November 25, 2025 // Optional Memorial of Saint Catherine of Alexandria, Virgin and Martyr
Read the Word // Open your Bible to today’s Psalm Response: Daniel 3:57-61
Reflect on the Word // Darkness was all around me. I had gotten through the previous days with forced smiles but I was exhausted. I didn’t want to talk to anyone, didn’t want to see anyone. I was perfectly content to stay curled up in my bed shut off from the world. That is what grief can do. Losing my maternal grandmother was my first experience of real loss; the fact that it occurred just two months into my freshman year of college didn’t help.
The last thing I wanted to do was “give glory and eternal praise to him” (Daniel 3:59). Despite my best efforts at ignoring her, my older sister pulled me out of myself, taking me to Mass, trying to talk, encouraging me to pray. Though I didn’t want to admit it, she helped me realize I wasn’t alone. Even in the struggle to glorify God in the midst of grief, the invisible realm of creation was there, praising God in my stead. And, what’s more, lifting me up to join in their praise when I wasn’t able to muster my own.
When pain, confusion, doubt, grief, or worry try to steal our heart’s praise of God we can feel alone. Sometimes, even the beauty of the created world around us seems dull and silent. In those moments we are reminded by today’s Responsorial Psalm that the angels, the heavens, all the hosts of the Lord, are blessing God. Sometimes we need to be reminded that we’re not alone, and among those hosts blessing the Lord are the Saints in Heaven and the souls awaiting their eternal rest.
During this month of the Holy Souls, let us join our praise of God with the eternal praise being offered by those souls that have gone before us. May our grief be turned to rejoicing when we remember that God created not only the visible, but also the invisible world, and our praise is taken up with all the hosts of the Lord to give glory and eternal praise to the one Creator and Lord of the universe.
Relate to the Lord // Take five minutes to thank and praise God today. Enter into Heaven’s song!
Sister Maria Fatima grew up in Rhode Island and entered the Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist in 2005. She holds a MA in Theology from the Saint Paul Seminary School of Divinity. Sister is in her eleventh year of enlightening middle school minds and drawing hearts to Jesus while teaching religion and history. She currently resides at the motherhouse in Ann Arbor, MI, having previously taught in Texas, Florida, and Ohio. She is a contributing author to our Lent devotional All She Had.
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