This weekend, we celebrate All Souls Day at our Masses. All Souls, or the Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed, dates back to the first centuries of the Church where prayers were offered for all the baptized who died in Christ in the hope of His resurrection. All Souls Day is celebrated the day after All Saints Day where we venerate the communion of saints to whose number we hope to belong in the Kingdom of Heaven. These feasts remind us of the eternal desire in our hearts for heaven and for the perfect life of love, grace, and peace to radiate fully within our spiritualized bodies through Christ.

Jesus addresses His parable today "to those who are convinced of their own righteousness and despise everyone else." If you or I received a letter in the mail addressed to us in this way, I wonder how that might set us up to read what comes next (or rip up the letter right away)! Of course, no reasonable person likes to admit they are self-righteous or that they despise others, and yet each of us needs to be honest with ourselves to root out unhealthy self-love that interferes with our love of God and our neighbor. Imagine for a moment that this person addressed in the parable is you (and I will do the same for myself!), and that you and I can learn something valuable from our Lord to actually move us forward in our love of God and neighbor instead of staying stuck in our complacency.

"Jesus told His disciples a parable about the necessity for them to pray always without becoming weary." The call of all disciples of Jesus to pray is unconditional. Prayer is our dialogue and union with God. Without prayer, we lose our faith. If prayer was always easy, convenient, and consoling then it wouldn't make sense for Jesus to tell us to pray without becoming weary. When we are tired, desolate, impatient, or defeated it can be difficult to persevere in prayer. Yet these hard moments always bring forth the most fruit when we persist in prayer through them.

"Jesus told His disciples a parable about the necessity for them to pray always without becoming weary." The call of all disciples of Jesus to pray is unconditional. Prayer is our dialogue and union with God. Without prayer, we lose our faith. If prayer was always easy, convenient, and consoling then it wouldn't make sense for Jesus to tell us to pray without becoming weary. When we are tired, desolate, impatient, or defeated it can be difficult to persevere in prayer. Yet these hard moments always bring forth the most fruit when we persist in prayer through them.

In today's Gospel, the apostles ask the Lord for one of the most beautiful and perilous gifts. They say to Jesus, "Increase our faith." Faith indeed is a gift that bestows a beautiful and glorious power to act in God's name, but it also comes with the dangerous but worthwhile cost of putting God first in everything.