All Souls Day -Year C - Sunday, 2 November 2025 (EPISODE: 553)

All Souls Day -Year C - Sunday, 2 November 2025 (EPISODE: 553)

Readings for All Souls Day- Year C
FIRST READING: Isaiah 25:6-9
Ps 27:1, 4, 13-14. "The Lord is my light and my salvation"
SECOND READING: Romans 5:5-11
GOSPEL ACCLAMATION (John 6:39). Alleluia, Alleluia! This is the will of my Father, says the Lord, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given to me, and that I should raise it up on the last day.
GOSPEL: Luke 7:11-17 or John 20:11-18

afe.studio/creation/0v4A62IqJ87bZrhoDfI9/vivid-red-background-with-black-silhoutte-of-jesus-carrying-his-cross?ru=Paul-Evangelion

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Please listen to the audio-recordings of the Mass – (Readings, prayers and homily), for All Souls Day Year C - Sunday, 2 November 2025 - by clicking this link here: https://soundcloud.com/user-633212303/faith-hope-and-love-ep-553-all/s-1nChF0IXtHY  (EPISODE: 553)
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Faith, Hope and Love, the commemoration of all the faithful departed, All Souls Day. 

This day of commemoration began early in the Middle Ages, with annual prayers for the dead in monastic communities. Fixed on this day, it spread more widely after the 10th century and now ranks with the principal feast days in the liturgical calendar.

Commonly known as All Souls, it expresses Christian faith in the communion of saints, and the real need and effectiveness of praying for one another in the church and including praying for those souls in purgatory who have been buried in their human imperfection. 

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I could not think of a better person to commend our dear departed loved ones to, friends and colleagues, to the eternal care of, than the one who formed them with love, and walked with them every step of their life's journey, and loved them as a doting parent, that is, our God, God who is love. God created everything from the dust.

And we're told in the Scriptures, God never hates anything he created because he made it, and with love beyond all telling. We commend our departed loved ones, and all souls, to God, who understands us better than we even understand ourselves. It is God who knows every situation, every circumstance, every hardship, every context to all our actions and decisions, and every blessing and grace of each person's life.

God sees and knows everything that made us free to make the decisions we made in our lives, and God also saw all of the restrictions to our freedom to think and act as well. Amazingly, many times we don't see those factors in our lives clearly, even in the events of our own lives, because we're mortals. We act imperfectly, with imperfect vision and knowledge.

But God knows and sees it all, and allows for all of these factors. God has the whole picture and sees us with clear but loving eyes. God, who is all-compassionate, merciful, kind, loving and faithful.

In his earthly ministry, Jesus physically raised from the dead only a few people. And naturally, this astounding miracle, this exceptional miracle, was met with incredible wonder, awe, fear and amazement. But we know that the people he raised back to life, with compassion deep in his heart, would eventually go the way of all humans, and die again, hopefully this time after a long and happy life.

These rare incidents of Christ raising the dead, in his earthly ministry, show us the heart of God towards all of us who mourn. This heart is filled with unfathomable love and compassion. Our Lord himself knew what it was like to mourn the loss of loved ones.

His stepfather Joseph, whom he loved deeply, passed away at some time in his young life. It must have been a deep loss and sadness. He must have been tempted to raise him back up straight away.

But he did not. Instead, he entrusted him to his Heavenly Father, who is always faithful. He also wept at the death of Lazarus, even though he believed and knew in heaven and the ultimate resurrection of all the dead.

But he still keenly felt grief and loss, just like we all do. Our Lord knows what we mean when we are deeply grieving. Jesus says to each of us, I will raise you up anew to eternal life, to the fullness of life in heaven.

He promises this. He will not break this promise. Those few examples of physical resurrection, of which Christ himself is the absolute fullness of examples, these are a promise and a foretaste.

This poor widow who lost her only son. This son was raised up out of compassion, to remind everyone that God promises to raise up our bodies in the fullness of time. It also shows Christ's faithfulness, love and care for all who are bowed down by grief and loss.

God promises to fulfil his words to us. We too can join with those in the first reading who are claimed, see, this is the one in whom we trusted. It is God in whom we hoped.

And we were right to do so, for see, he has saved us. In life, and in the life of each one of us, we come across sadness, tragedies, loss and disaster, more times than we care to count. Some disasters are naturally occurring, freak incidents or accidents, or inexplicable developments.

And other disasters are tragically due to human action, mistakes, sins, negligence or malice. These are even harder to bear. Today's Feast of All Souls is a reminder that God is our faithful shepherd, a good and loving shepherd and parent who is never just content with saving the ninety-nine of the flock, but who will not rest and who keeps searching until the very last sheep is recovered and carried back on his shoulders to be reunited with everyone else.

Jesus shows us that it is right and good to keep trusting and hoping and praying, for God is truly faithful. God is gentle and kind and compassionate and understands our needs. Today we pray for all holy souls.

We're consoled and peaceful in the knowledge that we are praying and commending all these precious souls into the hands of the one who has the last loving say on everything. 

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Prayers of intercession: 

Gentle shepherd and eternal Lord, we trust in your loving compassion and mercy as we pray for our faithful departed. That all who have died in faith may come one day to the glory of eternal life.

We pray to the Lord that those who grieve may find understanding support in their time of need. We pray to the Lord that those who do not believe in God may come to know the hope the Lord brings. We pray to the Lord that those who suffer depression or anxiety may experience the Lord's merciful comfort and receive the help they need.

We pray to the Lord that those who are lonely may hope for a new life. We pray to the Lord.

Loving God, with confidence in your unconditional love, faithfulness and mercy, we make our prayer through Christ our Lord.

Amen.
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References:

Homily  Fr Paul W. Kelly

Image Credit: Shutterstock Licensed.

All Souls Day  Year C  -(Sunday, 2 November 2025)  (EPISODE: 553 )
2. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all.
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{{Joy and peace to everyone}} welcome everyone, we gather -  Listen to God's Word and contemplate the sacraments. On this All Souls Day

As one family in Christ, let us prepare ourselves to celebrate the sacred mysteries by calling to mind our sins.
Lord Jesus, you are the image of the unseen God: Lord, have mercy . You are the firstborn of all creation: Christ, have mercy You are the head of the body, the Church: Lord, have mercy
May almighty God have mercy on us, forgive us our sins, and bring us to everlasting life.  Amen.
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Memorial Acclamation
3. Save us, Saviour of the world, for by your Cross and Resurrection you have set us free.
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Ps 27:1, 4, 13-14. "The Lord is my light and my salvation"

GOSPEL ACCLAMATION (John 6:39). ). Alleluia, Alleluia! This is the will of my Father, says the Lord, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given to me, and that I should raise it up on the last day.
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PREFACE:
Eucharistic Prayer 2
(theme variation: theme 1 )

(post version: v1-short)

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{15. Thank you for giving generously of  your time and prayer.}

1. Go forth; the Mass is ended.

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Archive of homilies and reflections:  http://homilycatholic.blogspot.com.au
To contact Fr. Paul, please email:  paulwkelly68@gmail.com

To listen to the weekly homily audio podcast, please click this link here:  https://soundcloud.com/user-633212303/tracks

You are welcome to subscribe to Fr Paul's homily mail-out by visting here:

https://surfersparadiseparish.us7.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=85b9ddd594b242276d423bfe9&id=002282d9e0  

Details relating to the audio productions linked to this Blog:

"Faith, Hope and Love - Christian worship and reflection" - Led by Rev Paul Kelly

Prayers and chants — Roman Missal, 3rd edition, © 2010, The International Commission on English in the liturgy. (ICEL)

Scriptures - New Revised Standard Version: © 1989, and 2009 by the NCC-USA. (National Council of Churches of Christ - USA)

"The Psalms" ©1963, 2009, The Grail - Collins publishers.

Prayers of the Faithful - " Together we pray" by Robert Borg'. E.J. Dwyer, Publishers, (1993). (Sydney Australia).

Sung "Mass in Honour of St. Ralph Sherwin" - By Jeffrey M. Ostrowski. The Gloria,  Copyright © 2011 ccwatershed.org.

"Faith, Hope and Love" theme hymn - In memory of William John Kelly (1942-2017) - Inspired by 1 Corinthians 13:1-13. Music by Paul W. Kelly. Arranged and sung, with additional lyrics by Stefan Kelk. 2019.

"Quiet Time."  Instrumental Reflection music. Written by Paul W Kelly. 1988, 2007. & This arrangement: Stefan Kelk, 2020.

"Today I Arise" - For Trisha J Kelly.  Original words and music by Paul W. Kelly. Inspired by St Patrick's Prayer.  Arranged and sung, with additional lyrics by Stefan Kelk. 2019.

Sound Engineering and editing - P.W. Kelly. 

Microphones: - Shure Motiv MV5 Digital Condenser. And (2024+) Rode Nt-1 + AI-1 Sound Mixer.

Editing equipment:    -- MixPad Multitrack Studio Recording Software v10.49 (NCH Software).

NCH – WavePad Audio Editing Software. Masters Edition v 17.63 (NCH Software)

Sound Processing:  iZotope RX 10 Audio Editor (Izotope Inc.)

Text transcription as per recorded podcast version is transcribed by TurboScribe.ai

{excellent and accurate transcription from voice to text}

[Production -  KER -  2025]
May God bless and keep you.
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