Faith and Tradition: Prayers for the Dead

By Fr. Richard Alejunas, SDB, Province Treasurer

(New Rochelle, NY – June 17) – In Constitution 54 of the Salesian Rule of Life, we read: “The memory of departed confreres unites, ‘in a love that will not pass away’ (1 Cor. 13:8), those who are already resting in Christ.”

Each month, the Province of St. Philip the Apostle (SUE province) honors its beloved deceased with a pastoral visit by various groups of the Salesian Family to the Salesian Provincial Cemetery (est. 1926) in Goshen, NY. During the months of June and August, when the SDB annual retreats take place at the Don Bosco Retreat Center, located at the National Shrine of Mary Help of Christians, Stony Point, NY, the cemetery visits take on even greater spiritual significance.

Special province SDB visits to the cemetery have been organized for its nearly 90-year existence! Ever since the Stony Point retreats began in the 1970s, on the day the retreatants pray for deceased Salesians, a spiritually-motivated visit to Goshen has been scheduled. For those who do not live and minister in the New York/New Jersey area it becomes an annual moment of prayer and remembrance for those SDB confreres who gave the last measure of their life for the young and the poor following Jesus Christ in the footsteps of St. John Bosco.

On Thursday, June 12, at 1:30 p.m., over 20 SDBs from the retreat and four Salesian Cooperators gathered at the cemetery for prayers, hymns, and recollections, led by Fr. Franco Pinto (vice-provincial). Each attendee was given a white carnation to be placed on a grave site at the conclusion of prayer. At the end of the commemorative celebration and visit, Fr. Dominic Tran (provincial) invited all to enjoy an afternoon ice cream treat at a local Goshen spot.