate our Mass for the Beloved Dead. This special liturgy will include guest musicians and prayer for deceased parishioners, family members, and friends. We will remember those who have died in two ways:
- The names of those who died between November 1, 2025 and November 2, 2026 will be displayed on a memorial board in the Narthex throughout November.
- The names of those who died before November 1, 2025 will be included in our Book of Remembrance, also kept in the Narthex throughout November.
Please submit your loved one’s name(s) and date(s) of death by Monday, November 2 in one of the following ways:
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Complete the form in this Ezine or via the QR code in the bulletin.
- Mail the information to the parish office. (740 N. Calvert Street, Baltimore MD, 20202).
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Email names to Erin Dillenbeck at secretary@st-ignatius.net.
May God welcome the faithful departed into His dwelling place and grant comfort to all who mourn.
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Sunday, November 8
Ministry Opportunity
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St. Ignatius will hold a one-hour service event on Sunday, November 8, from 9:00 to 10:00 a.m. on the 3rd floor.
Our PREP has been spearheading a Faith in Action project to benefit the Missionaries of Charity in Haiti. The Missionaries use cloth diapers exclusively at their orphanage, and St. Ignatius PREP has been gathering the materials needed to make them. They hope to sew the diapers and ship them in November, but additional volunteers may be needed to complete the project. If you sew or, better yet, own a portable sewing machine, we could use your help!
If your interested in participating, please click the button below or use the QR Code.
This Respect Life project responds to the needs of our missionaries and sends a little love to these infant disciples of Jesus.
For more information, contact our secretary, Erin Dillenbeck, at secretary@st-ignatius.net.
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Tuesday, November 10
7:00 PM - 8:30 PM
Reading & Discussion Group
Complete Information
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Thursday, November 12
6:30 PM - 8:00 PM
Justice & Peace Ministry Meeting
Complete Information
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Sunday, November 15
11:30 AM - 12:10 PM
Abraham's Bridge: A Short Film about Pluralism in the Heartland
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Sunday, November 15
3:00 PM - 4:00 PM
Monthly LGBTQ+ Scripture Study
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Tuesday, November 17
7:00 PM - 8:30 PM
Tabletop Theology
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Saturday, November 21
5:00 PM - 8:00 PM
Young Adult "Friendsgiving"
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Our Current Poor Box Collection: Vulnerable Families in Crisis
Our current Poor Box Contributions will enable us to assist vulnerable families in crisis. This initiative provides small funds for direct requests for food money, assistance with utilities, and emergency shelter.
If you wish to contribute, a Poor Box is located in the Narthex at the bottom of the choir loft stairs, as well as in The Chapel of Peter Claver.
Your cheerful generosity makes such a difference!
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| | The bishops who prayed over Trump and apologized—and gave us a lesson in moral responsibility | |
Catholic bishops, with Jenny Korn, center left, and Paula White-Cain, center right, pray over President Donald Trump in the Oval Office, Thursday, Oct. 22, 2026, in Washington. Credit: Photo via Facebook/Paula White-Cain Illustration: America Media
by Sam Sawyer, S.J. |. October 27, 2026
On Oct. 22, a group of 12 U.S. Catholic bishops who had been meeting with the White House Faith Office were ushered into the Oval Office, where they briefly met and prayed with President Donald J. Trump. Most of what followed—the video being posted by a White House staffer, the storm of online criticism and countercriticism, and a White House spokesperson boasting “there has never been a greater president for Catholic Americans”—was entirely predictable.
It could have been scripted, given that the blessing took place less than two weeks before a highly polarized midterm election: a cycle of justifiable anger overlapping with partisan outrage, responded to with both defensive and combative explanations. Both because it was predictable and because most of it was designed to appeal to those who were already ideologically aligned with the various players, it also did not do much, I would argue, to change anyone’s mind about Mr. Trump or the candidates he endorses.
Rather, those who already supported him likely felt affirmed, while those who opposed him were given a reason to be scandalized by the appearance of bishops endorsing him. (Given the recent polls showing a significant drop in approval for Mr. Trump among Catholics, publicizing the moment likely adds up to a tactical error for the White House, as the negative reaction has been more pronounced, unless they were primarily aiming to shore up support among those Catholics still firmly in Mr. Trump’s base.) Continue Reading
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READER NOTIFICATION:
Parish: 'the thought' is a publication of St. Ignatius Catholic Community—Baltimore. Each edition contains articles and news feeds that are included for awareness of current topics in our world today. The positions expressed by outside authors and news feeds are theirs alone, and do not necessarily reflect the views, opinions, or positions of St. Ignatius Catholic Community or its staff.
- This e-zine was designed and compiled by John C. Odean
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