For communities in the Northeast, and particularly in seaside and lakeside vacation communities, Memorial Day weekend is an exciting time to celebrate the coming summer. People set out on the water, enjoy cookouts and family gatherings, plant their gardens and dream of the warmer months ahead.

While these are all good things, the holiday exists for a more profound purpose, that of sacred memory. During the two years of my doctoral studies in Rome, I lived at the Casa Santa Maria. Part of the North American College, the Casa housed American priests doing graduate studies. There were about 70 of us living there at the time, including a small number of priests from other English-speaking countries such as Ireland and Australia.

Both of those years, I organized a group of Americans to make a visit to the American Cemetery in a seaside city called Nettuno, located near the WWII landing zone at Anzio. This little piece of America is the final resting place of almost 8,000 Americans lost in the campaigns to retake Sicily and Italy. The cemetery is lovingly and beautifully maintained. We made our little pilgrimage knowing that most of the loved ones of the fallen lived far across the ocean, and it seemed right to make the journey for them -- to remember, to honor, and to pray.

I hope that we all have beautiful weather and much enjoyment for Memorial Day. I also hope that we find ways to honor the sacred memory of the fallen. Across the U.S. and around the world, people will place a flag and say a prayer. There will be parades and memorial services and many other ways to give thanks.

We will honor men and women of courage and integrity who risked and sacrificed themselves for the sake of family, neighbor, and community. It is right and just to take time to remember their sacrifices and the sacrifice of those who still suffer their loss. For every name etched, there are the mothers who nurtured them, the fathers who taught them, the families and communities that shaped them, and the comrades who joined them in the fight to defend life and liberty. They are us, and in our reverence for their memory, we are them. I hope that all of us continue to remember and to honor the fallen. And I hope that we thank their families and the men and women who continue to stand guard for our communities.

It seems fitting to me that this month of memorials is also a month that we consecrate to Our Blessed Mother, who knows the anguish of the sorrowing and who held in her loving arms the body of the One Who offered His life's blood for the cleansing and redemption of the world. It is that sacrifice that gathers up and gives meaning to all of our sacrifices.

When we gather this Memorial Day, let us remember and pray!

Our Lady of Peace, we entrust to your loving embrace all those who have fallen in service of our nation and community (Hail Mary...)

Our Lady of Consolation, we entrust to your intercession the family, friends, and comrades of the fallen (Hail Mary...)

Our Lady of Perpetual Help, we entrust to your loving care all those men and women who place their own lives in jeopardy for our defense and protection (Hail Mary...)

Eternal Rest grant unto them, O Lord, and let Perpetual Light shine upon them. May they rest in Peace. May their souls, and the souls of all the Faithful Departed, through the mercy of God, Rest in Peace. Amen.



- Archbishop Richard G. Henning is the Archbishop of Boston