November 2, 2025
The following is an excerpt from an essay titled, “Memento Mortuorum” by David G. Bonagura Jr., which appeared on the website “The Catholic Thing.” Today is All Souls Day.
Rummaging through my desk last month, I uncovered a single sheet of white paper. A dozen names were written in black ink. I knew immediately what the sheet was for.
Each November, my high school and college almae matres invite their alumni to submit names of deceased loved ones to be remembered at Masses in their chapels. This lost page was my attempt some years ago to list my cloud of witnesses who, for reasons I cannot recall, did not make it to the chapel. But Catholicism is the religion of second chances. With the discovered sheet, the Holy Spirit inspired a new idea.
I scheduled time to visit the Blessed Sacrament, with a black pen and three white sheets of paper. I genuflected, knelt, said a prayer to the Holy Spirit and to my guardian angel to help me recall those who had gone before me and need my prayers. I began to record names.
I proceeded by category. Family first: grandparents, the three great-grandparents whom I knew, great aunts and uncles, my cousin Andrew. Then friends, both my own and those of my parents. Then priests from my parishes and schools. Acquaintances from the town of my youth. Acquaintances in my current town of seventeen years. Victims of September 11 whom I knew. Students. Colleagues. Neighbors. Teachers. Mentors. One hundred and ten people in all.
With each person surfaced a memory, an image of the deceased in action in my life. None of these were overly profound. My five-year-old self hiding under the kitchen table from my grandfather. Everyday actions of colleagues and neighbors. Smiles of students in class. Meals with friends.
These memories bind me to them, and them to me, across the chasm of time…. I am fulfilling my duty to each one, which is the final act of our relationship this side of eternity: I pray to God to have mercy on them and to take them to Himself.
©David G. Bonagura Jr.
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