At the funeral of Irish rock star Shane MacGowan nearly a year ago, his friends sang “Haunted,” a ballad he wrote in the 1980s for the iconic film, Sid and Nancy, and performed numerous times with Sinead O’Connor.  The lyrics, “I want to be haunted by the ghost of your precious love,” could be a mantra for this time of year when we lament the departure of loved ones and honor the unnamed or unheralded saints of our world and the world to come. 

In his captivating poem, On Raglan Road, fellow countryman Patrick Kavanaugh wrote about lost love and how old ghosts meet on the quiet streets in and around Dublin where he grew up, fell in love, and walked his journey in life.  As October blends into November, we commemorate Los Dias de los Muertos (the Days of the Dead), a spiritual time of ritualizing aspects of death and prayerfully contemplating what happens to our body and soul beyond our act of dying. 

Many people share with me stories of encountering dead people that they knew in earthly life.  The most common encounters seem to be in dreams.  Though dreams may be little more than graphic images in our minds that get revealed though a conscious, though unawakened, state of thinking, they sometimes remain with us and guide us into deeper self-reflection and insight.  On rarer occasions, some people encounter the real image of someone who is deceased: sometimes it is merely a “sighting” but sometimes there is interaction and dialogue.  Though it might happen in a time of prayer or meditation when we open ourselves to spiritual rendezvous, such mystical encounters seem to occur more often when one is not anticipating them.

I have had a few brushes with spiritual beings through the years.  I don’t talk about them much because they are personal, and words cannot give them value or credence.  Some are dialogues in dreams that stick with me for years or for life; a couple have occurred when I was awake but not focused on what was happening at that moment; in which case, the spiritual encounter didn’t last long.  Recently, I saw someone I knew from a front window in my house.  He crossed the street into my yard as it hit me that the person had died many months earlier; as he was passing to my backyard, I ran out—but when I got outside where he was heading, I saw no trace of him.  It’s very possible that these are instances of the mind playing tricks on me or, in that case, a doppelganger who was extremely fast.  It’s also possible that they are realities in which spiritual and physical actualities somehow intersect.  I accept such hauntings as reminders that we are spiritual beings in a mostly physical existence and that we are heading to a different world after bodily death. It’s kind of strange to think about it yet, especially during the Days of the Dead, we are encouraged to do so.  Personally, I believe that there are numerous deceased Loved Ones that cheer us on to a victorious journey from this world to a glorified next world.  I also believe that we are connected to them in ways that Jesus alluded to when He taught that all are one.  These spiritual beings also commission us to pray for souls that are enduring a purification process or purgation for heaven, with whom we are also one.  Through the guidance of unsung heroes (All Saints), we will get better oriented toward God’s kingdom.  We should want to be haunted by the ghosts of their precious love, much as we plea to and yearn for the Holy Ghost.  Also, on quiet streets where these old ghosts meet, we may want to go out and greet them because they might have something instructive to offer us along the road of life.