STRATFORD—The month of November usually ushers in a few months of bitter cold with it. But this All Souls’ Day, it was unusually warm, perhaps to warmly welcome many to remember their departed loved ones at St. Michael Cemetery on the border of Stratford and Bridgeport.
No one was happier about the warm weather than Father Aberlardo Vasquez, pastor of St. Charles Borromeo Parish in Bridgeport, who celebrated the All Souls’ Day Mass at the cemetery with Deacon David Rivera, also of St. Charles.
“Today, when I was coming to this place, I was giving thanks to Jesus,” Father Vasquez said. “First, I said, ‘Thank you for this beautiful weather.’ This is a gift. And I’m more happy now that I see your faces here.”
Notably, the faithful in attendance were also joined by several members of the Missionaries of Charity from Bridgeport—the only members of that religious order in Connecticut. They were also joined by members of Catholic Cemeteries who distributed Holy Water from Lourdes and carnations at the conclusion of Mass.
In his homily, Father Vasquez noted his first experience of praying for the departed came from his grandmother, whom he would often see praying the rosary.
“A few times, I approached my grandma and I said, ‘What are you doing?’” he said. “Many times, she said the same thing: ‘I’m praying for the souls in purgatory. I’m praying for family members.’ (And) she used to mention to me names of my family members who had died.”
Father Vasquez noted his grandmother and mother led by example, praying the rosary for all the faithfully departed. And now that he is a priest, he often does the same thing. In doing so, he said, his family gave him a powerful tool to connect with his deceased loved ones: in prayer. He called back to one reading that day from the Book of Wisdom.
“They said … the souls of the just are in the hand of God,” Father Vasquez said. “We truly believe those who got called to himself, now they are in a better place.”
As a priest, Father Vasquez said he remembered three things that stand at the center of all he does: faith, love and hope. And he reminded everyone by attending Mass, they were performing an act of all three.
“As we love the people that we have lost in the past years, we love, as well, Jesus Christ, who is on the cross,” he said. “Every time I see the cross, I see a person … who gave up his whole life for me. He went to the cross and gave his whole life because he loved me unconditionally.”
To Father Vasquez, love’s true nature is one of sacrifice. Christ certainly knew and understood that, as would the largely-elderly crowd at Mass on All Souls’ Day.
“I know how much you love the people you have lost,” he said. “I know how much you miss them. But … don’t lose hope in God. Sometimes life is difficult. All of these things that we are living with in this moment, we think, ‘What is going on in the world?’ Don’t lose hope. Jesus is with us. His love is with us.”
