El Dia de los Muertos | Day of the Dead ...by Sr. Paz

The Day of the Dead is here. I am really excited about it. It is a bittersweet celebration. It is like sugar, salt, lime and tequila, which sounds like a weird combination, but tastes great as a margarita! I am so excited because finally this year I am facilitating a retreat about my favorite celebration. This celebration reminds me of my colorful culture with their smells of food and flowers to honor the memories of our deceased loved ones. It is a great opportunity to remember and honor their lives. To acknowledge their impact on my life, and how I am a better person thanks to their teachings, their legacy. I love to remember the wonderful times we spent together and what they taught me.

Sr. Paz's altar honoring her ancestors

These days, I think more of my father, all the good memories together, his jokes. I realize that he had a very good sense of humor. Sometimes just with a sentence he made us all burst out laughing. When I am with my family and one of us says just one word of a sentence that our father used to say, we remember the whole joke and burst into laughter again. He did the same for correcting us, just one sentence was enough—and then he let us think about what we did or said. It was effective, and allowed us to take responsibility for our actions. He is still with us, but in a different way, and he is still teaching us and making us laugh. “Hijos, hijos, no se lleven,” in a soft and slow voice. Something like, “Children, children, do not behave like this.” My siblings and I still use that sentence when one of us is becoming a little too excited in a situation.

I am so grateful for the gift of these days to be allowed to remember him and talk about him freely. I want to share this tradition with all. I think that my Mexica (meh-SHEE-kah) ancestors created a great way to mourn, and I am sure they approve my sharing this with everyone. We share stories, create an Altar for the Dead in our chapel, and see the beauty in the wheel of life. We will sing in Spanglish--well, I will try to sing, I will try to follow the others singing. Anyway, that’s not important. What it is important is to remember that we are not here on earth forever. I know that beyond the sun, beyond the sun I have a mansion, a home, a beautiful home. Beyond the sun.

Liturgy booklet

This celebration is to remember that death doesn’t have the last word. It is not just the ancient people of Mexico, the Mexicas, who know this, but we Christians know that the communion of saints is the spiritual solidarity which binds together the faithful on earth, the souls in purgatory, and the saints in heaven in the organic unity of the mystical body of Christ its head, and in a constant interchange of supernatural offices. Benedictines are reminded by St. Benedict in The Rule: “Keep death daily before your eyes.” St. Benedict also tells us, “Never lose hope in God’s mercy.”

I invite you to celebrate, to remember the life of your beloved ones, specially today, which we Christians call All Souls Day.

NOTE: Mexica - commonly known as Aztec today, but Mexica is what they called themselves.