COMMEMORATION OF ALL THE FAITHFUL DEPARTED
THANKSGIVING FOR THE CONGREGATION OF
HELPERS OF THE HOLY SOULS
ST MARY’S CATHEDRAL, EDINBURGH
HOMILY PREACHED BY MONSIGNOR MICHAEL REGAN
WEDNESDAY 2 NOVEMBER 2011
INTRODUCTION TO THE MASS:
It is my joy to welcome you here today for Mass for the Commemoration of All the Faithful
Departed – All Souls Day. It is a particular pleasure to welcome sisters from the Congregation of Helpers or the Helpers of the Holy Souls as they were known. They are here today to continue the work of the Foundress to pray for the Holy Souls but also to mark the link between the Congregation and this Cathedral Parish. During the course of this Mass His Eminence will bless an altar Cross for use in the Cathedral as well as a pectoral cross and Episcopal ring for use by any visiting bishop to our Cathedral. These items have been graciously made possible by the Sisters and more will be said later. We also use at this Mass vessels linked to two other congregations in this diocese, the chalice from the Ursulines of Jesus and the Ciborium from the Society of the Sacred Heart. In using them and with the new gift we enter into the land of memory and we are aware of the outstanding contribution made by the religious Sisters to our diocese. But outward symbols betoken a number of people behind it and on this day in remembering our dead we remember those who have created us and contributed to who we are today and we pray for them in this Mass that they may be in the presence of God and reaping the reward of their goodness.
HOMILY FOR THE MASS:
Today is one of the great feasts of the family of the Church, the day when we remember all those who have gone before us marked with the sign of faith. It is a day when we mark the truth of the preface of the dead that for God’s faithful life is changed not ended. We realise that the last service of love we perform for those we care about is to offer our prayer that they may appear before God and find in him a merciful judge and that they may find forgiveness for their sins and a warm welcome into our heavenly home. For Catholics the practice of praying for the dead is the fulfilment of the commendation in the Book of Maccabees that: ‘It is a Holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead that they may be loosed from their sins’.
It has been an integral part of the life of the Church from the earliest time and on this date since the year 988 in the monastery of Cluny the annual commemoration has taken place and today we join with the generations that have gone before us who have prayed for the dead. Religious from Cluny onwards have devoted themselves to prayer for the Holy Souls and that continues to the present day.
On 19th January 1856 a young woman stepped off a train at the Gare du Nord in Paris and with a group of others who were particularly keen to devote their lives to particular prayer for the Holy Souls emerged the Congregation of the Helpers of the Holy Souls. (It is whimsical to realise that that same young woman or at least part of her mortal remains stepped off a train at the Gare du Nord in Paris in November 2007, when the relics of Eugenie, Blessed Mary of Providence, were being returned to the motherhouse in Paris.)
Eugenie Smet and her companions developed their work and gradually it spread. Each of the Sisters wore a Cross which reminded them to pray, suffer and work for the souls in Purgatory. On September 1st 1903 some of her Sisters arrived here in this City and established a convent in St Andrews Parish Ravelston in territory that had relatively recently been detached from this Cathedral Parish. For the next seven years they prayed for the dead but carried out a varied ministry in that parish until in 1910 they moved into a House in Drummond Place within the boundary of the Cathedral and established themselves there. During their time there they continued the various activities of apostolate always retaining at its heart that concern for the Holy Souls. The Sisters adapted to different needs and demands on their time, seeking the will of God in accord to particular circumstances.
With the advent of the Second Vatican Council and the adapting to different times and styles, the Crosses which the Sisters had were no longer worn and for a number of years they resided in the Archives of the Province. Then the Archives of the Province were transferred to the Scottish Catholic Archives on Drummond Place. This was no haphazard event but the result of the fact that in 1958 the Columba Trust bought a property in Drummond Place to house those Scottish Catholic Archives and Father William James Anderson was appointed first Keeper of the Scottish Catholic Archives and at the same time he became the Chaplain to the Helpers of the Holy Souls. Thus an old relationship was re-established.
Through the intermediary of the current Keeper of the Archives contact was made between the Helpers and the Cathedral and a suggestion was made as to using those Profession Crosses, which betoken many hundreds of years of dedicated service to Almighty God, to create an altar cross for the Cathedral. Today His Eminence will bless the new altar Cross which will remain here as a witness to that ongoing link between the Helpers and this parish that extends for over a century.
The Cross is the visible reminder to us that human life is not in vain and that through the Cross and its suffering our own suffering can be transformed by the Resurrection of Christ. The Cross is forever a sign of hope and when it is placed on the altar it will remind us of that hope but it will also remind us that in union with the Sisters we should pray for our dead, since that is the last thing that we do for them in love and love as the Song of Songs is greater than death.
I now ask His Eminence to bless this Cross – and with it a Pectoral Cross and a Bishop’s ring – all reminders of those who have gone before us and for whom we now pray.