Saint-Louis: All Saints’ Day recalls the call to holiness

At Notre-Dame de Lourdes, the faithful celebrated All Saints’ Day around Monsignor Augustin Simmel Ndiaye. The ceremony recalled the vocation of the baptized to holiness and the importance of praying for the deceased.

All Saints’ Day is a time of memory and hope for Catholics. At the Notre-Dame de Lourdes parish in Saint-Louis, the mass celebrated by the bishop, Monsignor Augustin Simmel Ndiaye, invited the faithful to renew their Christian commitment and to move forward on the path to holiness.

For Father Nzaly Gragini Kaly, parish priest, this festival concerns all believers. “All Saints’ Day is the feast of all saints, but also the feast of us, the living,” he recalled. The baptized, he explained, are called to follow the path of holiness, drawing inspiration from the testimony of the saints and their life of faith. “As children of God, we are invited to take the path of holiness,” insisted the priest.

This celebration thus constitutes a moment of reflection for the faithful, called to continue their earthly pilgrimage with trust in God. All Saints’ Day is also linked to the commemoration of the faithful departed, celebrated on November 2.

In Saint-Louis, this day was anticipated by a time of contemplation at the Catholic cemetery. A little before the mass, Father Nzaly Gragini Kaly, accompanied by the defense and security forces, laid a wreath in memory of the deceased.

This ceremony allowed families and worshipers to remember their loved ones and pray for their eternal rest. “We must not forget our deceased,” stressed the priest, inviting everyone to keep their memory alive in prayer.

Beyond remembrance, this commemoration reflects communion between the living and the dead, an essential dimension of the Catholic faith. “It is the communion of the two Churches, the communion of the living and the dead,” explained Father Kaly. All Saints’ Day and the commemoration of the deceased thus recall the same message: live in faith, follow the example of the saints and entrust the departed to the mercy of God, in the hope of eternal life.