If you haven't time to read the whole article, take a look at these two paragraphs:
Outside the church we bereaved ones are insistently urged to move on, to reach closure, not to be morbid. But inside our faith family we have this time of the year where parishes unite around prayer and remembrance for the dead. It is not considered gauche or uncool to bring to mind those whose passing made us weep. Death is placed in a context not only of eternity but of community. We pray for each of the dead, not simply for our own ones.The church consists not merely of those now alive on earth but of those alive to God in heaven and in purgatory, something marked out by the twin feasts of All Saints and All Souls on 1 and 2 November. In particular the prayers we offer are for those souls still in purgatory. Whatever one may think of the theological basis for the doctrine of purgatory, it offers a psychologically realistic parallel between those gone and those left behind. As we endure suffering after and because of their passing, so too they suffer before reaching the goal of the beatific vision. We and they are in solidarity, a solidarity of both pain and hope.
