This Sunday is Remembrance Sunday, when we pause as a nation and as a Church to remember all who died in war, particularly on the battlefield. We always observe it on the Sunday nearest 11^th November, the anniversary of the end of the First World War in 1918, during which 20 million died. It is a day marked by gratitude and silence: gratitude for their bravery and sacrifice, and silence before the mystery of life and death. The Church allows us on this day to celebrate one Requiem Mass for the repose of their souls which we will do at the 11.15am Mass. This is a profound act of charity and mercy, because while governments and memorials can honour them in time, only the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and our prayers and penances can assist them in eternity.

Many of them will already be in Heaven, while others may have died with little or no preparation. We trust that in their final moments, some spark of contrition, or some unspoken prayer may have opened their souls to grace. Some would have been blessed to be ministered to in their dying moments by a priest, who prepared them for death and gave them absolution. But the mercy of God is not limited by time or circumstance. God, knowing all things, including the future, knows that we are going to pray for them now in 2025, and so even a century later, we can pray that they would have “the grace of a happy death”, and God can apply the grace of your prayer now back to them in 1918. A “happy death” doesn’t mean it is painless or peaceful in worldly terms. It means they died in a state of grace, thereby saving their soul. So it’s never too late to pray for someone, and the Holy Souls in Purgatory know that truth far better than we do. In our own church, in St George’s Chapel, on the right hand side, there are four brass plaques where the names of our own parishioners who gave their lives on the battlefields of the First and Second World Wars are listed. May it be a reminder to pray for them each time we pass by. “Greater love than this no man hath, that a man lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13).

Remembrance Sunday this year coincides with the Feast of the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica in Rome. The Lateran is the Mother Church of Christendom, and the Cathedral of the Pope as Bishop of Rome. It was the first church to be consecrated publicly in 324 AD after years of persecution. So it stands as a sign that the Church endures. Empires rise and fall, but the Church of JESUS Christ always remains, and will do so until the end of time.

The Feast of the Lateran has a special meaning for us this year, because our own Parish Church of St Mary of the Annunciation was solemnly consecrated by Bishop Patrick on 1^st May. St Mary’s was set apart for ever for the worship of God. The High Altar was anointed, and the relics of four saints sealed within it. The walls were consecrated and marked with twelve brass crosses – all signs that our church in Loughborough now belongs totally to God. It is here that Heaven and earth meet in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, and where the living and the dead are united in prayer, and where through the celebration of the Holy Sacrifice, many souls are released from Purgatory.

So as we remember with tremendous gratitude those who served, suffered and died to save our freedom, let us pray for their eternal rest. And may their sacrifice inspire us to a deeper love of God and neighbour, a longing for holiness, and a renewed commitment to pray for those who have gone before us.

Requiem aeternam dona eis Domine, et lux perpetua luceat eis. Requiescant in pace. Amen.

Fr Paul Gillham, IC