La Ofrenda: Remembering those we love just beyond our horizon

Tomorrow we observe All Saints Sunday, with its origins in the ancient church when it was celebrated on the Saturday before Easter -- the day now called Holy Saturday when Jesus descends to hell to free everyone from the grip of death.

All Saints and All Souls days merged to become special masses for martyrs and those who had died anonymously.

In later centuries, the day shifted into the weeks before Advent, and the day we now call "Halloween" is actually All Hallows Eve, or the "even" of All Souls Day.

At St. Paul's we are continuing with a tradition we began three years ago from the part of the world where I come: La Ofrenda, a special table in the church where we display items representing people we love who have died.

La Ofrenda is a major element of El Dia de los Muertos, Mexico's "Day of the Dead," and is popular in churches throughout California and the Southwest. I've seen many over the years and all of them are powerful testimonies not just to the dead, but to the living who carry in their hearts the memories of those who have died.

This Sunday, please bring something that represents someone you love who has died; a photograph or a poem, or a candle or a paper flower.

We will leave up our ofrendas until the first Sunday of Advent on November 27.

The first year our first Ofrenda was so popular we set up two more, and this year we will have at least three, including one in the church school (children are invited to bring photos of loved ones and pets who have died). At the top is a photograph of one of the ofrendas at St. Paul's from last year.

I've also added photos here of a two spectacular ofrendas with the "Day of the Dead" theme that I saw a few years ago at Missions San Juan Bautista and Santa Clara in California.

La Ofrenda: All Saints Sunday and remembering those we love who are just beyond our horizon

This Sunday, November 1, is a major feast day on the Christian calendar -- All Saints Day.

All Saints Sunday has its origins in the ancient church when it was celebrated on the Saturday before Easter -- the day now called Holy Saturday when Jesus descends to hell to free everyone from the grip of death.

All Saints and All Souls days merged to become special masses for martyrs and those who had died anonymously. In later centuries, the day shifted into the weeks before Advent, and the day we now call "Halloween" is actually All Hallows Eve, or the even of All Souls Day.

This year we are continuing with a tradition we began last year from the part of the world where I come: La Ofrenda, a special table in the church where we display items representing people we love who have died. La Ofrenda is a major element of El Dia de los Muertos, Mexico's "Day of the Dead," and is popular in churches throughout California and the Southwest. I've seen many over the years and all of them are powerful.

This Sunday, please bring something that represents someone you love who has died; a photograph or a poem, or a candle or a paper flower. We will leave up our ofrendas until the first Sunday of Advent on November 29.

Last year our first Ofrenda was so popular we set up two more. Here are some photographs of Las Ofrendas at St. Paul's last year. I am told that we were the only Episcopal Church in Virginia with a Ofrendas, an honor I hope other churches might share with us this year.

Las Ofrendas: Breath, Wind, Spirit

The response at St. Paul's to building our ofrendas is huge. We now have two ofrendas in the nave, and one more upstairs in the hallway outside in the children's Godly Play classrooms. I am very moved every time I walk by the ofrendas, and I go upstairs a few times a day to look and meditate. What amazing gifts!

Bishop Shannon Johnston came by last week. He said he had never seen an ofrenda to the dead, and the bishop expressed how touched he was by seeing ours. To all who have contributed to the ofrendas, thank you, and please know how blessed we are by your offering of love to those who we see no longer but who are just beyond our horizon.

I leave you today with a few photos of our ofrendas, and with a fitting poem by Birago Ishmael Diop (1906-1989), a native of Dakar, Senegal, who is a much noted African poet and folklorist of the last century. The original of this poem is in French, and I have come across quite a few translations. I like this one best. By the way, the title can be translated either as "Breaths" or "Spirits," which is the same word-play used in the Gospel of John 3:5 and throughout Paul's letters (for example, Romans 8:9) whereby the Greek word pneuma means breath, wind, and spirit. The Hebrew scriptures (Old Testament) have similar word-plays. Here's the poem:

Breaths
By Birago Diop

Listen more often to things rather than beings.
Hear the fire's voice,
Hear the voice of water.
In the wind hear the sobbing of the trees,
It is our forefathers breathing.
The dead are not gone forever.
They are in the paling shadows,
And in the darkening shadows.
The dead are not beneath the ground,
They are in the rustling tree,
In the murmuring wood,
In the flowing water,
In the still water,
In the lonely place, in the crowd:
The dead are not dead.

Listen more often to things rather than beings.
Hear the fire's voice,
Hear the voice of water.
In the wind hear the sobbing of the trees.
It is the breathing of our forefathers,
Who are not gone, not beneath the ground,
Not dead.

The dead are not gone for ever.
They are in a woman's breast,
A child's crying, a glowing ember.
The dead are not beneath the earth,
They are in the flickering fire,
In the weeping plant, the groaning rock,
The wooded place, the home.
The dead are not dead.

Listen more often to things rather than beings.
Hear the fire's voice,
Hear the voice of water.
In the wind hear the sobbing of the trees.
It is the breathing of our forefathers.