Every year, as we start November, I fill our prayer basket with slips of paper. Each one has the name of someone we know who has died.

Lately, instead of greeting the day with “thank you, Lord, that I get to have another one!” I rise with a cranky growl, mentally grousing at God and giving the saints a bit of Irish lip, too. Autumn, my favorite season, is partly to blame. I tell myself that I’m cranky because what delights me in October — sharp air, warm sweaters and breathtaking foliage — will disappear so swiftly into dreary November.

It was a beautiful day—a day of friendship and prayer, a day of peace and discovery, and a day when we connected more deeply with a saint who is so beloved by so many.

During a Gaudium et Spes 22 podcast on the encyclical Magnifica Humanitas this past June, I said to my friend Larry Chapp, perhaps more flippantly than the subject warranted, that the folks leading the AI revolution “don’t know the difference between metaphysics and Metamucil.” That is, they seem oblivious to the truth that there are deep truths inscribed into the human condition: truths that we can know by reason (and, Christians would insist, by revelation); truths that disclose the pathways to personal flourishing and social solidarity.

With Pope Leo’s recent diagnosis and extra prayers for the Holy Father added to every parish’s Prayers of the Faithful, conversations on cancer have taken center stage. Adults might be wondering how to share such news with children, whether kids have heard prayers for the pope or a family member is facing a difficult diagnosis.

Earlier this month on Oct. 3, Catholics around the world marked the 800th anniversary of the death of St. Francis of Assisi. Not long after his death in 1226, his spiritual sons would carry the Gospel far beyond Italy to Africa, Asia and, eventually, to the Americas. And on Oct. 31, the Church will beatify five Franciscan missionaries from Spain who were martyred in 1597 in what is now the state of Georgia.

Across this vast region, the faith first took root through the work of missionaries among Native peoples before growing with the arrival of settlers and immigrants during the 19th century.

When you’re sick, it impacts nearly every aspect of your life. If you can’t get out of bed in the morning, you can’t go to work, you can’t socialize with other people and you can’t cook your own meals. It takes all of your energy just to heal.

Whatever you see today, I hope you witness glimpses of beauty and love, kindness and mercy, healing and understanding, possibility and hope.

Q: I have a question about the rules and teachings around Catholic marriage for persons with some mild intellectual disability and English language abilities: Can they be married in the Catholic Church? I’m sure you could answer by saying it depends on the individual case, but are there any general rules and advice? (Limerick, Ireland)