Christmas is often when we feel the absence of those we loved the most. Yet saints and mystics tell us that deceased loved ones at Christmas are not far away: they join our Masses, receive help from our prayers and, if they are already in Heaven, continue to love and protect us.

Do not speak ill of the dead according to Maria Simma In every season of the year—especially around All Souls’ Day—the Church teaches us to see death not as a wall but as a threshold.The remembrance of our loved ones is not nostalgia; it is an act of faith in the communion of saints , which unites the living and the dead in Christ. Within this light, the teaching of Maria Simma —the Austrian mystic known for her deep charity toward the souls in Purgatory—confronts us with a m