Since ages long ago, Holy Mother Church has asked her faithful children to remember and pray for the dead, especially during the month of November. The Church refers to this prayer as “a holy and wholesome thought”.
So it was that during November we made a very special pilgrimage to the two cemeteries where our Little Sisters are buried. As we rode in the Home’s “Jerry Bus”, we prayed our rosary and took time to quietly remember the beautiful and dedicated lives of our Little Sisters whom God has called to Himself.
Our first stop was at Calvary Cemetery in Los Angeles, very near to our former Home, located in Boyles Heights, which was opened in 1906. Calvary Cemetery is one of the oldest cemeteries in LA, and it is truly beautiful, old, with lots of tall trees and angel monuments in every section! There is a very tall cross, with our Congregation’s name on it, marking the area where our Little Sisters are buried.
Just steps away from where we stood, is the grave site of Cardinal Timothy Manning, a former Cardinal in Los Angeles, who died in 1989. Cardinal Manning was so influential in the foundation of our beautiful Home in San Pedro. We prayed and thanked God for this good priest and great friend of ours.
We stopped for a few minutes at the site of our old Home, now a shopping Mall! Here stands the copula which was on the top of our building, now standing in the center of the parking lot of the Mall! What memories this copula brought to some of our Sisters, who had lived in the Boyle’s Heights Home!
All Souls Cemetery was our last stop, to pray and thank God once again for our Little Sisters buried there. We thought of their many years of devoted care and loving service to God’s elderly and we are so grateful for them.In the Mystical Body of Christ, we are able to claim the help of these holy souls, as we try each day to serve God and the elderly with love.They have been our friends and sisters on earth, and they will be even more so now!
