Saturday, November 02, 2013

Gratitude on All Souls Day



Today is All Souls Day on the liturgical calendar, the day we remember all the departed. Here is my collect for this day:

O G-d, from whom all things come and to whom all things return: Grant to the departed the peace of your loving presence and to those left behind who remember them this day the hope of reunion with them. And when our time comes, O G-d, draw us also to your heart. For our hearts are restless until they find their rest in you. Amen.

This day I remember my saintly mother, Marjorie Webb Coverston, my dear cousin who died at 23, John David Coverston. I remember those who shaped me in younger life, my Great Aunt Helen Louise Coverston and my maternal Grandparents, Thomas Burton Webb and Avie Lee Webb. I remember my friends whose sorrows overwhelmed them and they took their own lives: Robert Hayes, Rusty Avera, Ed Pyatt. And I remember my mentor Robbie Thomas and her husband Bill and Joe Durocher, my boss at the Public Defender’s Office. These are but a few of the saints of my life to whom I owe an immense gratitude this day and whose leaving has diminished my life and the world their presence enriched.

Who would you remember this All Souls Day?

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The Rev. Harry Scott Coverston, J.D., Ph.D.
Member, Florida Bar (inactive status)
Priest, Episcopal Church (Dio. of El Camino Real, CA)
Lecturer: Religion and Cultural Studies
Osceola Campus, University of Central Florida, Kissimmee


 If the unexamined life is not worth living, surely an unexamined belief system, be it religious or political, is not worth holding.
Most things of value do not lend themselves to production in sound bytes. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++