All Souls Day Reflection

A reflection from Our Lady of Guadalupe on Rampart Street. The church, built on the edge of the Quarter, was to accommodate all of the yellow fever victims and their families, and the bishop hoped that this would help to stop the spread of disease. St. Louis Cathedral was being overrun with sickness and fear.

Hopping to slow this unknown sickness, only the priest, servers, and pallbearers were allowed inside of Our Lady Church; the rest of the mourners had to view the mass of the dead from the outside. Today, the same may be said for the homeless and displaced members of the community who sit outside.

This years election has a lot of people standing on the outside of  institutions. So many people feel left out of the process. Sadly, they do not see that they are the process. "We the people..." does not exclude. "We the people" have made choices that we do not acknowledge. "We the people" have chosen this path.

I offer up a prayer for all of those who choose not to see, hear, and understand their place in the current situation. "We the people" are not helpless; "We the people" are not innocent; "We the people" own the outcome.