VATICAN CITY (Catholic Online) - The month of November takes its own particular spiritual tone from the two days that open it: the solemnity of All Saints and the commemoration of All the Faithful Departed (All Souls).  The mystery of the communion of the saints in a special way illuminates this time at the end of the liturgical year, leading us to meditate on the eternal destiny of humanity in the light of the paschal mystery.  In this we have our hope, which as St Paul says, ''does not deceive us'' (2 Rom 5:5).

In today''s celebration, faith underlines and fulfils the feelings written deep in the human soul.  The great family of the Church lives these days as a time of grace and according to the rightful vocation: staying close to the Lord in prayer and offering his redemptive sacrifice in suffrage for the faithful departed.

The commemoration of All Souls is an invitation to everyone not to hold back, living weighed down by mediocrity.  The knowledge, however, that "creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God" (Rom 8:19) broadens every human horizon.