Friday, November 03, 2017

ALL SOULS DAY...

...and solemn thoughts and prayers for the dead. At evening Mass we lit candles and placed them at the entrance to the sanctuary, by the box that will hold, throughout November, the names of those for whom we pray...

And then we went out into the London night, into the streets of The Borough,  to pray for the dead in local graveyards. People have been living - and dying - here for millenia. There is an old Quaker graveyard by the entrance to the church, long built over...and another, now commemorated by a stone memorial and a little herb garden,  under a nearby railway arch...and then there is the bombed-out ruin of All Hallows Church, now a public garden...and St George's Church - where soldiers stopped to sing a Te Deum as they marched into London after the Battle of Agincourt - of course had its graveyards stretching out towards the Marshalsea and beyond...

Fr Chris, wearing a stole and carrying a bucket of holy water, led prayers and blessed each place. We said litanies and prayers.  Things finished with a gathering in a local pub, with drinks and a hearty meal, and some soul-cakes. And that is the right way to mark All Souls Day.

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