Daily Reading for October 31 • All Hallows Eve

Each occasion
we glimpse them:
that turn of a head,
that smile,
the way she walked,
his sense of humor,
each time
a knife turns
in our heart.
In time,
through the windows of our tears
we see them
and smile.
In time,
we let go of sorrow.
In time,
beauty and music,
remembered places
bring solace not pain.
In your time,
God of all time,
may what we have sown in pain
be reaped in joy.

“Surrounded by a Cloud of Witnesses,” in The Pattern of Our Days: Worship in the Celtic Tradition from the Iona Community, edited by Kathy Galloway (Paulist Press, 1996).