November invites us to reflect upon last things.
It especially invited Joseph Cardinal Bernardin, Archbishop of Chicago, to do so. On August 30, 1996, he learned that he would probably die of pancreatic cancer. He prayed that God would give him strength to complete his final book The Gift of Peace. God did. Cardinal Bernardin finished the book on All Saints Day, on November 1, 1996. He died 13 days later.