For Catholics, Mary is Mary now in heaven, as close to us as anyone living among us, the one given to be our heavenly mother. So Mary is now the mother of us all, the mother concerned about her children, helping us along the road of life to our eternal home. The communion of saints gives us a sense of unity now with all in the Church with the souls in purgatory, with those in heaven, and particularly with the Queen of heaven and Mother of the entire Church. The communion of saints is a reminder that we are not alone as we go through life. Loneliness is a basic human problem.
Young people fail to understand why, in spite of all their activity, they can feel so lonesome.
People in middle age can at times find themselves lonely even within family and business life. And we know of the loneliness of the aged person, the last leaf on the tree, whose relatives and friends have passed away. For the person of faith, the communion of saints is one antidote to loneliness. We have our family of faith God our father, Jesus our brother, Mary our heavenly mother, the example and intercession of the many saints in heaven, and our relationship in prayer to those who have gone before us in death as well as to those still with us in this world. Our magnificent way of expressing condolences is to have a Mass said for the deceased.