-
November 3, 2025Since his ordination last May as our shepherd guiding the Sioux City Diocese, Bishop John Keehner has expressed a desire to visit the parishes and parishioners as his busy schedule allows. He has presided at weekend Masses in various parishes throughout our diocese in the months since, greeting the parishioners and visitors as they are. He asks for no extraordinary preparations, just to share the Eucharist within our parish life. On Sunday, November 16, he will preside at the 8:30 Mass at Madrid and the 10:00 Mass at Boone. He has a busy weekend, sharing time with the Women’s Retreat in Fort Dodge on that Saturday and presiding at Holy Trinity’s Vigil Mass that evening. We welcome his presence and faith shared within the Eucharist at our Ascension parish, getting to know the other end of Sioux City diocese. One of Bishop Keehner’s priorities is the support of our seminarians presently in formation preparing for the priesthood, and the prayerful guidance of other men who are being called to the priesthood, as well as those who are called to the permanent diaconate, and those called to the religious life. National Vocation Awareness Week begins this Sunday and our Vocations Office has again prepared a calendar with the names of all the living priests, days throughout the month to pray for them and for our deacons, religious sisters and seminarians. On the front of the handout are pictures of our present seminarians, allowing us to recognize who are being called to serve in the priesthood for our diocese in the upcoming years.If you desire an additional calendar please call the office. Thank you for your prayers, sustaining those who are presently serving the church, and for those who are in formation. No greater gift can we offer for those discerning God’s call.Tradition bears an essential understanding of the Roman Catholic Church, and the faith that has been passed on for centuries.Thus, as we celebrate All Souls Day this weekend, the history of this holy day is rooted in St. Odilo of Cluny, (962-1049). He was the abbot of Cluny Monastery (in France) for over fifty years, sustaining a leadership and ministry through acts of mercy. Known for his gentleness in all aspects of his life, he would say:“I would rather be mercifully judged for having shown mercy, than be cruelly damned for having shown cruelty.”Monastic life consists of prayer and work, and St. Odilo relished such a community with a special devotion to our Blessed Mother.At the request of someone outside the monastery, St. Odilo set aside an annual day of prayer and reflection for the souls of the deceased, especially the souls in purgatory. St. Odilo marked November 2nd as a day for the monks of Cluny Monastery to pray for the souls of the dead, especially those suffering in purgatory. He asked that the observance be marked by alms, prayers and sacrifices. In the mid eleventh century the Church adopted this observance of All Souls Day on November 2nd. Our Church teaches that every spiritual soul is created immediately by God—it is not “p roduced”by the parents—and also that it is immortal: It does not perish when it separates from the body at death, and it will be reunited with the body at the final Resurrection. As to the state of Purgatory—a period of cleansing rather than punishment—the Catholic Catechism of the Church explains, “All who die in God’s grace and friendship, but still imperfectly purified, are indeed assured of their eternal salvation; but after death they undergo purification, so as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven.”We are certainly not the judge of anyone’s soul, and our prayers lift up the abiding grace of Go our Father who alone judges, and desires the reunification of souls within His presence.I leave you with a prayer by St. Augustine, inspiring our faith on this All Souls Day. God of our Life,There are days when the burdens we carry chafe our shoulders and weigh us down; when the road seems dreary and endless, the skies gray and threatening; when our lives have no music in them, and our hearts are lonely, and our souls have lost their courage. Flood the path with light, run our eyes to where the skies are full of promise, tune our hearts to brave music, give us the sense of comradeship with heroes and saints of every age; and so quicken our spirits that we may be able to encourage the souls of all who journey with us on the road of life, to your honor and glory.Amen.God Bless, Fr. TimFYI: “Hello Darkness, my old friend. Soon you’ll be here at 4pm.”(Anonymous)And when great souls die,after a period peace blooms,slowly and alwaysirregularly. Spaces fillwith a kind ofsoothing electric vibration.Our senses, restored, neverto be the same, whisper to us.They existed.They existed.We can be. Be and bebetter. For they existed.”― Maya Angel