Today’s reading for All Soul’s Day cuts to the core of our faith with a very reassuring message. No one who is given to Jesus will be lost. Do I feel lost at times? How do I get lost?

In the congregation this weekend there will be few people whose lives have not been touched by the death of a loved one during the past year.

MOST EUROPEAN AMERICANS approach All Souls' Day in a spirit of sober reverence. This is a day to remember our dead, and so it has the feel of a collective funeral about it. But it’s also a liturgical event and therefore a statement of what we believe is true: about death, for the dead, and for us.

When I was a kid I was forever losing my belongings. I’d lose my mittens, my boots, my textbooks, and my homework (honest!). I lost a few baseball mitts, plenty of baseball cards, comic books, and my brand-new bike (on its maiden voyage).

Go easy on yourself and others today as we honor All Souls'. God expects a lot from each of us, but not without God’s help. Today is a day to remember that God is our salvation; that we are greater than our faults; that we are more loved and lovable than our sins would admit.

Over the years, Reader’s Digest and other such publications have made a business out of editing and condensing everything from magazine articles to entire books. People who are busy can get the information they want quickly.

As the days become shorter, we bring to mind those who have died and contemplate our own homecoming to God. Let us offer our prayers, with hope in God and in loving response to all who have ever prayed for us.

Saint Odilo, a Benedictine monk in the 10th century, instituted All Souls' Day to follow All Saints' Day, although we know that the dead were prayed for from the earliest days of Christianity.

This existence of ours is as transient as autumn clouds. To watch the birth and death of beings is like looking at the movements of a dance. A lifetime is a flash of lightning in the sky. Rushing by, like a torrent down a steep mountain.