The Forward Day by Day Meditation for January 28, 2023

When I was a teenager, my mother began taking us to visit her father’s columbarium niche. He died before I was born, so I never knew him beyond the stories I heard while growing up. During the summers that we visited Hong Kong, we would make a daytrip to the Christian cemetery overlooking the sea. We would stop to get flowers and fruit and then take a minibus to that part of the island. As a child, I didn’t know what to make of the small ancestral practices my mother kept.

As a young adult, I stumbled into the Episcopal tradition by way of an All Souls’ Day service. I didn’t know what to make of “the most Catholic thing we do,” as the celebrant called our practice of praying for the dead. But over time, this theology for the great company of saints who surround us took root in my personal life. I found language to talk about and relate to my ancestors. The last time I was home, I called my maternal uncle, and we made the trip to visit my grandfather together.

MOVING FORWARD: Do you pray for the dead? Consider adding their names to your prayer list.